The Designer's Guide Community Forum

The Designer's Guide Community Forum
https://designers-guide.org/forum/YaBB.pl
Modeling >> Semiconductor Devices >> HSPICE or Spectre
https://designers-guide.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1185239008

Message started by Nano_Model on Jul 23^rd, 2007, 6:03pm

Title: HSPICE or Spectre
Post by Nano_Model on Jul 23^rd, 2007, 6:03pm

In terms of compact modeling capability (e.g. support & documentations) , which of them is better?

In general, I forgot the differences between SPICE and Spectre in terms of the way they handle a simulation...

Title: Re: HSPICE or Spectre
Post by simon2 on Sep 23^rd, 2007, 12:26pm

Hi Nano_Model,
if you "look under the hood" at Hspice and Spectre, you will find that for most foundat PDKs' they both use the Hspice models.

So my answer would be: neither (or both, depending on your perspective ...).

Cheers,
SimonH.

Title: Re: HSPICE or Spectre
Post by loose-electron on Sep 27^th, 2007, 3:07pm

Spectre is better without a question. But, it costs a lot more as well.

Ken here would be biased, considering "one of his children" is Spectre.

Jerry

Title: Re: HSPICE or Spectre
Post by Visjnoe on Sep 29^th, 2007, 7:17am

I wouldn't say Spectre is better than HSPICE. Here are some criteria:

1. Usability: HSPICE has a less steep learning curve. To my opinion, this is mostly caused by the fact that people
have to learn to use SKILL (LISP variant) to extract things like GBW,PM... I agree, some functions are foreseen under ADE, but it's all a bit more clumsy than just typing simple .meas statements.

2. Simulation time: I have never made a serious comparison, but I frequently run simulations using both Spectre and HSPICE (same conditions). At first sight, I would say both lead to comparable simulation times.

3. Accuracy: a while ago, I thought Spectre was more accurate, because it checks KCL, while HSPICE does not. It is however possible under HSPICE to impose this also using a .option setting. A bit odd, I agree, but it is possible to ensure KCL.

4. Silicon correlation: I have seen bugs where Spectre simulations didn't show any strange behavior, while the errors did pop up under HSPICE. However, this could also be because of differences between the Spectre/HSPICE models delivered by the foundry.

Regards

Peter