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Documentation:   IC-CAP English Doc   >  PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) 2020 Update 2   >  ICCAP 2020 Update 2.0 Release Notes

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PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) 2020 Update 2.0 Release Notes

PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) is the industry standard platform for DC and High Frequency measurement and modeling of semiconductor devices. For general information about PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP), refer to the Keysight EEsof product page.

This document describes new features, functionality, fixed issues and known issues in PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) 2020. It also includes documentation changes and provides workarounds for defects wherever possible.

For more information on known issues in PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) 2020 Update 2.0, or to report a new issue, refer to the Keysight EEsof Knowledge Center.

To download  PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) 2020 Update 2.0, visit the Keysight EEsof Knowledge Center website.

  • To install PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) 2020 Update 2.0 in minimal steps, refer to IC-CAP Quick Install and License Setup.
  • To install licenses for PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) 2020 Update 2.0 through IC-CAP 2020 Update 2.0 License Tools, refer to IC-CAP Licensing.

What's New

Enhancements

  • IC-CAP adds support for the ADS and ELDO simulators to work with LSYNC V,I inputs for DC, CV, and Two Port/Multiport simulations.

  • Updated CMOS Packages:

    • BSIMSOI model updated to versions 4.6.0 and 4.6.1

    • HiSIM_HV model updated to version 2.40

    • HiSIM2 model updated to version 3.0.0

    • PSP model updated to versions 103.5 and 103.6

  • IC-CAP adds support for the Keysight IO Libraries Suite 2020 and later versions on Linux Red Hat Enterprise 7. 

    IC-CAP does not support any earlier versions of Keysight IO Libraries Suite on Linux. Only the new Keysight IO Libraries Suite 2020 version and later are supported.

  • New Python API module introduced to enable import for Pulsed IV and S-parameters Maury/AMCAD output data formats (.mes and .mps) through the following python functions:

  • New Python API function introduced to enable reload of external Python modules:

    • load_python_module

    • New example file added to $ICCAP_ROOT/examples/python/external_py_file_call.mdl

    • To check compiler timestamp for the 'iccap' module and new helper 'icfunc_check_timestamp' function has been added.

  • Two experimental features are available by adding the variable ENABLE_DCOP_AND_LIB_IMPORT at the IC-CAP Main Window level (i.e. System Variables).  Its value is not important, simply its presence at this topmost level will enable the experimental features.

    • Setting this variable allows you to read spectre library files, find a netlist for a specific section ("corner"), and import to an IC-CAP circuit page.
    • Setting this variable also allows outputs of type 'O' (Bias Operating Point Condition Parameter) which allows you to read values such as gm when simulating with the ADS simulator (hpeesofsim).
    • New example file for the DC Operating Point has been added to $ICCAP_ROOT/examples/new_features/ICCAP_2020_Update2/DC_OP_POINT_MOS_Example.mdl

    These features must be enabled because they are still experimental. They have only been tested in the contexts for which they are intended to work. Due diligence has been exercised before making these features available for experimentation, but unforeseen side-effects to functionality outside of the specific features may not always be handled correctly. Users enabling these features are advised to save often and use caution when overwriting valuable files after including these new features. Specifically, care must be taken when loading files containing outputs of type 'O' into prior versions of PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) or into PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) 2020 Update 2.0 without the ENABLE_DCOP_AND_LIB_IMPORT set. These outputs will convert to voltage outputs and the bias parameters associated with the outputs will be lost if saved in this context.

Issues Fixed

  • New default value for B1500/B1505 Data Output format, changed from 4-Bit to 8-Bit.
  • Fixed the Python get_child_objects outputs for the DC_OP type Mode 'O'.
  • Fixed the tablevar Python API function for get_val().
  • Fixed issue of S-parameter LSYNC simulation crash on LINUX with temperature.
  • Fixed issue of B1500 SYNC measurement using slot-1 unit as a non-master.

  • Fixed the issue of IF Bandwidth to include 1 MHz to 15 MHz as possible values for the PNA instruments.

  • Fixed negative capacitance result in Spectre 2-port simulation with a particular capacitance network.

