vyges-tap — well taps and endcaps

Physical construction — opt-in, and not part of vyges install loom. These engines build the design database that the sign-off and verification engines read, so they install as their own group:

vyges install physical   # all six
vyges install tap        # just this one

It is also a standalone vyges-tap binary on your PATH, which is what the dispatch calls and what a flow author targets directly. Source: vyges-tools/tap.

vyges-tap places the physical cells a row needs to be manufacturable but that carry no logic: well taps at a stated pitch, endcaps at the ends of every row and around every macro, and the row cutting that opens holes for macros in the first place.

Run it

vyges tap cut-rows design.odb --endcap-master TAPCELL_X1
vyges tap tapcell  design.odb --distance 20 --tapcell-master TAPCELL_X1 --endcap-master TAPCELL_X1

cut-rows cuts the rows around placed macros; place-endcaps and place-tapcells do one job each; tapcell does the whole sequence in the order the reference does. ripup removes what a previous run inserted, matched by name prefix.

Where it sits

Floorplanned database in, the same database with physical cells inserted out. It runs after ifp and before the power grid, because a tap cell occupies row space the grid must not fight over.

Known bounds

• Taps and endcaps use different name prefixes (TAP_ and PHY_) so a rip-up can remove one without the other. Passing one prefix for both puts every cell in the right place with the wrong name.
• ⚠️ An empty rip-up prefix removes nothing, not everything: the literal reading of “every name starts with the empty string” would delete the design.

See the full CLI reference (generated from --help and --describe).