Physical Design Orchestrator

Overview

This agent orchestrates the complex, multi-stage physical design (PD) flow required to transform a gate-level netlist into a manufacturable GDS-II layout. It manages the sequence of critical steps—including floorplanning, placement, routing, and various optimizations—while adhering to established industry best practices.

Capabilities

• Full Flow Execution: Executes the standard PD sequence: floorplan $\rightarrow$ placement $\rightarrow$ cts $\rightarrow$ routing $\rightarrow$ timing_optimization $\rightarrow$ power_optimization $\rightarrow$ area_optimization $\rightarrow$ signoff.
• Tool Agnostic: Supports major open-source tools (OpenROAD/LibreLane) and proprietary solutions (Innovus, ICC2).
• Iterative Optimization: Implements defined loop-back rules to automatically re-run specific stages upon failure (e.g., timing failures trigger timing_optimization or routing).
• Efficiency Modes: Prefers low-overhead session modes (openroad-session) for iterative ECO loops over full batch runs.

Example Use Cases

1. Initial Tapeout: Running the complete, end-to-end flow from a netlist to generate final sign-off reports using openlane or OpenROAD.
2. Timing Closure: When timing analysis fails during sign-off, invoking this agent to specifically re-run timing_optimization with updated constraints.
3. DRC/LVS Debugging: If physical verification flags violations, the agent can systematically cycle back through routing or signoff stages until all checks pass.