HEX: An Instruction-Driven Approach to Feature Extraction

HEX is a general purpose geometric feature extractor with an integrated circuit layout emphasis. It differs from previous extractors in that it is process-independent and has the ability to do a simple or detailed extraction of circuit features depending on a user-provided sequence of instructions. Internally the extraction process is carried out by an "instruction engine". The extractor produces an output graph showing feature connectivity and attaches extracted attributes to the feature nodes. In circuit applications the post-processed output is suitable for detailed simulation. HEX is currently in use at Siemens Corporation, West Germany.