⚙️ Setup Guide — SemiDevKit

This document describes the post-installation setup steps required to make
SemiDevKit fully operational after cloning the repository.

After completing this guide, you will be able to run BSIM analyzers, TCAD playgrounds, and OpenLane-Lite flows.

📁 1. Directory Structure

After cloning the repository, the directory structure should look like this:

SemiDevKit/
 ├ _includes/        # Jekyll include files
 ├ _layouts/         # Jekyll layouts
 ├ assets/           # CSS / images for GitHub Pages
 ├ bsim/             # BSIM4 analyzers
 ├ docs/             # Documentation (this site)
 ├ openlane/         # OpenLane-Lite flow
 ├ tcad/             # TCAD playgrounds
 ├ README.md         # Project overview
 ├ index.md          # Top page
 └ config.yml        # Jekyll configuration

📌 Note
The directories _includes, _layouts, and assets are used only for GitHub Pages.
For simulations and analysis, you will mainly work in:

bsim/
tcad/
openlane/

🐍 2. Environment Preparation

2.1 Python Virtual Environment (Recommended)

SemiDevKit is designed to run inside an isolated Python virtual environment.

🐧 Linux / 🍎 macOS / 🪟 WSL2

cd SemiDevKit
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

🪟 Windows PowerShell (Native)

cd SemiDevKit
python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate

2.2 Common Python Packages

Install the common Python packages used across most modules:

pip install numpy scipy matplotlib pandas pyyaml

📌 Some lightweight tools only require numpy and matplotlib.

🧩 3. Module-Specific Setup

SemiDevKit follows a modular design.
Each module may require additional setup steps.

Please refer to the README files inside the following directories:

Module	Path	Description
📐 BSIM Analyzer	`bsim/analyzer_*`	DC / CV / DIM / Reliability analysis
🧪 TCAD	`tcad/tcad_playground`	MOSFET TCAD playground
⚡ TCAD (PZT)	`tcad/tcad_playground_pzt`	Ferroelectric device models
🏗 OpenLane	`openlane/openlane-lite`	RTL → GDSII minimal flow

⚡ 4. ngspice (Required for BSIM Tools)

The BSIM analyzers require ngspice to run device simulations.

🪟 Windows

Download the installer from:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/ngspice/

🐧 Linux (Ubuntu)

sudo apt install ngspice

🍎 macOS

brew install ngspice

✔ Verification

Confirm that ngspice is available:

ngspice -v

❌ If the command is not found, check your PATH settings.
🪟 On Windows, using WSL2 is strongly recommended for best compatibility.

📝 5. Visual Studio Code Setup (Recommended)

For development, simulation, and documentation, Visual Studio Code is recommended.

Recommended Extensions

🐍 Python
📊 Jupyter
🧾 Markdown Preview / Markdown All in One
🪟 Remote – WSL (Windows only)

🧭 6. Next Step

Once setup is complete, proceed to the next guide:

➡ 3_usage.md

This section explains:

How to run BSIM analyzers
How to use the TCAD playgrounds
How to execute the OpenLane-Lite flow

🎯 At this point, SemiDevKit is fully ready for execution