Can't Place Contacts in Cadence

[Bradford Hunter]

I'm using the TSMC 0.18u process available through MOSIS. I use the NCSU
design kit as a plugin to Cadence, made available through my school. When I
go to place a contact in layout, there is a dialog where I select which
layers I would like to place vias between and how many contacts I would like
to use. When placing contacts between metal layers 2 and 3 or greater, the
contacts aren't created properly. The metal layers are wrong and vias are
missing. If I open the property dialog on the contact instance that Cadence
creates, the "Contact Type" field doesn't include upper layer metals. In
place of the four expected choice (M3_M2, M4_M3, M5_M4, and M6_M5) I see
M1_BASE, M1_COLLECTOR, M1_EMITTER, and M1_ELEC. That seems incorrect.
Perhaps that is part of the problem? There must be something wrong with a
design kit file somewhere.

Here are my questions. Can I fix this problem easily and without help? If
so, what design kit files can I update to solve the problem?

Thanks,
Brad

 

[S. Badel]

Contacts are defined in the technology file, in the device section.
try to dump the techfile (icfb->tools->technology file manager->dump and
select the device section) and see what's in it. probably your contacts and
vias
are badly defined. this happened to me with UMC tech also.
the, replace with the correct definitions and re-compile this into the
techfile.

stephane

"Bradford Hunter" <bradfordhunter@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:vvpdr8i8segf1@corp.supernews.com...

I'm using the TSMC 0.18u process available through MOSIS. I use the NCSU
design kit as a plugin to Cadence, made available through my school. When
I
go to place a contact in layout, there is a dialog where I select which
layers I would like to place vias between and how many contacts I would
like
to use. When placing contacts between metal layers 2 and 3 or greater,
the
contacts aren't created properly. The metal layers are wrong and vias are
missing. If I open the property dialog on the contact instance that
Cadence
creates, the "Contact Type" field doesn't include upper layer metals. In
place of the four expected choice (M3_M2, M4_M3, M5_M4, and M6_M5) I see
M1_BASE, M1_COLLECTOR, M1_EMITTER, and M1_ELEC. That seems incorrect.
Perhaps that is part of the problem? There must be something wrong with a
design kit file somewhere.

Here are my questions. Can I fix this problem easily and without help?
If
so, what design kit files can I update to solve the problem?

Thanks,
Brad