The final milestone in the chip design process where the complete physical layout is frozen and exported to the semiconductor fabrication plant. The term originates from the era when design files were physically written to magnetic tape and shipped to the foundry. Reaching this stage means the engineering team has signed off on all simulations and design rule checks.
The layout team worked through the weekend so we could tape out the new microcontroller by Monday morning.
Taping out is usually celebrated as a major victory, but it also locks in any undiscovered bugs into expensive physical silicon.
Also heard as
- tapeout
Related terms
Layout
The physical arrangement of components and traces on a chip or circuit board.
Wafer
A highly polished slice of semiconductor material used as the foundation for fabricating integrated circuits.
Mask work
The two-dimensional and three-dimensional layout designs used to fabricate an integrated circuit.