Hi Mike,
I can't help you directly, but your post did remind me of something I forgot
to share. Perhaps if you convert your GDS-II file to DXF you can open it
with any good graphic art software and save it as postscript. You could
also translate it to Gerber and send this to a print shop for high
resolution film transparency artwork.
Many people have asked about translating common mask layout file formats
such as GDS-II, DXF (AutoCAD) and Gerber (a common PWB layout format).
Artwork Conversion Software in California makes such things, but their
products are pretty expensive (typically $5000 or so).
I recently discovered a much cheaper alternative made by a company in
Florida called Neos Technologies that builds components for laser systems.
They also sell a software program called Xchange that translates each of the
formats mentioned above. It also has a simple viewer that allows you to
verify that your data survived the translation. It's not the most elegant
program I've ever seen, but they sell it for just $795 and it seems to work
fine. They have a demo version (works in DOS and Windows 3.x/95/98)
available for evaluation on their web site at
http://www.neostech.com
I played around with the demo quite a bit, and just ordered a working
version, so I should be able to give a better review in a couple of weeks.
If your interested you can contact Neos Technologies at 407-676-9020 and ask
for Bob Junior. He also mentioned to me that they have mask making
equipment that might be capable of making decent resolution mask plates.
I'm not sure if he was trying to sell me the machine or offer mask making
services, but you might ask if you're interested.
Hope this helps some people out. I remember all too well trying to make
decent masks at the local copy shop on a zero budget.
--
Marc Straub
Visteon Automotive Systems, Ford Motor Company
Dearborn, MI
313-322-5043
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Colgan [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, April 16, 1999 10:34 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Ledit and Postscript for Masks
Hello everyone,
Several groups at my university have been using Ledit to design masks
and then sending postscript output files to local printers for mask
printing. We recently started using a new version of Ledit (7.12) and
the resolution on the postscript output files is no longer
high enough for our purposes (we want 4800 dpi- the same resolution we
were getting before). I talked to the people at Tanner and they
confirmed that the maximum resolution on postscript output files was
lowered from 4800 dpi to 1600 dpi. They have not produced any printer
drivers with higher resolution (they say that only a couple of people
have asked about it), and there are none currently in development.
I was wondering if anyone out there has found a way around this problem
(created their own drivers, found GDS2 to postscript output converters,
or anything else). The printers we use are not specifically into mask
fabrication, so convincing them to accept a different output format
would be very difficult.
Thanks in advance,
Mike
--
Michael Colgan
University of Alberta- MicroFab
#318 Newton Research Bldg.
Edmonton, AB
Canada T6G 2G7
Telephone: (780) 492-5570 Ext. 273
Fax: (780) 492-1643
e-mail: [email protected]