  • Fixed issue of backslash not working in specifying the path to a calset file in ADS-HBT toolkit and Angelov-GaN toolkit.
  • Fixed crash when reading circuit file with a very long equation into IC-CAP MODEL and/or DUT circuit page.
  • Fixed memory leak that could occur with PEL programmatic modification of the variable value fields in the IC-CAP variable table.

  • Fixed issue of not all data points fully read into Output in HB 2-tone simulation.

  • Fixed issue of sampling measurement not working with VSU and HPSMU on 4155/4156.
  • Fixed the issue of Input values that could not be set as String-type from PEL.
  • Fixed crash when setting a custom GUI slider widget current tuner value outside of the maximum or minimum tuning range.

  • Fixed issue when simulating with the ADS simulator (hpeesofsim) and a parameter input controls parameter TEMP and has sweep type of LSYNC or is the master sweep of another LSYNC input in the setup.

    This fix is only for DC simulations, CV, and Two Port/Multiport simulations. CV simulations are restricted to setups which do not sweep CV_FREQ at sweep order 2 or higher.  Two Port/Multiport simulations are restricted to frequency sweeps of sweep order 1 or Constant Frequency sweeps. All other simulation types will not produce correct results.



Installation

  • If Keysight IO Library is installed by super user/root on Linux and other users on that machine want to use the IO Library, the following steps should be done:

    • Change permission of files under /dev/pcigpib
    • Add user to kt-iols, usbtmc and dialout groups 

    For more details, refer Keysight IO library documentation.


  • During installation of any product, if you get a warning message related to previous version detected and that release is already uninstalled, go to the .com.zerog.registry.xml file in the C:\Program Files | (x86)\Zero G Registry\.com.zerog.registry.xml (hidden file folder) and remove the old entry manually.

  • On Linux platforms: If using National Instrument IO Libraries, Keysight IO Libraries, or TAMS IO Libraries that support VISA interface and instrument connections, these are the default locations that  PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) will search on startup for the appropriate libvisa.so shared VISA IO shared library file with executable permission

    • The Linux  PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) startup script will look for a VISA Shared IO library file named libvisa.so on the Linux system in the following methods in order
      • If the optional environment variable VISA_IO_LIBRARY_PATH is set in the current user's environment to have the full file path location to the libvisa.so file,  PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) will try to use that libvisa.so specified file path and no other.
      • If the VISA_IO_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable is not set, then  PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) will search for a compatible VISA IO Library shared library in the following locations:
        • (Red Hat Enterprise 7 Only)  PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) will search for Keysight IO Libraries VISA IO shared library files with executable permissions 
          • Linux 64-bit OS (Red Hat Enterprise 7) only: /usr/local/lib64/libivivisa.so and /opt/keysight/iolibs/libktvisa32.so 
        • If not found, then  PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) will search for a NI IO VISA Libraries libvisa.so shared library file with executable permissions at the following location:
          • Linux 64-bit OS: /usr/local/lib64/libvisa.so or /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libvisa.so
          • Linux 32-bit OS: /usr/local/lib/libvisa.so
        • If not found in the previous location, then  PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) will search for a TAMS IO Libraries libvisa.so shared library file with executable permissions at the following location:
          • Linux 64-bit OS: /usr/lib64/libvisa.so
          • Linux 32-bit OS: /usr/lib/libvisa.so
        • If not found in the previous location, then  PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) will search for the IVI Foundation libivivisa.so shared library file with executable permissions at the following location:

          • Linux 64-bit OS only: /usr/lib64/libivivisa.so

            The IVI foundation's VISA IO libivivisa.so will only be able to communicate via VISA IO with instruments if there is a vendor IO Library installed (i,e. Keysight IO Libraries or another vendor) and registered with the IVI foundation's libivivisa.so as an available vendor VISA IO library installed on the system.


