The PBGA1 Example from the Command Line cont ...

The most detailed part of creating a job file is the SETTINGS section. We'll go through each setting for this example. First, you will note that some of the settings have been highlighted below in a light gray. These are settings that are not needed for GDSII output of the complete database. We'll not discuss those.

B_SETTINGS
WORKDIR          "E:\cad_data\netexg_ex\pbga1\working"
OUTPUTDIR        "E:\cad_data\netexg_ex\pbga1\output"
MAXPOINTS        1000
ARCRESOLUTION    12.000000
CHORDERROR       0.000000
SMOOTHING        0.020000
SLIVER           0.000000
POLYOUTPUT       CUTLINES
NODETEXTHEIGHT   1.000000
NODETEXTOFFSET   0
OUTPUTUNITS      SAME
SCALE            1.000000

STRINGMATCHING   DOS
PROXSMOOTHING    0.000000

OUTPUTFORMAT     GDSII

B_ASCIIOUT
MAXWIDTH 0.000000
E_ASCIIOUT
B_EGSOUT
E_EGSOUT
B_ACISOUT
MARGIN 0.000000
CORNERS 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000
GROUPING Layer
E_ACISOUT
B_THREEDIOUT
MARGIN 0.000000
CORNERS 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000
E_THREEDIOUT

B_GDSOUT
MAXWIDTH 0.000000
E_GDSOUT

B_DXFOUT
MAXWIDTH 0.000000
E_DXFOUT
B_ANFOUT
MAXWIDTH 0.000000
E_ANFOUT

OUTPUTFILE       "E:\cad_data\netexg_ex\pbga1\output\pbga1.gds"
WIREBOND         1   GBR   "E:\cad_data\netexg_ex\pbga1\wbond.gbr"   AUTO
E_SETTINGS

Details and Comments

WORKDIR          "E:\cad_data\netexg_ex\pbga1\working"

WORKDIR is the directory where NETEX-G throws all kinds of temporary and log files. Generally you don't want this stuff mixed either with your input data or output data.

OUTPUTDIR        "E:\cad_data\netexg_ex\pbga1\output"

The OUTPUTDIR is the "default" directory for output files. However since you can specify the full path for your output later, it is only used by the GUI.

MAXPOINTS        1000

MAXPOINTS is the maximum number of vertices in a boundary or path. If the polygon generated by NETEX-G looks like it will exceed this value, Netex-G slices or breaks it up into smaller less complex polygons.

ARCRESOLUTION    12.000000

When dealing with arcs (and Geber files contain a lot of arcs) one has to fracture them for conversion to GDSII. This parameter tells the program that there should be 12 degrees per chord when fracturing arcs. Valid ranges are from 0.5 to 30 degrees.

CHORDERROR       0.000000

CHORDERROR is an alternate parameter for controlling the fracturing of arcs. In this case you specify the error between the chord and the arc section it crosses and the program figures out how many chords must be used to achieve this error. Note that Chord Error and ArcRes interact - if both parameters are specified ( a zero value shuts off the parameter) then the program computes the number of chords arc-by-arc that each parameter produces and uses the finer value.

SMOOTHING        0.020000

SMOOTHING is a processing step that looks at the vertices in a boundary after all unionization is performed. If it finds vertices that are more closely spaced that the distance specified by the smoothing parameter, it will delete a vertex and check again until it finds no more vertices that are too closely spaced. If set=0 then SMOOTHING is turned off.

SLIVER           0.000000

SLIVER is a processing step that looks for tiny slices of conductor that might be produced by the boolean operation and deletes them. It is based on a ratio of perimeter to area. If set = 0 then the sliver removal process is skipped.

POLYOUTPUT       CUTLINES

POLYOUTPUT tells netex-g how to create output boundaries. For GDSII only two options are allowed: CUTLINES and BUTTING. The LEONOV option is not supported by GDSII.

NODETEXTHEIGHT   1.000000

If you have imported node labels then these labels can appear in the GDSII file as text. This parameter controls the height of that text. It is usually set by the user to produce a "pleasing" height and depends on the size of the devices pads. If you don't have nodes defined in the JOB file then this parameter is not used.

NODETEXTOFFSET   0

Node text will appear on the GDSII layer that it was associated with. However if you would prefer that the text appear on a different layer then apply an non-zero offset (generally positive) i.e. if the metal on layer 3 was annotated and you applied an offset of 10, then the node text strings would appear on layer 13.

NODETEXTOFFSET   0

Node text will appear on the GDSII layer that it was associated with. However if you would prefer that the text appear on a different layer then apply an non-zero offset (generally positive) i.e. if the metal on layer 3 was annotated and you applied an offset of 10, then the node text strings would appear on layer 13.

OUTPUTUNITS      SAME

It is possible to change the output units. For example, if your Gerber data is in mm (and Gerber can only be in mm or inch) but your chip data is in micron, you might wish to scale your output to microns so that it correctly overlays the chip's die pads. In that case you would put the keyword UM in the output units section. The scaling between mm and um and inch and um is done automatically by the program.

SCALE 1.000000

Generally there is no reason to scale the output. Any unit conversion is automatically scaled for you.

OUTPUTFORMAT     GDSII

defines output to be GDSII stream.

B_GDSOUT
MAXWIDTH 0.000000
E_GDSOUT

I believe that this sets the maximum width for a path. If the path exceeds this width, it is converted into a boundary. If set = 0 then this function is disabled. This is probably a legacy requirement.

OUTPUTFILE       "E:\cad_data\netexg_ex\pbga1\output\pbga1.gds"

defines the output GDSII file name and location. Use a complete path spec here and quote it for reliability.

WIREBOND         1   GBR   "E:\cad_data\netexg_ex\pbga1\wbond.gbr"   AUTO

not sure what this does. Might be used by the GUI to call the Wirebond module and pass it the names of the wirebond layers and their stackup position. Not sure what the alternative to AUTO is. Jaime to clarify.