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≡≡ Introduction Introduction LASI drawings are not very useful if they cannot be converted to a commonly used CAD format, for mask generation or for transfer to another CAD system. The most common is GDSII Calma Stream Format. Although Calma drawing systems for ICs have become somewhat obsolete, the data format survives, and most pattern generators accept it, and newer CAD systems such as CADENCE or MENTOR can usually convert it. LASI can be converted to Calma Stream Format (CSF) exactly, and from CSF with some limitations. LASI has a drawing structure that is very similar to the Calma drawing system, with the exception that LASI has box objects and is more limited in its data capacity and cell nesting depth. With LASI, cells are similar to Calma structures, except that a definite rank is given to a cell. With LASI there are no Calma boundary figures, instead there are zero width paths usually called poly. LASI drawings transform easily into Calma because a box can be made into a boundary, a poly can become a boundary also, a path can transform directly into a path, and cells can easily become structures, partly due to their ranked orderly nesting. Since LASI drawings are more or less a subset of Calma, conversion to Calma is straightforward. More difficult is conversion from Calma to LASI because there are things in Calma (like arrays) that don't exist in LASI (yet). Conversion is possible in most cases if certain restrictions are used in the original Calma drawing, such as limiting the structure nesting or using only small arrays. Conversion Programs Conversion Programs LASI2CSF.EXE is a new version of the program that converts a LASI drawing directly into Calma Stream Format. You should erase any old LASI2CSF.SET files that may have worked with older versions of the program. The setup data is different. The file generated by LASI2CSF may be put on magtape if you have MS-DOS to magtape capability, or more likely, be put on a floppy disk (in MS-DOS file format) for reading by pattern generators or work stations that have MS-DOS floppy reading capability. The CSF2TLC.EXE program will read back a CSF file and will construct a LASI drawing in TLC form as best as possible. A drawing first done on LASI will reconstruct exactly if returned from a Calma without having been modified in some non-compatible way. Drawings made originally on Calma may occasionally convert differently, since LASI presently doesn't have such things as datatypes, texttypes, arrays or layer 0. CSF2TLC produces TLC files for good reason; there can be more or less an infinite number of TLC files, so that a CSF file with almost any number of structures can be converted to TLC files. The TLC files can then be selectively converted into LASI drawings if necessary due to any LASI object allocation limitations. Running LASI2CSF.EXE Running LASI2CSF.EXE 1. Run LASI2CSF.EXE in the drawing directory of the drawing to be converted. 2. LASI2CSF will start with the Conversion Setup page. It requires the following setup entries: ■ The Name of the CSF file to be made. Include the ".CSF" extension in the name, or any other extension, such as ".GDS". The name may also include a path. ■ The Name of the CSF Drawing Library to be included in the converted CSF file. This is usually for reference, since many applications don't require this name. ■ The name of the Physical Scale Units in which the drawing has been done. This can only be "um" or "mil", and will default to "um". ■ The Scale Unit LSB Correction. This needs some explanation. This allows you to modify the Least Significant Bit of the scale numbers placed in the CSF file. This is about 10e-16 of the actual scale, but some conversion software (Cadence for instance) is fussy and requires the exact bits. This will normally be 0. If you have trouble, try +1 or -1 and see if it fixes the problem. Note: This correction is applied to all 8 Byte Real numbers in the stream format records. Currently this only affects the UNITS, MAGNITUDE and ANGLE records. ■ The Number of CSF Units per Scale Unit that you want the CSF file to be made with. This is typically 1000 units per micron, but can vary with applications. ■ The Number of LASI Units per Scale Unit that you used to draw your LASI layout drawing. This is the same as set by the "Scale" command when you did your drawing using LASI. ■ The X and Y offsets to be added to the placement of the "main" cells to be put in the CSF file. This allows you to shift your drawing in the CSF file. This shift is only applied to cells listed in the Cells to Convert list (see below). That is, any lesser cells that LASI2CSF also generates are not shifted, since this would cause your drawing to be hopelessly distorted. For example, you may make a LASI drawing using the whole LASI drawing area so that you use negative coordinates, but a pattern generator only accepts coordinates greater than or equal to zero, you can add offsets equal to the most negative drawing coordinates, so that all coordinates are positive. ■ The Datatype to use for boundaries, etc. This is a parameter that LASI doesn't use. It can be 0-63; usually 0 is used. ■ The