ANSYS Exalto

Post-LVS RLCk Extraction

ANSYS Exalto is a powerful post-LVS RLCk extraction software solution that enables IC design engineers to accurately predict electromagnetic coupling effects during the signoff phase.

Exalto can capture unknown crosstalk among different blocks in the design hierarchy by extracting lumped-element parasitics and generating an accurate model for electrical, magnetic and substrate coupling. Exalto interfaces with most LVS tools and can complement the RC extraction tool of your choice.

Identify the root cause of crosstalk including electrical, magnetic and substrate coupling

With Exalto you can:

• Investigate crosstalk among high complexity nets and blocks belonging to different design hierarchy levels
• Combine fully coupled EM models for critical nets/passive devices with RC extracted netlists for the rest of the circuit into a single extracted view or netlist
• Run multiple “what-if” scenarios with different sets of critical nets without ever touching your test bench schematic
• Automatically back-annotate the Exalto extracted model to the original schematic or LPE-extracted netlist, whether you extract part of the layout or the entire layout

Analyze circuits that were previously "too big to analyze"

The unprecedented capacity of the ANSYS modeling engine at the core of Exalto enables you to analyze extremely complex layouts with ease. Complex coupling scenarios between sensitive RF circuitry with large digital busses/control signals are easily captured using the “point-and-click” interface in Exalto.

A unique netlist reduction methodology makes the output netlist extremely compact (over 90% reduction in elements and nodes compared to the native netlist) which further extends the size of the problem that can be resolved using Exalto. Traditional RC extractors with added high frequency (Lk) options run into a capacity bottleneck due to the fact that the output netlist is too large to simulate. Netlist reduction in Exalto mitigates this issue and increases its capacity by an order of magnitude.

Industry’s fastest RLCk extraction engine

Exalto is built with ANSYS modeling engine, the fastest electromagnetic engine in the industry. This means that the EM extraction of a 600 um X 400 um, dense, 7-metal-layer power grid takes a few minutes; the coupling model between all the spirals in a power amplifier to the key digital lines takes a few seconds.

Integrates very smoothly with any third-party LVS and LPE tools

Exalto interfaces seamlessly with third-party LVS tools such as Cadence PVS, Mentor Graphics Calibre LVS and Synopsys ICV. Exalto output can be automatically combined with the outputs of third-party LPE tools such as Cadence Quantus QRC, Mentor Graphics Calibre PEX and Synopsys StarRC. Exalto also supports “extracted views” and “extracted netlists.”

Output models support all circuit analysis

With Exalto you can generate:

• Passive, causal DC accurate S-parameter models suitable for AC, harmonic balance and SP analyses
• Passive, causal and highly compact RLCk netlist models suitable for transient, shooting and noise analyses
• SPICE/SPECTRE format RLCk netlists that can always be simulated