Acknowledgements

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Nazca Design was used to generate the mask layout in this work.

What’s new in NAZCA 0.5.3

2019-07-16: nazca.0.5.3

• – Added a function for easier setting and accessing angle DRC on instances.
• – Fixed issue in 0.5.2 for tapers and ptapers of length = 0
• – Improved docstrings.

Previous releases

Release date: 2019-06-26

Changes:

• – replace f-string for .format() strings to remain Python 3.5 compatible for now.
• – added easier access to the Cell object of an Instance object. Previous syntax instance.cnode.cell can now also be written as instance.cell
• – updated mask_element warnings with cellname information.
• – fixed midpoint() and midpointer() to give a well defined angle lying between the smallest angle opening between two pins angles in orientation, and between 0 and 360 degrees in value.
• – added layer keyword in show_pin(). It was always using layer=1 before.
• – correction in load_gdsBB() to add a bbox when stubs=True
• – added a default mask layer ‘bb_flag’ to identify IP-blocks.

• ---

• – pin-2-pin DRC:
  • – switched on pin-2-pin DRC including logging and gds visualisation. DRC checks on width, angle and xsection. Rules are xsection dependent.
  • – added pin2pin DRC examples to the demofab PDK.

• ---

• – GDS export:
  • – when exporting GDS, first write to a tmp file. This provided a smoother interaction with KLayout auto-reload to only pop-up when the export is complete.
  • – force utf-8 coding in ascii-based gds output for Windows systems
  • – updated gds export to always have an STRANS record and MAG record for higher cross-tool compatibility
  • – fixed reading of magnification record MAG in gds array’s.
  • – added submit to export to set a boolean flag that export files about the design
  • – pass texttype to gds annotations. Was always 0 before.

• ---

• – Interconnects:
  • – added method cobra_p2p(), which was previously called pcurve(). It now also comes with input width1 to output width2 options.
  • – added the option to an Interconnect object to override the straight-to-bend offset function stored in the xsection.
  • – fixed width override in method rot2ref(). It always used the default width before.

• ---

• – Netlisting:
  • – improve Interconnect cellnames with ‘ic_’ prefix for more meaningful names in a netlist expansion.
  • – fixed internal pin name of ‘org’ pin from an id number to ‘org’.
  • – keep original pins in p2p connection parsing where possible. This provides a more direct connectivity for netlists.

Release date: 2019-05-14

Changes:

• – implemented a logging module in Nazca based on standard Python logging. Usage example: after ‘import nazca as nd’ add nd.logfile(name=__file__, stdout=False) to save logging output to file and no longer to stdout.
• – updates in interconnects:
  • – added the ‘viper()’ method to define parameterized guides as function of parameter t according to x(t), y(t), w(t) for position (x, y) and width w.
    – updated method ‘polyline2polygon()’ to handle a variable line widths along the polyline.
    – updated the ‘sbend()’ method in Interconnect for more options in the straight sections.
    – added ‘varname’ and ‘doc’ attributes to help document Interconnect objects.
    – added ‘tube()’ interconnect concept and method.
    – fixed the ‘ubend()’ interconnect method in case of using ‘end-angle’ in a call.
• – updates in method ‘load_gds()’:
  • – added option to load all cells when asdict=True by setting topcellsonly=False.
    – allow for an instantiate=False option to dissolve a gds in a parent cell (under setting native=True. This can be useful to apply patches or updates to the gds without extending the hierarchy of it in the layout.
    – added the ‘reuse’ option to waive cellname conflicts.
    – set gds path-type to 0 if the loaded gds does not define any (under setting native=True).
• – added the ‘properties’ dictionary to Cell objects for easy centralized setting and retrieval of cell attributes.
• – added the ‘md5’ parameter option to method ‘export_gds()’ to generate the md5sum of the gds.
• – added a module for angle DRC of cells to check their place with respect to the topcell.
• – updates related to method ‘cell_iter()’:
  • – in method ‘cell_iter()’, extended named_tuples for ‘open’ and ‘close’ cell conditions. If names are defined in both cases it allows for more flexible flow control across ‘open’ and ‘close’ cases.
  • – renamed in the yielded named-tuple the parameter ‘cell_name’ to ‘new_cell_name’.
  • – added gds scaling to class ‘clsNazca’ for replacing instances during cell iteration.
• – added the hull-based bbox as option to Cell parameters and applied fixes to the hull.
• – extended in-gds cell replacement to be able to use multiple libraries at once.
• – updated Pin creation to automatically use the xsection width setting if only the xsection is provided to Pin.
• – provided handles in the cfg module for setting maximum instantiation of the Nazca hierarchy: instantiate_pin, instantiate_stub, instantiate_mask_element (defaults all False). Boolean flags to ‘mask_elements’, ‘Interconnect’ and stubs have been added for this.
• – layer colors:
  • – updated color handling by adding colorIDs based on (layer, datatype)
  • – added function colors2csv to export Nazca color table to csv.
  • – added nazca colors to lyp export
• – improved ‘pinstyle’ handling. It is possible to predefine any number of pin-styles for visualization individual xsection and interconnect connectivity.
• – updated the ‘version’ attribute in cell from a string content to a Python dictionary format.
• – updated add-layer() method to handle str type layers.
• – added ‘top-down’ option in method ‘cell_iter()’ (default is bottom-up)
• – fixed show_cp() to properly reference current pointer cp.
• – added ‘layermapping’ option for layout export. This is in addition to existing mapping during loading.
• – added the ‘description’ attribute to the layer table
• – added the ‘description’ attribute to the xsection table.
• – improved ‘origin’ tracking of new xsection generation.
• – removed default width and radius setting for Xsections (change setting to None). Not all xections are waveguides.
• – fixed and improved handling of unknown layers.
• – many other small improvements and docstring updates.

