The product XTK is an option to either the layout viewer or editor
product. XTK allows rapid interactive net tracing. It provides
hierarchical signal tracing including any angle wiring.
The result can be hilited in a number of colors or displayed in
the wiring's true color. If combined with the plot option,
the traced nets can be plotted for easy analysis.
Other options include the ability
to create a new cell with just the net and marking shorts when
used in conjunction with strategy data.
Setup is easy and only requires specifying which
layers are interconnect and which are via layers. As always, XTK
is significantly faster than competitive products. (IE think cadence
"markNet" function on hyper-steroids.)
Screen shot of of two traced nets, one in red
and on in white. In this case, all other wiring has
been set invisible. Screen shot
of same data except traced wiring has been set to draw in the layer's real color
XTK can also "replay" the trace. Because the net can be traced
very quickly, often you want to see how the net is expanding and
see it expand step by step. If the option to create a new window
with the traced data is on, then the new window can replay the
data much like a movie. The form below
will be displayed. Using the buttons on the form, you can
single step the trace, or adjust the speed as desired. You
can even play it backwards. The traced data can be saved for
later replay if desired.
XTK can also locate shorts in gds data. In the first shot the top
and bottom blue wires are shorted together thru some vias. The
second shot shows the traced short in the short window. The short was traced
by issueing the short locate command and clicking the 2 points shown
in the image. Notice all of the elements
that comprise the short are shown in the "normal" color and a single white path traces
the short itself. The third shot shows the original window
with the short traced. In the original window, the elements comprising the short are
shown in yellow (or any color you choose) and the short path is shown in white. The short
window provides a simpler image to trace the short while allowing you to correct the
short in the original window. The locator is very easy to use requiring you only to
identify an object on each net you think is shorted.
Both the short locator and trace commands are threaded, so if
you have a machine with more than one processor, the command
will use up to 4 processors to further reduce the
elapsed time required
for tracing. This is especially useful for tracing power and
ground nets.
