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97. WHAT IS TAPEOUT?
Tapeout is the final step of chip design. It is the time at which the design is
fully qualified and ready for manufacturing. After the physical design is finished,
the functionality of the netlist is verified, and the timing analysis is
satisfied, the final layout, usually in GDSII format, is sent to mask shop to
generate photomask reticles. The resultant masks will be used to direct the
manufacture of this chip.
The term tapeout originally referred to the action of writing the final data
file that describes the circuit layout onto magnetic tape. This term is still used
today even though magnetic tapes are now rarely used for this process. More
precisely, this process should be called pattern generation (PG). As we know,
semiconductor device fabrication is a multiple-step sequence of photographic
and chemical processing in which electronic circuits are gradually created
on a wafer made of pure semiconductor material. Each of the steps require
photomasks, which are created during the pattern generation process, to
guide the operation. In this regard, PG is a more appropriate term.
Tapeout is a major milestone during a product’s development. It is often
succeeded by a celebration among the people who worked on the project,
followed by eager anticipation of the actual product returning from the manufacturing
facility.
-- VLSI circuit design methodology demystified : a conceptual taxonomy
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发表于 2018-12-27 15:54:22
