The Layout Engineer's Pens
A black BIC Cristal is pretty good. A 4 color BIC is better - but it’s not four times better when the colors aren’t what you need!
A solid chunk of my work involves working with integrated circuit layouts and there is a quite specific set of colors used for different transistor parts and the metal routing. This color palette is widely, and instantly understood by anyone who works with layout, and while you can customize it to your preferences or to accommodate for color blindness, the default colors are what most people stick to.
Layout work itself is obviously done on the computer, but often the initial steps, or discussions about changes are supported with the old pen and paper. I have a very visual way of thinking so I love a good diagram. I have also found that getting a point across accurately is often much easier if everyone can look at the same drawing.
The problem is that when the conversation is about layout, then the color is important. And the standard 4 color BICs don’t have the colors I’m after. BIC manufactures a range of colors but you cannot get just choose the combination you want.
So, swapping a few colors around, I came up with these:
Frontend
Polysilicon in red and active in green. Standard so far.
Metal 1 in blue, and NWell in orange. The orange also works well for frontend contacts.
Metals
Metal 1 in blue (again) and metal 2 in cyan.
Metal 3 in pink and metal 4 in a bright green.
The metals pen is shiny and metallic as well which I think is a nice touch.
On a different note I wonder who, when, and why decided what the default IC layout colours will be.