Voltage

Engineering

Automation

Integrated circuit layout

Floorplan

Circuit extraction

IC layout editor

Embedded system

Modular programming

Operating system

Computer science

Grid

Modular design

Mechanical engineering

Software

Mathematics

Integrated circuit

Electronic design automation

Equivalent circuit

Geometry

Netlist

Software engineering

Programming language

Engineering drawing

Electrical engineering

This paper presents analog layout automation efforts under the ALIGN ("Analog Layout, Intelligently Generated from Netlists") project for fast layout generation using a modular approach based on a mix of algorithmic and machine learning-based tools. The road to rapid turnaround is based on an approach that detects structure and hierarchy in the input netlist and uses a grid based philosophy for layout. The paper provides a view of the current status of the project, challenges in developing open-source code with an academic/industry team, and nuts-and-bolts issues such as working with abstracted PDKs, navigating the "wall" between secured IP and open-source software, and securing access to example designs.

ALIGN