Licensing

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Documentation

Starting with the 2020 release, the online help gets a new user interface. The new UI improves overall online help usability by providing the following key benefits in addition to several other minor benefits:

  • Table of Contents Sidebar: Displays collapsible Table of Contents for the entire documentation. The left-double-arrow icon collapses the sidebar, and the right-double-arrow icon displays the sidebar back again.
  • PDF Button: Allows you to instantly generate PDFs of the latest documentation anytime, including current page’s children pages. Currently, the PDF generation option is available only for 2020 release. For other releases, you can switch to their Printing Manuals page and download the existing PDFs like earlier.
  • Product Release Switcher: Allows you to view the current page in other supported releases listed in the drop-down menu. Once you select a release from the drop-down menu, the current page is updated to show the content applicable to the selected release. The Table of Contents is updated as well. With this, you bookmark URL of only one release and then switch to other releases from this drop-down menu.
  • Latest Documentation: The documentation available in the new UI is always kept updated for all supported releases. These updates are available to you as soon as they happen at our end. This provides you 24x7 access to the most recent and technically accurate documentation.

For more details, see How to Use Online Help.

Known Issues

ProblemSolution
It takes longer time for IC-CAP to launch.

Here is the list of possible causes and workarounds:

  • Network condition to the license server(s) can affect the launch time.
  • If a LAN-GPIB interface or a TCPIP instrument had been connected last time and if the connection is offline at the next start of PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP), it could be no response until it is timeout (default is 120s).
    Workaround: If this is the case, get the connection back online. Another workaround is before launching PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP), open <UserHOME>/.icconfig file in a text editor, search for 'LINK HDWR "Hardware"', and at the dev_file_list section change the interface/connection name to "dummy".
  • Cleaning up the temporary folder, which is normally '<UserHOME>\AppData\Local\Temp' on Windows, that PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) uses could be a potential solution for the longer time to launch.
The BSIMCMG and BSIMBULK Package are not supported for simulation with the ADS simulator (hpeesofsim) for 32-bit platforms.The 64-bit versions of ADS and IC-CAP work fine.
System variable WAFERPRO_HIDE_S2_STATUS does not work on Linux.NA
In the DEFINE_EXTR_BOX Utilities transform, if you press   OK, Done! , the window is reopened, but it takes the parameter.

Press OK, Done! and close the Window using the Close window button (in top-right corner).

Using Two Port simulations with DC outputs in Eldo, some two port points (often only the first curve) will show minor variance from the Two Port Simulation alone. These variances have only been observed beyond 8 digits of precision. Keysight is working with Mentor to determine the root cause of this variance.Unless the precision beyond 8 digits is crucial, this can be ignored.

ASM_HEMT_MODELING or MVSG_MODELING if opened through right click 'Edit...' will not load automatically the required *_GaN_UTILITIES model files. As a result most transform execution will show a Error:

For ASM_HEMT_MODELING

[...] Function iccap_func could not locate 'ASM_HEMT_GaN_UTILITIES/ [...]

For MVSG_MODELING

[...] Function iccap_func could not locate 'MVSG_GaN_UTILITIES/ [...]

Go to the Main IC-CAP window and double click on the ASM_HEMT_MODELING or MVSG_MODELING file.
Angelov-GaN modeling package: Tune/Optimize does not work with the ADS built-in model in ADS2019/ADS2020.

Since the angelov_gan.va file is no more included in the new ADS versions, the compiled va library of the model for the ADS versions was added in this  PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) installation, which resolved the tuner/optimizer issue as a workaround. Note that the model name used in the package was changed from 'angelov_gan_va' to 'angelov_gan' as the default.

Angelov-GaN modeling package / ADA-HBT modeling package gives error: ERROR: Could not set Cal/State File Name [.cst only] to ...The instrument option name of the PNA driver was changed to "Cal/State File Name [.csa|.cst only]". To update the internally-stored instrument options list, click Reset IO Table button in the Measure module window.
Angelov-GaN modeling package / ADA-HBT modeling package gives error: ERROR: Keysight PNA.xx.xx: While recalling calibration file : C:\134Users\134Public\134Network Analyzer\134Documents\134atxxx.csa

Use forward slash instead of back slash even on Windows, for example:

  • C:/Users/Public/Network Analyzer/Documents/atxxx.csa
  • C:/Program Files/Agilent/Network Analyzer/Documents/atxxx.csa

Note: If the file is in the PNA-default folder (see PNA manual), just file name without path will work.

Angelov-GaN modeling package: simulation fails with ADS 2014 on Windows7 32-bit platform.NA
B1500A: Invalid Pulse Width setting in the Instrument Options table results in Error-120: Incorrect parameter value.

