Lab 1 - EE 421L

Date modified: September 4, 2018

Lab Description

This lab goes over the general laboratory introduction, including: how to use Cadence, how to edit & post lab reports, and how to backup lab data.

Pre-Lab

Received a CMOSedu account from Dr. Baker
Reviewed the tutorial on creating webpages for cmosedu.com

Lab objectives

Go through Tutorial 1 up to the 25th image in the tutorial.
Discuss how to do regular backups of lab data.

Lab

After setting up the Cadence server as described in lecture, we will start Cadence Virtuoso from the CMOSedu directory with the following command: virtuoso &

Cadence will then launch in two different windows: the Library Manager and the Command Interepreter Window. Use the Library Manager to create a new library by selecting File -> New...->Library.

The following window will appear. Name the library "Tutorial_1" and select "AMI 0.60u C5N (3M, 2P, high-res)" from the drop-down menu. Click "OK."

After creating this new library, open the "cds.lib" file in the terminal or text editor. At the bottom of the file, you will notice that our new library has been added to the directory list. The image below demonstrates this:

cds.lib

Now, close the "cds.lib" file and return to the Library Manager. Create a new Cell in the "Tutorial_1" directory by selecting the directory and then selecting File->New...->Cell View. Name the new Cell "R_div". Click "OK."

The image below shows what your window should look like:

Now the Schematic View will appear. Near the top of the workspace, there will be a button to instantiate a new instance. Click "New Instance." Browse to "NCSU_Analog_Parts" and choose "R_L_C" and then "res".

The window should look like the image below:

Resistor Placement

Place two resistors onto the Schematic View. Edit the properties of the resistors by pressing "Q" and clicking on the resistor. Change the resistance value to "10K" for both resistors. The Properties window will look like the image below:

Now, create an instance of a DC source using the same method as the resistors, and give it a DC voltage of 1. Connect the two resistors in series with the DC source as a voltage divider. Finally, instantiate a ground connection. The final shematic should look like the image below:

Final Schematic

Now, add labels to the input and output by pressing "l", and then choosing a name for the wire and placing it onto the wire. The schematic with labels will look like the image below:

Labeled Schematic

Now that the schematic is finished, perform a "Check & Save" by clicking the button on the top tab.

Now open the simulation environment by going to the top-left of the Schematic View and selecting Launch->ADE L. This will launch the Simulation Setup window. Make sure your simulation environment is set to "spectre" as discussed in lecture.

Now start an analysis by selecting Analyses->Choose. Create a transient ("tran") simulation for 1 second, and check the "Enabled" box. The Analysis Window should look like the image below:

Now select the outputs by selecting Outputs->To be plotted... Choose the input and output from the schematic. Now, save the state of the schematic by selecting Session->Save State. Select Cellview and press "OK." Your window should look like below:

For future reference, the saved state can be loaded using Session->Load State. Finally, we can press the green button labeled "Netlist & Run". This should produce a plot similar to the image below:

Final Plot

This completes the main content for Lab 1.

Backing-Up Data

In order to ensure that data is preserved in the case of a Cadence crash, we need to make sure that data is regularly backed-up.

The first thing that we must do is to find the folder of the data to be backed-up. This should look like the image below:

File Structure

Click on the folder that is desired to be backed-up, and then drag it to the Desktop. Compress this folder into a zip archive as shown in the image below:

Finally, upload this compressed archive to the cloud service of your choosing, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive. Or, simply email the compressed archive to yourself.

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