Creating raster bitmap files from CAD formats is an essential step in both mask making and for inspection. Artwork has specialized in this business for over 25 years and offers a line of high performance rasterizers for Gerber, ODB++ and GDSII data formats. Most of the tools listed below are incorporated into PCB and semiconductor equipment by the manufacturer.
Directly rasterizes ODB++ data to a monochrome bitmap. Available as a stand alone executable or as a shared library (DLL).
Why Artwork does not recommend directly rasterizing DWG/DXF from AutoCAD or other mechanical drafting software.
A set of three libraries for high performance OEM rasterizing of GDSII and OASIS layout data. Designed for mask writers, laser direct imaging and mask/wafer inspection equipment.
A combination high speed RIP with the ability to accept correction data derived from substrate measurements. The RIP supports GDSII but works with its companion pre-processor, SFGEN, which supports both GDSII and ODB++ files.
A pre-processor for GDSII and ODB++ layout data - it finds repetitive geometries and outputs them in a way that the RTCR can produce large bitmaps quickly and efficiently.
A specialized viewer designed to load very large monochrome bitmaps (GBytes +++) and quickly display the data and enable pan, zoom and measurement. Very useful for those that must routinely handle and analyze large bitmaps.
InkRaster is a Gerber rasterizer optimized for driving industrial inkjets. Includes droplet compensation, separate DPI in X and Y, inverse and ink coverage control ...
a GDSII rasterizer with customizations including: i) shear distorion transformation and ii) user defined tiling of the output bitmaps.
Artwork has developed a number of rasterizers. This page describes the main features of each one.
Driving an inkjet for PCB applications should be optimized to take into account the unique limitations of inkjetting as compared to light exposure ...
Issues and solutions for formatting bitmaps into DMD frames for DLP based mask writers
Windows Users - make sure thumbnail generation is turned off when dealing with large bitmaps ...
We show how one can verify a complex Gerber to GDSII conversion (for a mask writer) by rasterizing both files and then comparing the resulting bitmaps using an XOR.
Why are my diagonal lines jagged? Why are equally spaced lines and gaps no longer equall spaced? It's all due to pixel snapping.
Can one use a DVD mastering machine as a way to create high resolution, low costs masks?
The TIFF format is limited to a maximum file size of 4 GB. What to do when your bitmaps exceed the limit? Welcome to BigTIFF.