Patent ID: 8601426

Claim:
A method of identifying one or more missing level shifters in a multi-voltage domain integrated circuit (IC) design, the method comprising: receiving a physical layout design data file for the IC design; analysing the received physical layout design data file to identify connected nets of devices within the IC design having one or more missing level shifters, comprising: extracting power supply voltage data and/or physical recognition layer data from the physical layout design data file, and perform a power domain crossing check on the extracted layout data using the power supply voltage and physical recognition layer data for each device instance in the IC design, wherein the power domain crossing check comprises, determining an instance type for each instance of a device entity within a net under test, said instance type indicative of an intended voltage level to be used with said each instance of a device entity in the net under test, determining an actual power supply voltage connection for use with each instance of a device entity in the net under test, and determining if there is an invalid voltage level by comparison of the intended power supply voltage connection for a particular instance and the actual power supply voltage for the same instance of each device entity in the net under test; and inserting one or more suitably configured level shifters into the IC design where any one or more missing level shifters are identified.