Electronic Design Automation Tools

EDA is the acronym of Electronic Design Automation. IC designer uses EDA tools to complete schematic design, layout design, circuit simulation, design verification, chip manufacturing, and packaging testing. The automation and intelligence of EDA tools improve the efficiency and accuracy of IC designs. The main EDA tools used in IC design can be divided into three categories: input design and data management, synthesis design, and verification and optimization. The input design and data management tools help users quickly to input design objects, design requirements, and manage the design data, for instance, hardware description language (HDL) and compiling, input and editing, the design and process management of integrated circuit, and layout. The synthesis design tools help users to convert behavioral RTL design into structural gate-level netlist design, which is accomplished through placement and routing, etc. The verification and optimization tools help users to verify the validity of IC design and the rationality of improved design structure, for instance, IC simulation and verification, physical design rules and LVS check, layout parasitic parameter extraction, sequential and power consumption improvement, manufacturability, yield, reliability, etc.