At times, you will be doing layout as part of problem sets or mini design projects.  We will ask that your layout be submitted electronically.  This process is exactly the same as what would be used to "tape-out" a design to be fabricated.

To "tape out" your design (this language comes from the days in which you actually had to send a physical tape to the fab; today this is done electrically with ftp), you need to generate a (binary) file for your layout in the GDS2 format (also known as "stream").  Generating this file is sometime referred to as "streaming out" your design. This is a very old file format for shapes data that was originally developed by General Electric back when they had a semiconductor group in North Carolina (and a small CAD group to support it). Art de Geus, the CEO of EDA behemoth Synopsys, founded Synopsys after GE closed their semiconductor business, and the rest is history.  Anyway, to generate a GDS2 file from your layout, choose File -> Export -> Stream from the CIW.  You should get a "Virtuoso Stream Out" form.  Create a directory somewhere (from Unix)  that will be the run directory for the "stream out" process.  Put the same of this directory on the "Run directory" line of the form.  Fill out "Library name", "Cell name", and "View name" fields to correspond to the cell view you are streaming out. (The "View name" should be "layout").  In "Output file", put the file name you want for the stream file (a *.gds extension is usually used).  Hit the "User-defined data" button on the form.  This open another form, "Stream Out User-Defined Data".  On this form, enter "/usr/tech/tsmc025/gds2/opus.map" on the "Layer Map Table" line and "OK" this form.  Now, "OK" the "Stream Out" form.  The stream out process will now run (watch the CIW).  When it completes, you will get a hey box from DFII.

Now, to submit your layout, e-mail your stream file to ee6930@cisl.columbia.edu as an e-mail attachment.   Please make sure your name appears in the body of the e-mail.