Set valid Pulse Width:

HPSMU/MPSMU/HRSMU: >= 500us

MCSMU: >=50us / 2us resolution

Instrument option settings is not correctly handled in measurements if WPRO_INIT transform is added and it does not have the call to load instrument options.Insert a line to call WPro_LoadInstrOptions(RoutineName, SetupName) function in the WPRO_INIT transform of the user-defined Routine/Setups.
E4991B is not supported.NA 
In B1500, the measurement fails with NI IO Library in the old instrument mode.Close the Nucleus software and restart the computer. 

Unable to simulate few setups in BSIMSOI4 Modeling Package using ADS 2019 Update 1.0 and ADS 2019.

Use ADS 2017 Update 1.0 for simulation in the BSIMSOI4 Modeling Package.

Variable containing double quotes is not parsed accurately.

This issue exists in files that are saved in older versions of IC-CAP. If you save the file in earlier versions 2016.04 with a variable, for example,  xyz "test" and reload it in 2016.04/2018/2020 Update 1. This variable will show as xyz " or something similar. This issue is fixed in the latest  PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) release.

Workaround:

  • Load the file into IC-CAP 2020 or later.
  • Fix the double quoted string in the variables.
  • Save the file with the new IC-CAP 2020 or later.

PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) cannot retrieve data from HSPICE result if the number of signals exceed 512.

Workaround:

Reduce the number of output nodes by adding #echo .option posttop=1 to the HSPICE simulations. This option defines the hierarchy depth saved in output file. For posttop=1, HSPICE only saves voltage and current information of top level nodes and branches.

When changing DIODE parameters in the Qg setup (time-domain simulation), at some point the parameter change makes the simulation not running without error, and it never recovers from the deadlock until turning on the Simulation Debugger.

Workaround:

The cause seems to be too high impedance at the Gate node of the model for the time-domain simulation. Add a 100 Tohm resistance between G-S of the transistor in the Test Circuit.

2x Model files with two Circuit (Models)

  • If model file #1 circuit is changed but you only simulate the circuit file #2, the update from one does not get parse correctly automatically

Workaround:

If you simulate, all the referenced models need to get parsed so include all other model files.

To view known issues from the previous release, refer: Release Notes 2018, Release Notes 2018 Update 0.1, Release Notes 2018 Update 0.2, and Release Notes 2020 Update 1.1.

Documentation

  • On Windows, Printing directly from installed help generates non-readable output. Workaround: Use PDF version of the document for printing purpose.

  • In the installed help when you open a page using the "Open a link in new tab" option the help does not open a page in a different tab by default. You need to set the preferences to open any link in a new tab. To set the preferences:

    1. From the 201x version of the installed help, Click Edit > Preferences. The Preferences Dialog box is displayed.

    2. Select the Options tab.

    3. Under Appearance, select the Show tabs for each individual page option.

    This is one time setting for a particular release of a product.
  • While using the installed help, you may encounter issues like help not showing any content, it throws an error, it displays unexpected hierarchy in the Content tab, or it does not display any search results. Workaround: Close the help, delete the contents of the following directory and open the help again.
    • On Windows: C:\Users\<Windows_Login_ID>\AppData\Local\Keysight\Help        
    • On Linux: $HOME/.local/share/Keysight/Help
  • The installed help search does not support [] or {} or any other text using these combinations.

Simulation

    • Segment Sweep with Noise analysis is not creating the correct netlist for the ADS simulator.
    • Simulating to ADS 2014.01 or later requires IC-CAP 2014.04 or newer version. Older versions of IC-CAP cannot work with ADS 2014.01 and beyond.
    • When performing ADS simulations with Verilog-A references using ADS 2014 and IC-CAP 2014.04 on Linux, ensure to set the environment variable, ADS_LICENSE_FILE, to reference your IC-CAP license file before launching IC-CAP. Without this setting, ADS will be unable to properly compile *.va files for simulation.

    • ADS simulations to IC-CAP 2016.01 are now performed in the $HOME/hpeesof/iccap_ads/data directory and not in the current working directory. Although it does not affect most simulations, if you direct ADS to load a file relative to the current working directory with the assumption that current working directory will be the same as IC-CAP, this will no longer work for simulations to ADS 2016.01. Please modify such netlists to refer to the full path of the file that ADS must access.

