Integrated circuit layout

Originally the overall process was called tapeout, as historically early ICs used graphical black crepe tape on mylar media for photo imaging (erroneously believed[who?]

When using a standard process—where the interaction of the many chemical, thermal, and photographic variables is known and carefully controlled—the behaviour of the final integrated circuit depends largely on the positions and interconnections of the geometric shapes.

The milestone completion of the layout process of sending this data to the foundry is now colloquially called "tapeout".

In the earlier, simpler, days of IC design, layout was done by hand using opaque tapes and films, an evolution derived from early days of printed circuit board (PCB) design -- tape-out.

The manual operation of choosing and positioning the geometric shapes is informally known as "polygon pushing".