Lab 1 - Electric Setup and Beginning a Resistive Voltage Divider
Authored by Nolan Moore
Date: August 31, 2013
Email: mooren14@unlv.nevada.edu
For this lab, I explain the basic setup of a resistive voltage divider library project in the Java-based program Electric. This Lab is based off of Tutorial 1 found Here
Procedure
After downloading Electric.jar, simply double click the jar file to open the program. The window that opens should be similar to the one shown below. Clicking the maximize button in the inner window named "***NONE***" will provide you with more space to work.
The first thing that you should do after starting electric for the first time is increase the amount of memory available to the program. Navigate to File > Preferences > General > General and you should see the window below. Change the maximum memory to at least 128 MB.
Next, if your window's background color to too dark, you can change it to white by choosing "White Background Colors" under Window > Color Schemes. This will make create less stress on your eyes, and as a bonus, less ink will be used when printing out the window.
When designing a chip to be submitted to a fabrication service, you must follow a set of standard settings and processes. For this example, we will be designing for submission to MOSIS and will follow the C5 Process. The technical details can be found at MOSIS website, but we will change just a few settings to achieve our desired effect.
First, under File > Preferences > Techonology > Technology, we will use mocmos (selected by default). Change the number of metal layers to 3. Besure to select "Analog" in the lower left hand of the screen. Be sure your settings match the window below and continue.
Also under the Technology folder in the Scale settings, change the mocmos Technology scale to 300.0 nanometers in the box at the bottom of the screen. When finished, hit OK and apply to all libraries. This will ensure settings remain for future library projects.
We will now begin creating our project. Under the Cell menu, select New Cell. You will be presented with the window shown below. Enter "R_divider" for the name and choose the schematic view. Hit OK to continue.
As you can see, the working window will be renamed to your new cell name. Moving on, you will see your available components on the left side. These include simple logic gates, analog components, and more. Clicking the small black arrow on a component will provide you with several sub components.
From the normal resistor component, choose the N-Well variety and click a space in the middle of your project window to add it.
Under Edit > Properties > Object Properties, change the width, height, and resistance to match those seen in the screenshot below.
After clicking OK, you will see that your N-Well resistor will have different values.
This concludes our coverage of the resistive voltage divider. The rest of the tutorial can be found here.
Backing Up Your Data
There are several ways in which one can backup their important data. The first option is to archive the files in a ZIP file and either store it on a flash drive or email it to yourself. It is advised to store the data on at least 2 flash drives in addition to storing it in your email.
A second means of data backup is to use a file hosting website, such as Dropbox. I personally prefer this method as it backs up my data to at least three computers, and the data can be accessed from mobile devices when on the go.
Return Home