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Creating and Running Macros
This chapter contains procedures for creating, editing, and using macros. Macros can provide a powerful tool for automating routine or repetitive procedures by increasing the efficiency of your operations. Macros, consisting of short programs or scripts that execute IC-CAP commands in a predetermined sequence, automate routine test procedures so that the execution of a single command measures, extracts, simulates, optimizes, plots, and reports on the characteristics of the tested device or circuit.
Macros are simply a way to automate routine operations or to simplify complex operations. For example, you can create a macro to do the following:
| • | Measure all four setups of the dc DUT in the npn model. |
| • | Run extractions, simulation and optimization. |
| • | Display all plots in a model. |
In addition to these routine tasks, you can perform more sophisticated operations, such as:
| • | Writing data to an external data base. |
| • | Making choices and branches, based on the value of data sets, parameters or variables. |
Pre-defined macros are provided for each model and you can execute macros manually or automatically upon IC-CAP startup. Macros are easy to write—the facilities for creating, editing, and running macros are available in the Macros folder. Each model can have any number of macros, as the example in the next section demonstrates.