EECS 270A LEC A: ANALOG IC DESIGN I (18470)

Software:

You should have access to either HSPICE or SPECTRE in order to complete the final project.  These software packages, along with the Cadence design tools, are available to students with EECS accounts. 

You can apply for an EECS account if you already have a UCInetID by going to:

If you get an error message then you probably already have an EECS account.  In this case you should contact DCS (dcs@uci.edu) to obtain your account access.

Newport is a Unix machine, which runs the software.

Here is some help for first time Unix users:

I think you can run it from ET509, 3^rd floor of EG East at the terminals.

If you want to run Cadence in the privacy of your own home (like I do):

It is possible, and here is how it works for me on a Vista machine. (Please tell me if you have problems or a better way to do it). It took me under 5 minutes to set it up. If you find a better or faster way please let me know.

I use ssh to telnet in, and x-windows. You will need to install an ssh client, and an x-windows client.
Here is what I used:

For SSH, Putty. Download at:

For X-windows, you need both Xming and the fonts.
I downloaded Xming from:

But the fonts weren’t there, so I got them from:

I downloaded Xming-fonts7.3.0.22. I probably should have downloaded both XMing and XMing fonts from sourceforge. If you do that and it works, let me know, and I’ll change these instructions.

To log in:

First, make sure Xming is running in the background.

Run Putty, and before you connect to Newport, go to Connection tab, expand the SSH tab, select X11, and then check the box called “Enable X11 forwarding”. Below is a screenshot for you:

Then, goto session, and click the ssh radio box, and type Newport.eecs.uci.edu into the address box. Below is a screenshot for you:

Now when the command prompt comes up, type in your username/pwd and you are in!

To access these packages, add the following line to your .cshrc or .login file:

For documentation on hspice, point your browser to:

For documentation on awaves, point your browser to:

1. run "source /ecelib/eceware/profile/cadence "
   (You'll need to either do this every time before running Cadence tools or add this to your .cshrc file.)
2. run “icms &” or “icfb”. (What is the difference?)
3. In the main icms window, select  Help à Cadence Documentation
4. In the CDSDoc:Library window, expand “Composer” and then expand “Virtuoso Schematic Editor Tutorial”. Note: I found it easiest to click the pdf link once the netscape window opened, save it as a pdf file locally, and view it locally. Here is the link that worked for the pdf file:

5. Follow the instructions for the circuit schematic capture tutorial.

For the tutorial, the first step is to copy files from <your_install_dir></your_install_dir>> to a local directory. But what the heck is the <your_install_dir> on Newport? I am pretty sure it is: (???)</your_install_dir>

Once you've mastered Composer and are ready to simulate your own design, click Tools è Analog Environment in the Composer window. You can then run HSPICE or SPECTRE.  Manuals for running simulations in Cadence can be found in the Cadence Documentation as described in step 4 above.

This Document contains an example of how to use a parameter file originally created for spice use in the SpectreRF environment.

The following includes first the original spice file, followed by the file converted to spectre usage.

.model cmosnnmos

+ VERSION=3.1 TNOM=27 TOX=7.6E-9

+ XJ=1.5E-7 NCH=1.7E17 VTH0=0.579412

+ K1=0.6443761 K2=3.081977E-4 K3=12.4576649

+ LKETA=2.902271E-3

.model cmosn nmos

+ VERSION=3.1 TNOM=27 TOX=7.6E-9

+ XJ=1.5E-7 NCH=1.7E17 VTH0=0.579412

+ PRDSW=-67.344869 PK2=7.030471E-3 WKETA=-9.09799E-3