Convert Text switch. If you want to convert LASI text, set the switch to "y". Otherwise, text will not be converted. Text conversion is somewhat confusing because CSF has several attributes for its text. This is explained below under Text Setup. ■ The Convert Names to Lowercase switch. Some systems into which LASI can be converted use lowercase names for the Calma structure names. You can have LASI2CSF convert any cell names to lowercase by setting this parameter to "y". Normally this will be "n". ■ The Close Open Polgons switch. If the LASI drawing contains an open polygon, it may be an intentional zero width path, or it may be a mistake where a polygon has not been closed. You can optionally close any open polygons or you can have them translated as a path with zero width. ■ The Relocation Layer for layer 64. LASI uses layers 1-64, but Calma uses 0-63. you can move anything on layer 64 to any Calma layer 0-63. Usually 0 is convenient, but you must be sure that it is an unused layer in your LASI drawing. ■ The Pause for Messages switch. As the conversion is done, certain errors or suspicious things may be found. You can have the program pause when anything is found so that you can read the message. Otherwise, the messages will flash by too rapidly. If you know there are no real errors, set the Pause for Messages switch to "n". ■ The Print a Report switch. You can have LASI2CSF print a report as it converts. The report will be printed on the first MS-DOS system printer or LPT1. 3. Press F2 to go to the Text Setup Page. Calma uses several attributes to construct text. You can relate these to each of 4 LASI text sizes. The attributes that you use depend on just how you want to distinguish different texts. Different applications or conversions to other CAD systems will use different attributes. Some experimentation will probably be necessary to convert text reasonably correctly. If your drawing contains text with a size not listed, the text will be converted with the attributes of the first size in the list. The parameters that LASI2CSF can set are: ■ Texttype, which can be 0 to 63. ■ Font, which can be 0 to 3. ■ Magnification, which can be used to change text size if the other parameters produce text of the same size. ■ Text Width, which is usually 0, but may have to be set greater than zero so that certain CAD systems will accept the text. This is in CSF basic units and is limited from 0 to the size of the text in CSF basic units. ■ Vertical Justification, which may be set to top, center and bottom. LASI text is always left-bottom justified so normally you will set this to bottom or "B". 4. Press F3 to go to the Cells to Convert Page. When converting, you are allowed to convert only certain cells to Calma structures. This is useful when you have most of your structures already in a Calma or other CAD system. You can list up to 20 cells by name. The order or any gaps in the list are ignored. If converting only certain cells you may also have LASI2CSF look for any lesser cells that may be in the listed cells, and convert them too. You can bypass the list and have all cells converted by setting the Convert All Cells switch to "y". Note: If you set this switch, any offsets in the Conversion Setup are NOT applied to the cells that are converted unless you also NAME the cell in the list. 5. When you are happy with the setup, press F10 to start conversion. If you have previously run LASI2CSF, there will be a setup file in the drawing directory named LASI2CSF.SET. If this is found, the setup parameters will be loaded when you first run LASI2CSF, and will be stored again as you start the conversion (by pressing F10). This saves a great deal of time when running LASI2CSF since you only have to modify any parameters. Running CSF2TLC.EXE Running CSF2TLC.EXE CSF2TLC.EXE uses a sequential setup routine. Sometime in the future it will probably be revised to a random page-oriented routine similar to the setup that the new version of LASI2CSF.EXE uses. 1. CSF2TLC has comments along the way as you do the setup. You should learn just what is expected after running the program a few times. Give the full name of the CSF file to be converted. This name may include a path. The program will not procede unless it is given a filename. Give the directory where the TLC files are to be made. This will default to the current directory if you only press ENTER. 2. If you have previously run CSF2TLC, there will be a setup file in the drawing directory named CSF2TLC.SET. If this is found, you will be asked if you want to use the information. This can save time if you do conversions often on a drawing. If you choose to use the default setup data, steps 3-8 below will be skipped. 3. When converting from Calma the physical units will automatically be microns, but you may specify the LASI basic units. 4. You will be asked if you want to use the "2048"VAX filter. If the binary file has been run through a VAX on magtape, it might contain two extra characters at beginning of a VAX file record. You can tell CSF2TLC to drop two characters every 2048 characters. If errors occur try this option. 