Design Rule Check (DRC)

To run the DRC, choose DRC... from the Verify menu in the layout view window. A pop-up menu will appear. Click on Ok to perform the DRC.

Cadence then runs the DRC and reports the errors or warnings, if any, in the CIW window as shown below

Total errors found : 0 means that your layout doesnt have any errors. Then, you can go to the next step, extraction. If there are any errors, you must correct the errors.

Here is one example to find errors.

After running DRC, you may find errors in the CIW(main window) as below.

In the layout editor window, white rectangle area between two metal1 describes the location corresponding to the error message. You should correct it.

In this instance, we are easily able to find the location of the errors. But in the most case, it is hard to find where the errors are because there are normally too many errors. If then, we can use some option to help find the errors. Go to the Verify -> Markers -> Find in the layout editor window. We will see new window popped-up.

You may not need to check Zoon To Markers option. Click on Apply to find the error location.

From this result, we can find that the space is needed more distance between two metal1 as the error message said.