FAQ on the AMI Pad Frame from Tanner.

                  Input Only Pads - 13 ( 9 Padinc and 4 Padaref) .
                  Output only Pads - 8  ( Padout) .
                  Input and Output Pads - 7 (Padio).

                   Pads named Padnc are Pad spacer with no connection to the Bonding Pad, there is no
                   connection to the external pin.   Padvdd and Padgnd are used for Power and Ground
                   respectively.
 

                 There are 2093 known errors in the Pad frame given to you. These errors occur over the Pads.
                  If you get these many errors over the Pads , then you can  submit the design for Fabrication.
                     In the  Top level cell  of the project instantiate the Pad frame .   To instantiate the Pad frame ,
                   i)  Do Create -> Instance . In the form which pops up fill in the details as follows:

                        Library  :  AMI_PADS
                        Cell :          min_frame
                        View:        layout_nodrc.

                    ii)  Instantiate the top level cell of your design .  Create Pins in Metal3 over the Pads in the Pad frame(as shown in the figure).
                          Make the required connections from the pins in the Pads to the Pins of your design.

 

                    iii) Do verify DRC and correct any errors in the design.  Once you have made sure that there are no DRC
                           errors in the design, replace the layout_nodrc view with the layout view of min_frame.
                          This can be done by selecting the min_frame(i.e. left click  on the min_frame and you will see a
                           white box over the min_frame , indicating that it has been selected) and pressing 'q'. This will bring
                           up the Edit->Properties form in which change the name of the view name to "layout". Then press
                           ok in the form for the change to take effect.

                     Run the DRC again , to check for any errors created during the Metal3 pin creation and while making
                     the connection to pins of the Pads(during step ii).  When DRC is run in  Step (iii), the Pads are not checked
                     as the layer nodrc is present over the Pads.  If you had introduced any errors during step (ii) they would not
                     be detected with the layout_nodrc view. Once the layout_nodrc is replaced with the layout view, DRC  is
                     done over the Pads too. At this stage you should have 2093 errors in your design. If there are more
                     errors, you need to look at the changes made during step (ii) and correct them.
 

                 The pin of  Padinc is  shown by the ruler in the figure below. The pin is in Metal2. So you need to use metal2 to connect
                  the pins of your design to this pin.


 

           Padio and Padaref have their pins at a similar location in the Pads. Padout's pin is shown in the figure below by the ruler in the
           Pad.  It is the second pin from Left when the Pad is at the top.  This pin is in Metal2 , use metal2 for connecting to this pin.


 

         Padvdd and Padgnd have their pins in Metal1 at a location similar to Padinc. Use wider width to route vdd and gnd .