gf180mcu-open-source-vlsi

Authors

Landon Burleson
Ph.D. Candidate and Research Contributor
Open-Source VLSI and GF180MCU Flow Development

James E. Stine, Jr.
Edward Joullian Endowed Chair in Engineering
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

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Tool Installation and PDK Setup

This project uses the open-source GF180MCU Process Design Kit (PDK) together with a complete open-source VLSI design flow based on tools maintained by Dr. Tim Edwards and the broader open-source silicon community.

The recommended installation path is through the open_pdks framework, which provides technology setup, device models, standard-cell support, extraction rules, and integration for multiple open-source design tools.

Repository:
https://github.com/RTimothyEdwards/open_pdks

Many of the required tools are also maintained through Open Circuit Design:

https://opencircuitdesign.com/

These include important tools such as:

• Magic (layout editor and extraction)
• Netgen (LVS verification)
• IRSIM (switch-level simulation)
• Ngspice (circuit simulation)
• Xschem (schematic capture)

For GF180MCU flows, the standard installation approach is to build and install open_pdks first, followed by the supporting open-source tools. This ensures proper technology files, extraction decks, SPICE models, and LVS support are correctly configured.

Typical Installation Flow

1. Install system dependencies
2. Clone and build Magic, Netgen, Ngspice, Xschem, and related tools
3. Clone and install open_pdks
4. Configure the GF180MCU PDK
5. Verify layout extraction, LVS, and simulation flow

Example Installation

git clone git://opencircuitdesign.com/open_pdks
cd open_pdks
./configure --enable-gf180mcu-pdk=/usr/local/share/pdk
make
sudo make install