2D microfabrication design software upgraded: News from Design Workshop Technologies

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Design Workshop Technologies has unveiled the newest version of its flagship product, dw-2000 version 8.20, is available for purchase and upgrade. This release is the most powerful version of the 2D microfabrication design software it has been shipping to the mainstream market for over 18 years. dw-2000 v8.20 features a host of new and unique capabilities to help designers and engineers bring better products to market, in an efficacious and accurate manner.

The software includes many customer-requested enhancements and significant innovations that break new ground in engineering efficiency.

These innovations include fundamentally new approaches that allow design engineers to create, convert, analyse and validate designs as they work.

Included in dw-2000 version 8.20 are a multitude of improvements that simplify, accelerate, and integrate design engineering work, including: an exponential increase in performance; a graphical user interface (GUI) simplified significantly for ease of learning, but despite its redesign, it has become more functional than any previous version; global information (information traversing the hierarchy) that is available at the mere click of a button; new user productivity tools such as the multifunctional, time-saving Library Manager; new features for viewing, zooming, browsing, inspecting and comparing design components, such as the navigator and background images; newly bundled design validation capabilities, like the extended design rules checking (XDRC), that puts sophisticated analysis in the hands of designers; innovations that significantly ease the migration from scripting to 2D design, such as the data conversion module (DCM), as well as enhancements to the dw-2000Viewer; and enhancements in dw-2000 that empower design engineers across the entire spectrum of their activities.

'dw-2000 version 8.20 is significantly improved from our previous release', said Francois Marquis, CEO of Design Workshop Technologies.

'With this release, the ultimate collection of productivity tools for microfabrication design just got better'.

'It includes additional tools, such as the Library Manager and Navigator, which eliminate many time-consuming steps, and numerous refinements to existing tools'.

'Version 8.20 has been developed specifically to address all the functionality and process improvements that Design Workshop Technologies' clients have been requesting'.

'We look forward to continuing to meet our customer demand for robust and easy-to-use 2D CAD software for the microelectronic and photonics industries'.

Users are continually demanding more from their physical layout design software, and Design Workshop Technologies has again answered the call in dw-2000 version 8.20 with the most significant release ever in terms of performance.

Based on an analysis of actual customer usage patterns, the company focused performance enhancements in two areas - GDSII capabilities and common design operations - with particularly dramatic gains in large assembly and hierarchical drawing processing.

A handy new display feature, the Navigator window emerges as a step up in the natural evolution of an editing window.

The intuitive Navigator tool allows users to increase their situational perception of data in the current viewing area for complex designs.

The current view extent is drawn in highlight mode in the Navigator, which simultaneously presents a close-up view of the structure and its references in the editing window.

The Navigator is also capable of setting a particular view, panning around, and zooming in on the data.

The Navigator tool also offers users the ability to set and invoke specific preset viewing areas.

This is easily accomplished by clicking on a range of buttons, just like programming preset radio stations on a car stereo.

Selections, which can be chosen by mouse, are also visible in the Navigator window as rectangles with an associated number corresponding to a given preset view.

Arrow buttons are provided to give users the ability to traverse view history.

Much like a common web browser, one can navigate back and forth, tracking the views that were set in any opened structures.

With two easily accessible buttons, users can toggle between viewing of all layers of a structure or viewing the edit level only.

Version 8.20 of dw-2000 introduces a new concept in viewing, exploring and editing content of a particular layout.

Once a layout database (library) is opened, users are presented with a convenient palette window that displays file information as well as content.

The Library Manager has been designed in such a way that all information pertaining to all opened libraries is readily available, so common operations are a mere click away.

The Library Manager is divided in two distinct areas.

The upper portion displays libraries currently opened by dw-2000 as tabs, and dynamically updates any information that is presented.

In this section, users are provided with the capability to bind libraries.

The lower portion of the window, the Structure Pane, details a list of library content (structures or cells).

Users can take a quick glance at this area, and then perform actions related to the structures themselves.

The tabs allow the user to traverse multiple libraries, whether or not they are linked together.

The most important efficiency gains attributed to the Library Manager result from actions that can be applied to your structures.

For example, double-clicking on a structure name opens that structure for viewing and editing.

A convenient action menu permits users to easily rename, copy, backup, restore and merge structures, or perform a number of other important functions.

Selecting any structure in the Library Manager and right clicking on it with a mouse can also provide users with immediate access to the Action Menu.

The structure list is also used in structure reference placement.

By simply clicking on any element in the column, users can quickly select a particular structure for placement.

With this new feature, users can preview any structure or substructure inline, verify its details, and then place any number of references at specific locations within the current structure canvas.

