Abstract
In a failure event, circuit schematic analysis usually follows after fault isolation to increase the success rate. However, analyzing an extracted netlist of the isolated sub-circuit can be messy. Manual circuit translation from layout where the analyst is in control of the cell instance placement is one way to overcome this challenge. Although it is neater and intuitive for analysis, it can be time consuming to create the schematic. To analyze circuits in a systematic manner, cross-mapping between layout and schematic contents is the most commonly recognized approach. However, at times, cross-mapping alone is insufficient and some further simplification procedures are favorable. This paper describes the challenges and illustrates using real case studies, how schematics re-ordering and substitutions can be useful to simplify and enhance circuit analysis. These procedures can be implemented in an automated manner to enhance turnaround time for analysis.
