CharLib: An Open Source Standard Cell Library Characterizer

With the current rise in popularity of open source silicon design there is a need for low-cost high-quality SoC design tools. This paper presents an open-source python-based standard cell library char-acterizer compatible with combinational and sequen-tial cells. This characterizer can be configured from a single YAML file, reducing the complexity of the char-acterization process for silicon designers and enabling repeatable characterization through easy integration with existing version control tools. The characterizer generates a liberty file for the cell library that can be used by other EDA tools. The tool is compared to a com-mercial characterizer using an open-source PDK. Timing results are within 1 nanosecond mean absolute er-ror compared to commercial characterization tools.