The Library Manager presents users with an easily accessible and truly efficient way to perform edits in a hierarchical layout with a single mouse click.

The Library Manager also provides comprehensive access to very specific information about structures.

All the structures are presented and sorted in alphabetical order.

Selecting a structure in the list and clicking the 'info' icon displays a window where all the information related to a structure is organised.

Several of these windows can be left on the desktop for effortless cross-referencing of information.

The information window is organised under specific tabs: general information, tree of subreferences and layers summary.

As a result, accurate assembly information is always accessible to the designer.

A brand new feature of dw-2000 is the ability to set a background image for the editing window.

Select graphics from a scanning electron microscope (SEM) chip image, a microfilm scan, or any other source, such as GIF, JPEG, BMP or PNG.

This unique design-level option can be used in reverse-engineering, IP protection or for rebuilding chips.

Innovation is a key philosophy within Design Workshop Technologies, and the company has made several major enhancements to the dw-2000Viewer.

These developments will have a significant effect on the productivity of users who employ the dw-2000Viewer to inspect layouts from outsourced layout designers.

Design Workshop Technologies is committed to enriching users' design flow processes while safeguarding their investment in its physical layout software tool suite.

Users now have access to the new layer tool to turn on and off layer visibility.

The Layer Tool displays a selectable list of criteria that were defined using dw-2000 or automatically generated during the GDSII import process (viewer).

This ability to distinguish criteria as defined within dw-2000 when a dw-2000 library is loaded directly, significantly improves productivity while using the dw-2000Viewer to inspect a layout generated by a third-party designer.

For convenience, the company has eliminated the necessity of keeping multiple dw-2000Viewer versions installed.

The versatile dw-2000Viewer can now open any library in dw-2000 format up to and including the current dw-2000Viewer version.

Just install the most recent dw-2000Viewer and open a library that has been saved in any older format.

A quick prompt will start the upgrade process, and, in an instant, the library will be updated, saved in a new location and ready to be viewed.

When importing GDSII files, the dw-2000Viewer will automatically create criteria for all layers used in the GDSII file.

The criteria are displayed in the layer tool and will have generic names such as 'layer 1', 'layer 2' etc.

The identical process can be generated with the click of a button using dw-2000.

As the result of an extensive development effort, the dw-2000 8.20 version release includes new features and functionality based on user feedback and Design Workshop Technologies' commitment to the continued enhancement of the dw-2000 product suite.

This version release builds on dw-2000's already powerful features: native GDSII driven design, parametric drafting, robust IP management tools, custom design rule verification and intuitive navigation.

The new developments are designed to improve all aspects of component design efficiency for the microelectronics and photonics industries.

Version release 8.20 provides customers with several new capabilities and features to improve the design process, including enhanced modelling performance.

New modelling tools allow users to quickly build and edit structures from hierarchical databases, making the software even more productive.

Faster modelling means users can turn out product designs more quickly and efficiently.

This version release streamlines physical layout design, enabling companies to bring products to market faster.

Easy-to-use modelling features, like the Navigator, Library Manager and Layer Tool, will help users layout and analyse their design's structural integrity while accelerating the design process by improving productivity.

The dw-2000 Layout Editor uses the graphics programming environment (GPE) and parametric cells (P-cells), which enable users to exercise the highest level of control over re-useable and accurate ready-to-manufacture design layouts.

The data conversion module (DCM) gives users the flexibility to import, work with, and export a variety of key file formats, including GDSII, CIF, MEBES, Cambridge, JEOL-xx and Gerber.

This capability helps users quickly integrate with third-party designers.

Extended design rules checking (XDRC) analysis capabilities assist designers and engineers in getting the first design right, which eliminates the time and grief of fixing costly production errors.

'When you buy our products, you get more than just software; you get thoroughly verified and validated solutions used by most industry leaders to realise their vision', said Benoit Trepanier, Customer Support Manager of Design Workshop Technologies.

'We are also dedicated to providing outstanding service to our clients'.

'We gain a tremendous sense of satisfaction from seeing you succeed'.

'That's why we've listened so closely to our customers and invested so much in the product to come up with innovations worthy of dw-2000 version 8.20'.

'We expect that designers, engineers, and their valued customers will be just as pleased with the results, as they have been for the past 18 years'.

dw-2000 version 8.20 is available now for purchase worldwide through Design Workshop Technologies and authorised resellers.

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2D microfabrication design software upgraded

Design Workshop Technologies has unveiled the newest version of its flagship product: dw-2000 version 8.20 is available now for purchase and upgrade.