Count me among the people desperately in need of improved techniques. So far, I
have mostly used Magic, with various C programs written to support creation of
circles and polygons within the Manhattan geometry of the program. Also, I have
used a PC program called ICED (IC Editor), whose company escapes me at the
moment. It was less obtuse than Magic for this kind of drawing, but still not
really very good.

Even using those programs, there's a big gap to cross depending on what kind of
file the mask maker wants. For instance, I've wanted simple, cheap emulsion
masks for quick tests of ideas, and haven't been able to find anyone who could
read CIF files. It's somewhat better with GDSII, but even then, I seem to run
into stone walls. I gathered from your message that some of that discussion
occured previously, and I plan to dig through it to see if there's any help
there.

Anyway, absolutely, positively, there is great value, especially to the smaller
users, in having a clear manufacturing path designated. For people who are
thinking that MEMS offers solutions to their problems, but who are not at IC
companies per se, there is a large gap between what they know how to do and
what they need to do to get an idea tried out.

Evan
*******************************************
*  Evan D. H. Green                       *
*  Assistant Professor                    *
*  Department of Electrical Engineering   *
*  San Jose State University              *
*  San Jose, CA  95192-0084               *
*  office: (408) 924-3915  fax: 924-39-25 *
* egreen@isc.sjsu.edu                    *
*******************************************