Calibre Calibre PERC: What Packaged Checks can do for you

Summary

In modern technologies, circuit reliability is a major factor for any successful design, as it is not about just how accurate and fast a given design operates but also for how long and under which conditions. While foundries provide a suite of checks through ERCs or ESD/latch-up checks, other checks are often needed to extend the coverage of the verification flow. Calibre provides a set of packaged checks that are meant for this purpose like EOS, cross-power domain checks, Analog Constraint, and many more. In this Calibre webinar recording, we will explore the available checks, and how to set up and customize them, based on your design parameters.

Details

Q&A  
 
Note: 
1. Thank you all for the questions during the webinar! Below is the transcript of the questions and answers.
2. If more support is needed for any of the issues you are facing, please open a support case at  https://support.sw.siemens.com/en-US/support-case/open

Q: To summarize, what is the main added value of packaged checks compared to calibre_perc in std alone?
A: Manually creating Calibre PERC reliability checks typically requires extensive knowledge, expertise, and time. So, the main advantage of packaged checks compared with the standalone alone, is the ability to run PERC without having to have extensive knowledge in the field.
Calibre PERC Packaged checks framework enables engineers to run different PERC verification analyses quickly and accurately with minimal expertise and experience.

Q: Could you please clarify, what is the difference between PERC Packaged Check and regular PERC CD/P2P/DRC/TOPO for IP/SOC verification?
A: Most foundries provide PERC decks on various process nodes focusing on ESD topology, P2P/CD, and LUP checks. Packaged checks can be used as complementary to foundry decks.
Depending on the checks, in some cases, there are analyses that users want to perform, but they are not included in the foundry-provided rules, and packaged checks provide an opportunity to do these verifications easily. 

Q: How to download the package?
A: The packages are not available for downloading in the Support Center. You can get them either by contacting your application engineer or by submitting a case to the Support Center.
Application or support engineers will work with you directly and after ensuring which packaged check is needed for your verification, and what type of licenses it requires will share the package with you, including all the necessary instructions for the setup.

Q: How can we download or get access to those packaged checks? Are all packaged checks in the "Checks Library"? and, how do we get access to that library?
A: After the application or support engineer shares the package with you, you can download and unzip it. Once done, you will see all the folders, similar to what was shown during the demo.
The check library may contain the complete set, or a subset of reliability checks available at your setup, focused only on specific design requirements.

Q: For custom checks what is needed in terms of rule files that PERC needs? Is the constrains.xml file enough?
A: Some packaged checks provide customization in the rules, like ESD P2P/CD checks. This customization is controlled by the constraints file (or the GUI).
The following white paper shows how can be created the customized check for ESD P2P/CD analysis:
https://resources.sw.siemens.com/en-US/white-paper-simplify-the-creation-of-customized-p2p-cd-esd-reliability-verification#section3

Q: What is different from the packaged checks to the standard checks from Calibre PERC LDL?
A: Standard Checks for Calibre PERC LDL are provided by the foundry and extra checks must be created by the user.
Understanding the rules and developing rule checks could be challenging without extensive expertise and rule coding experience, and time-consuming even for the experts. The Calibre PERC packaged checks framework and user-friendly GUI provide a straightforward process that engineers can use to quickly create and modify checks without in-depth Calibre PERC coding skills.

Q: No technology-specific information needed?
A: The Calibre PERC packaged checks are not technology-specific and they can be used with different nodes/technologies.

Q:  Where to find those Calibre PERC packages?
A: The answer to this question is already discussed in question 3.

Q: Calibre PERC rules come from the foundry. How are package checks going to be used with foundry decks? Are they to be added on top of the foundry checks, with customizations? Also, how is the pex.rules file used in PERC?
A: Calibre PERC foundry decks focus on ESD topo, P2P, CD, and LUP checks for specific process nodes. If the foundry deck provides Calibre PERC rules for the target process node, the recommendation is to use the foundry PERC decks. If the foundry doesn’t provide Calibre PERC rules, the user can use Calibre PERC packaged checks to perform the checks needed.
pex.rules file is needed to provide the extraction technology rules (calibrated rules) to perform the P2P and CD runs.

Q: Please can you send the direct link to view this webinar again? It was excellent! I cannot seem to find it on the support website easily.
A: All our webinars are recorded and the answers to the questions asked during webinars are addressed with the KB article, which can be found in the Support Center.
You can access them with the following link, which contains links for all webinars.
https://support.sw.siemens.com/en-US/knowledge-base/KB000112193_EN_US

Q:  Are the packaged checks supposed to be used on layout data only or can they be used for topology checks on schematic level or netlists as well?
A: The packaged checks work similarly to Calibre PERC checks. So, yes, similar to standard checks they can be used on both: layout and source netlists

Q:  Are Calibre PERC rules inside packages editable?
A: The rules are encrypted in the packaged checks so you can’t modify the rules within the package. However, you can configure them based on your flow needs, and in case of additional custom rule checks are needed.

Q: How complete is the suite of checks for ESD purposes?  Is there anything else that is needed?
A: ESD rules are often provided by foundry engineers or ESD experts. However, design teams may find they need to augment existing coverage to ensure complete reliability verification. In that case, the end users can create customized checks, to fully cover all needed verifications.

Q: The Calibre PERC sim runs so quickly that I wonder what the size is for the chip. And I wonder if the chip size is 3x3mm, how long will it take? Thank you.
A: The data that we used for the demo was not big and was just for demonstration purposes. Certainly, the full chip runs will take a longer time to complete, but several key factors may impact the run speed: such as MTFlex (multi-threading) configuration, the number of hosts, available licenses, etc. So, no exact time estimation can be provided.

Q: I wonder if Calibre PERC can check cross-domain ESD. And if it needs Calibre extraction license since it needs to run RC extraction, I guess?
A: Yes, Calibre PERC can check cross-power-domain connections. We have a cross-power domain packaged check. This a white paper explaining the check:
Complete reliability verification for multiple-power-domain designs (siemens.com)
https://resources.sw.siemens.com/en-US/white-paper-complete-reliability-verification-for-multiple-power-domain-designs
Please contact the support team to get your requirements and work with you on deploying the check.
Resistance extraction in the P2P or CD run doesn’t consume additional xRC licenses (only PERC licenses are needed).
And for packaged checks GUI, it consumes PERC Advanced license substitutable by PERC licenses if the GUI doesn’t find PERC Advanced licenses, it will run with normal PERC license.

Q: I wonder what package info is needed? like the RLC model?
A: Extracting P2P or CD including packaging or interposer layers doesn’t require RLC model, but it requires getting calibrated rules from the foundry including those packaging information.
Calibre PERC packaged checks cover more than just P2P/CD checks, and it’s named packaged checks because it’s delivered to the user as packages to configure and run without code modifications.

Q:  Can the Calibre PERC packaged checks be viewed/downloaded by the customer? Or is it through the AE?
A: The answer to this question is already discussed in question 3.