5. You will then be asked for the layers and the datatypes to be converted. You respond to this question with the notation similar to the VIEW, OPEN, etc. commands in LASI, with numbers separated by spaces or dashes. A space separates individual layers and a dash means "include all layers between". 6. You will be given the option of converting Calma 4-sided rectangular boundaries to LASI boxes. If the rectangular boundaries are not to be modified, boxes are better for LASI. 7. There is an option to convert any text found in the stream file to LASI text. The texttype number (0-63) OR the font number (0-3) in a Calma text record may be related to a LASI text size. A texttype is ALWAYS present in a Calma text record, but font may also be used by some CAD systems. If a texttype of 0-63 is related to a LASI text size, it will be used first, regardless of the font set. If you want to use font, enter "-" as the texttype to use. If neither a texttype nor font is set, a default set of minimum parameters will be used. Additionally you may use some of the other Calma text parameters by setting them to "y" or "n": ■ If magnification information is present, it may be used. Magnification will multiply any texttype or font related text size. ■ If orientation (+/-90, 180 deg) is present, it may be used. ■ If vertical justification information is present, it may be used. Any multiple line Calma text will be broken into separate LASI text lines, and any horizontal justification will be changed to left justification. The text that you get may not look exactly the same as the original text since LASI uses its own character patterns. 8. You will be asked if you want to relocate Calma layer 0 to any LASI layer (1-64). Any Calma layer 0 will default to LASI layer 64. 9. CSF2TLC request just which structures you want to be converted. You may name specific structures. If the named structures contain other structures that have not been named, CSF2TLC will find these and try to convert them also. You therefore only need to name your top structure(s) and CSF2TLC will find the rest. 10. LASI cellnames must be legal names for MS-DOS files. The names of the Calma structures may not conform to MS-DOS standards and must be changed. CSF2TLC will try to find acceptable names, but you may also manually change any illegal names. 11. You will be asked if you want CSF2TLC to replace any TLC files that it finds already in the directory. Otherwise, CSF2TLC will keep any old TLC files that it finds and will only create the new ones that it needs. In most questions, the default entry will appear in the parentheses if one is available. Pressing ENTER defaults. CSF2TLC Operations CSF2TLC Operations CSF2TLC first scans the CSF file to determine a hierarchy of cells. It also tries to convert Calma structure names to names that are MS-DOS acceptable. If a name is found that is a reserved word such as "PRN", or the name contains characters that are illegal in MS-DOS such as "*", you will be asked for a substitute name. If you have told CSF2TLC not to try to rename, any names with greater than 8 characters will call for a substitute also. CSF2TLC will search the current directory for the TLC cell file of a cell that might not exist as a structure in the CSF file, but still be used in other structures in the CSF file. This allows the TLC file of a cell to be reconstructed without the lesser cells being present as structures in the CSF file. The only requirement is that the TLC files of its lesser cells exist already in the drawing directory. After the scanning has been done to establish hierarchy and the presence of TLC files, a list of the cellnames, their rank, the presence of the structure in the CSF file, the presence of a TLC file in the directory and the structure name is printed. If the TLC file is already present it is retained even though the structure may exist in the CSF file. To have a new TLC file generated, the old TLC file must be deleted from the current directory, or the option of replacing all TLC files must be used when running CSF2TLC. If the lesser cell exist neither as a structure in the CSF file nor as a TLC file in the drawing directory, then the name of the expected cell is inserted into the TLC file being made and a warning message is given. Possible Problems Possible Problems 1. On conversion from Calma to LASI, if any structures are missing and a TLC file is not present, there is no way to tell if the missing structures or TLC files contain other missing structures or cells. 2. Presently, arrays of objects do not exist in LASI. Therefore, when converting from Calma, CSF2TLC makes arrays by copying cells. This can fill the LASI cell capacity if you don't watch out. 3. When CSF2TLC encounters text in a CSF file, it ignores justification and breaks down any multi-line Calma text into single line LASI text objects. This means that your translated text may not be located in the same place. You should also use only single line left justified text on the Calma or other drawing system if you intend to bring it into LASI. 4. Some features of Calma are presently simply ignored, such as stretched components, and nodes. 5. If you abort while CSF2TLC is making a TLC file you will probably get an incomplete file. Erase it.