Xi S Lin

US Patent:

7895548, Feb 22, 2011

Filed:

Oct 26, 2007

Appl. No.:

11/924738

Inventors:

Xi Wei Lin - Fremont CA, US
Dipankar Pramanik - Saratoga CA, US

Assignee:

Synopsys, Inc. - Mountain View CA

International Classification:

G06F 17/50

US Classification:

716 55, 716122

Abstract:

A system and method are provided for laying out an integrated circuit design into a plurality of circuit layout cells having gaps therebetween, and inserting into each given one of at least a subset of the gaps, a corresponding filler cell selected from a predefined database in dependence upon a desired effect on a performance parameter of at least one circuit cell adjacent to the given gap. The circuit layout cells may be arranged in rows, and in some embodiments the selection of an appropriate filler cell for a given gap depends upon effects desired on a performance parameter of both circuit cells adjacent to the given gap. The predefined filler cells can include, for example, dummy diffusion regions, dummy poly lines, N-well boundary shifts and etch stop layer boundary shifts. In an embodiment, circuit layout cells can be moved in order to accommodate a selected filler cell.