Cellider tutorial -> Manual-patterning Example

Cellider offers several ways (called modes) for patterning a component. Here, we will illustrate the manual patterning mode using the array component of the first design group in our Magsimus session.

In Cellider make the selection Group of different types of components from the Group box. In Magsimus display this group alone by making the selection [1] Group of different types of components in the On display list. In Cellider select the Manual option in the Mode frame to operate in the manual-patterning mode. If necessary click the toggle button above the map area (labeled Click to Zoom or Click to Pattern) once, so that it reads Click to Zoom (the annotation to the left should then read Patterning).  Not having the toggle button in this state, will cause mouse actions to zoom in the map box (see the section Zooming actions below).

Inside Cellider’s array map, click and hold down the left mouse button on a cell. Without releasing the mouse button drag the mouse until the displayed rectangular "rubber band" encompasses a few cells as shown in Fig. 6a, and then release the mouse. The cells of the traced out region are now drawn in pink (Fig 6b). This indicates that they are flagged to be “turned off” (or removed) from the component. Click the Transfer button located above the array map to the left, to apply the defined pattern in Magsimus. The modified component should now be displayed in Magsimus' System-view window as shown in Fig. 6c.

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Fig. 6. Manual-mode patterning figures discussed in the text.

Next, sweep out in the Cellider map box a new region that partially overlaps the previous region as shown in Fig. 7a. The resulting map pattern after releasing the mouse is shown in Fig. 7b. Notice that the cells in the overlapped region are now turned back on. Whenever a patterning action is applied to any portion of the map, the on cells are turned off and the off cells are turned on. You toggle an individual cell between it’s on and off states by repeatedly clicking on it with the mouse.  Click the Transfer button. The newly patterned Magsimus component should now look like  Fig. 7c.

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Fig. 7. Manual-mode patterning figures discussed in the text.

Zooming actions

You can zoom in and out of various regions of the map in order to take a closer look and/or apply patterning. This is especially useful for resolving the details of different parts of very dense maps that are produced by components with very large cell grids. Let us illustrate how to zoom into a region of the map. In Cellider click the toggle button above the map area (currently labeled Click to Zoom); the annotation to the left should now read Zooming (and the toggle button will read Click to Pattern).  Sweep out the intended zoom region shown in Fig. 8a by holding down and dragging the left-mouse mouse as described previously.  Release the mouse. The defined zoom region is now displayed to fill up the map window (Fig. 8b).  Any number of subsequent zooms can be carried out. Double-click the mouse anywhere inside the map box to revert back to the un-zoomed state (do it).

Note that you can resume patterning after zooming into a map, by clicking the toggle button (its label and annotation would change to Click to Zoom and Patterning), and proceeding as before.

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Fig. 8. Figures illustrating zooming actions discussed in the text.

Navigating components

In addition to being able to zoom into different areas of a map, Cellider provides other means to flexibly “move through” a component using the controls in its Map Views Controls area which is located to the right of the map box. These controls are shown up close  in Fig. 9.

Fig. 9. Up-close view of Map Views Controls area.

MagOasis software associates each design component with a local (UVW) Cartesian coordinate system. The Map axes box presents a schematic of the coordinate axes of the map relative to its current map view. In the lesson so far you have had the map box display a U – V projection of the sample.  You can change this projection by making the appropriate selection (U – V, U – W or V - W) in the Map plane frame.

The component can be considered a stack of parallel layers (or slices) in the direction of the normal to the projection plane. You display a layer by entering its position in the input box (1) or by moving the slider (2) as needed. Thus, access to different regions of a three-dimensional array object is achieved by the appropriate choices of array planes and their positions. Clicking the Center array button selects the mid array-plane position and displays it in the map box. In the Reset Pattern frame, the pattern of an array position or the entire array can be reset by clicking either the Layer or All buttons. This empties out or fills the array depending on whether the Clear or Fill option is selected.

It is instructive to try out some of these controls at this time, to familiarize yourself with how they work.

Round up

The manual-patterning example discussed above captures the following general steps for creating and applying patterns using Cellider: First, you define a pattern locally in Cellider in the map box using any of the available patterning modes. You then transfer the pattern to the array component of the external application session by pressing the Transfer button. In the following two sections you will learn how to create patterns using standard built-in shapes and external masks.