Soft Connection Extraction
- The entire substrate or an isolated area of the substrate
- A physical shape on a well layer or an isolated portion of the well shape
- A bulk instance terminal
A soft connection is a physical overlap between a soft-connect object and a tap via connecting to it. For a well layer, a soft-connection can also be made directly from a physical layer connecting to it, such as a diffusion shape.
A soft-connect object must be polarized from a tap via or a connecting layer. The polarization in such a connection is unidirectional—from the polarization source to the soft-connect object.
In terms of connectivity checking, it is valid to connect several soft-connect objects together, such as two well shapes.
The extractor does not report soft-connect design errors, such as a floating well shape or substrate area or a layout pattern that forces the current to flow out of a soft-connect object. To detect such errors, tools such as Cadence PVS (Physical Verification System) can be used.
Related Topics
Bulk Area Connectivity Extraction
Connectivity Propagation through the Substrate and Well Areas
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