How to run ASM2600 Windows GUI

This page describes the basic procedure for converting GDSII files to Pattern generator format (Electromask and David Mann 3000/3600).
Start asm2600 for Windows. The main menu will pop up.

Click on the Select GDSII file. A menu will pop up and you can Browse to select the file you wish to convert. Before clicking on the Open, click on the Working Directory - the program will write all the configuration files and output files to that directory.

After selecting the GDSII file to convert, a menu will come up to select the Config file. At this point you can load and existing config file or create a new one. The config file stores important information such as the minimum feature size, PG output type, optimization level, output unit etc..

The next menu shows you the list of structure/cell in the GDSII file. The program defaults to translate the top cell but the user can change the selection if needed.
The user can also get information about the cell such as the extents, hierarchy and more.

From the main menu, click on Configuration and the Options menu will come up.
At this point you need to define parameters such as minimum feature size, level of optimization and verify. These parameters usually don't change from one job to another unless the GDSII files you are running have different units.

Next, click on Mask Options and its menu will come up.
This menu allows you to define parameters such as minimum/maximum flash size, and output units.
Typical values are 0.1mil to 60 mils (min/max) or 2.54 to 1500 microns.

Next, click on Output and its menu will come up.
This menu allows you to pick the type of PG output you want to create. Select one of the 4 options. Electromask and David Mann3600 are the most typical ones but of course you will have to pick that based on the PG machine you will use..

From the main menu, click on Layers and the Layer menu will come up.
Simply pick the GDSII layers you want to translate. You can also define the output file name.

From the main menu, click on Translate to start the translation, and when done click on the View PG Files to look at your PG data.