A subnanosecond ECL circuit produced with the aid of computer graphics

Master reticles for a high performance integrated circuit have been fabricated with the aid of a computer graphics program, Mask 8, developed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. The program allows the circuit engineer to design integrated circuits from an on-line terminal connected to the TX-2 Computer. Inputs to the program are provided by means of a stylus and tablet. Simple hand-drawn symbols allow drafting, placement, and erasure of transistors, resistors, isolation regions and metal connections which are displayed on a cathode-ray tube. Design rules appropriate to the technology are incorporated into the graphics program. The program allows display of all mask levels and provides a paper tape output which can be fed into a photographic pattern generator to produce a set of 10X master reticles. A short film will illustrate the performance of the graphics program.