When dealing with IC design, it is important to have a solid integrated circuit layout. An IC layout is the use of different geometric shapes to correspond with the patterns of metal, oxide or semiconductor layers that are the building blocks of the components found in an integrated circuit. Other names that IC layout has are IC mask layout and mask design.

When there are so many different components that an engineer needs to consider, it is important for the geometric shapes to be connected properly. There are many interactions between chemical, thermal and photographic variables that are carefully controlled, so the connections that the engineer makes between the shapes determines whether the final circuit will work properly or not. What an engineer is aiming for is to take the layout and create a circuit that is has a strong performance, a small size and the ability to be manufactured. 

Once the layout has been accomplished, it must pass a series of checks that is commonly referred to as verification. The two typical verification processes are known as design rule checking and layout versus schematic. The former ensures that design rules are followed. The latter ensures that the schematic of the circuit correlates and is comparable to the layout.

Once the verification has been completed, the data is sent to a semiconductor foundry. Using the industry standard format of GDSII, the foundry can convert the data into a format that can generate photomasks. This results in the creation of a semiconductor.

While IC layouts used to be done completely by hand, as the semiconductors have become more detailed and dense, a series of IC layout editors have been created. These make the proper creation much more straight forward and ensure verification is accomplished quicker and easier than in the past. Some editors have even gone so far as to be completely automatic. However, many engineers – especially those that have been doing it for some time – prefer the manual manipulation of the geometric shapes. This process is known as polygon pushing.