Release date: 2019-02-20

Changes:

• – changed name of pdk_template_core.py to bb_util.py
• – use layer_name as layer ID instead of (layer, datatype). Note that get_layer() will now return the layer_name string.
• – in PDKs the xsection to layer maps now use layer_name as reference key.
• – added properties dictionary in cells to store information on a cell in one place (length, width, parameter values, owner, etc.).
• – updated @hashme decorator to keep unique cellnames now also for functions without default values.
• – added raised_sine interconnect.
• – provide access to change all default Pin attribute settings when creating a new pin.
• – changed keywords in pcurve function to nazca convention, i.e. ‘radius’, ‘width’, ‘offset’.
• – added technology attribute to internal nazca layers to handle multiple technologies in a single design.
• – load_gds() can now load all gds cells at once in a dictionary of cells with asdict=True avoiding multiple loads.
• – load_gds() can now read bytestrings besides files.
• – fixed box around text with a \n linefeed in the text. It now follows the text.
• – added switch in cfg to temporarily by-pass type-checking raised exceptions in BB-generating function calls.
• – updated show_cp() to show a specific pin, not only the cp.
• – fixed bug in generic_bend for downward starting curves
• – fixed scaling option in nazca-design logo.
• – removed duplicate placements in whitebox cell replacements.
• – added check on overlapping polyline points.
• – updated BB export files generated by export_gds.
• – cleaned up parsing of put() statements.
• – lots of small improvements (docstrings, checks and small fixes).

Release date: 2018-07-31

Changes:

• -Implemented decomposing and rebuilding of cells at user level; Map layers and cellnames and/or change, add, delete, replace, scale and/or translate polygons, polylines, cells, annotations and/or gds array settings.
• -Added flip, flop and scale to polygon and polyline placement (put).
• -Added more methods to the polygon and polylines for simpler usage and more flexibility.
• -Improved scaling behaviour for gds loading.
• -Introduced convex hulls as basis of rotation-proof bounding box calculations.
• -Implemented option to store building block connectivity inside the GDS.
• -Improved default layer and xsection handling in Interconnects for tutorial mode.
• -Added strt_p2l interconnect.
• -Lots of small improvements (docstrings, checks and small fixes).

Release date: 2018-06-06

Features:

• -Implemented a clear separation between cell-tree iteration and layout generation, which will enable many new features (to be extended).
• -Based on the above, implemented a cell method to rebuild a cell inside Nazca before export to any available format, e.g. split a cell in a subcell per gds layer.
• -Updated range_check method with +/-inf settings.
• -Lots of small improvements (docstrings, checks, small fixes).

Release date: 2018-04-15

Features:

• -Added bb=True option to export_gds() to facilitate building block creation, sharing and loading.
• -Extended mirroring options in cell placement:
  flip=True: mirror by “rotation” in the connecting pin axis
  flop=True: mirror by “reversing the direction” of the connecting pin.
• -Provided more “predictable” ‘org’ behavior by filtering ‘org’ from raise-pins().
• -In load_gds the native=True setting can not change cell placement anymore:
  It now sets ‘org’ as default in/out pins (as it does for native=False), rather than adding ‘a0’ and ‘b0’ as default in/out.
• -A number of small fixes.

Release date: 2018-03-06

Features:

• – Implemented loading of gds files into fully native Nazca cell(s).
• – Added parametric curves.
• – Implemented direct pointer solving (at time of placement, rather than cell closure).
  It gives immediate access to pin coordinates (x, y, a).
• – Implemented automated bounding box for cells (including array’s and native loaded gds).
• – Added bounding box info to polygons and polylines.
• – Export full gds to matplotlib/png (including array’s and native loaded gds).
• – Export full gds to svg (including array’s and native loaded gds).
• – Added module for tracing path-lengths.
• – Pin, Polygon, Polyline and Annotation now all have a (mandatory) capital first letter to indicate they are classes.
• – Interconnects that can not be drawn correctly are shown in a dedicated error layer.
• – Improved stub handling, customize scaling, shapes or use cells as a stub.
• – Improved ubend to connect guides < 2*radius apart.
• – Improved doc-strings.
• – Improved messages.
• – Improved checking for cell name conflicts.
• – Added cell name filter to make cellnames comply with specific foundry restrictions.
• – Improved handling of missing xsections and layers.