Installation

ProblemSolution
On Windows systems, if you have installed a pre-release version of IC-CAP and then try to install the current version or a newer version of the IC-CAP release, you can get the warning stating 'Previous Version Detected' even though you have uninstalled the current version properly.To get past the 'Previous Version Detected' message while installing, you need to delete the .com.zerog.registry file.
  • On 64 bit systems the file is at C:\Program Files (x86)\Zero G Registry\ .com.zerog.registry.
  • On 32-bit systems, the path to this file is C:\Program Files\Zero G Registry\ .com.zerog.registry. (The directory Zero G Registry is a hidden folder so you need to turn on Show hidden files…. On Windows 7, you can get to this setting under Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Show hidden files and folder.)
IC-CAP ships with an installation of ImageMagick ‘convert’ for the Save Image feature in plots. Without a working ‘convert’ call, the Save Image option can only save JPG, BMP, PNG, PPM, XBM, and XPM formats. The version of convert shipped with IC-CAP does not work on Red Hat version 5, though most default installations of Red Hat version 5 will have a working ImageMagick tool in /usr/bin/convert folder. IC-CAP tests for a workable ‘convert’ program during launch. Initially at $MAGICK_HOME/bin/convert, then within IC-CAP installation, and finally within the path. A warning about the limited save options are issued at launch if no working version of ‘convert’ is found.To avoid this warning, you can install a current version of ImageMagick on your system or set the MAGICK_HOME environment variable to a working installation.
IC-CAP 2020 crashes while launching the 32-bit installer on some 64-bit machine.

A possible workaround is to install the following libraries:

  • dbus-libs.i686
  • libstdc++.i686
  • zlib.i686
  • libXrender.i686
  • libICE.i686
  • libSM.i686
  • libXext.i686
  • libX11.i686
  • xcb-util.i686
  • libXi.i686
  • compat-libxcb.i686
  • libxcb-devel.i686
  • xcb-util-devel.i686
  • xcb-util-image.i686
  • xcb-util-image-devel.i686
  • xcb-util-renderutil.i686
  • xcb-util-renderutil-devel.i686
  • xcb-util-wm.i686
  • xcb-util-wm-devel.i686
  • libX11-devel.i686
  • libICE-devel.i686
  • fontconfig.i686


On RHEL 7.1 Workstation.x86_64, install the following libraries:

  • compat-libcap1-1.10-7.el7.i686
  • libXrender-0.9.8-2.1.el7.i686
  • dbus-libs-1.6.12-11.el7.i686
  • libstdc++-4.8.3-9.el7.i686
  • fontconfig-2.10.95-7.el7.i686
  • libxcb-devel-1.9-5.el7.i686
  • libICE-1.0.8-7.el7.i686
  • readline-6.2-9.el7.i686
  • libICE-devel-1.0.8-7.el7.i686
  • sqlite-3.7.17-4.el7.i686
  • libSM-1.2.1-7.el7.i686
  • xcb-util-0.3.9-4.el7.i686
  • libX11-1.6.0-2.1.el7.i686
  • xcb-util-image-0.3.9-4.el7.i686
  • libX11-devel-1.6.0-2.1.el7.i686
  • xcb-util-wm-0.3.9-5.el7.i686
  • libXext-1.3.2-2.1.el7.i686
  • zlib-1.2.7-13.el7.i686
  • libXi-1.7.2-2.1.el7.i686
If McAfee antivirus is running, it may pause the installation.On disabling the Security firewall option in McAfee antivirus settings, the installation works fine. After the installation is complete, enable the Security firewall option in the McAfee antivirus settings.

On Linux, PathWave Device Modeling (IC-CAP) is only able to communicate with either Keysight IO Libraries Suite 2020 or later versions, or the TAMS IO Libraries installed on the same system, but cannot work with both TAMS and Keysight IO libraries installed at the same time. The libsicl.so installed by both Keysight IO Libraries Suite and TAMS IO Libraries will overwrite each other in the /usr/lib64/libsicl.so location.

Choose to only install either Keysight IO Libraries Suite 2020 or TAMS IO Libraries on the Linux Red Hat Enterprise 7 platform.

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