ArtistIC: An Open-Source Toolchain for Top-Metal IC Art and Ultra-High-Fidelity GDSII Renders

TL;DR

ArtistIC is an open-source framework that enhances ASIC development by enabling high-fidelity GDSII layout rendering and artistic branding, facilitating community engagement and visualization during early design stages.

Contribution

The paper introduces ArtistIC, a novel open-source toolchain for creating top-metal art and ultra-high-fidelity GDSII renders of ASIC layouts, improving visualization and outreach capabilities.

Findings

Render densities below 25 nm/px achieved

Gigapixel-scale resolution rendering demonstrated

Enhanced visualization for ASIC development and outreach

Abstract

Open-source projects require outreach material to grow their community, secure funds, and strengthen their influence. Numbers, specifications, and facts alone are intangible to uninvolved people; using a clear brand and appealing visual material is thus ample to reach a broad audience. This is especially true for application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) during the early stages of the development cycle without running prototype systems. This work presents ArtistIC, an open-source framework to brand ASICs with top-metal art and to render GDSII layouts with ultra-high fidelity reaching render densities below 25 nm/px and gigapixels-scale resolutions.