Mask works (掩膜作品),在美国指集成电路布图设计图,“掩膜作品” 的译文是根据美国对该定义翻译而成的;在日本,同一概念称作“电路布图”(Circuit Layout),瑞典称为“布图设计”(Layout Design),欧盟许多国家称为拓扑图(Topography)。我们同样可以在维基百科的英文网站找到相关的解释:
In United States intellectual property law, a "mask work" is a two or three-dimensional layout or topography of an integrated circuit (IC or "chip"), i.e. the arrangement on a chip of semiconductor devices such as transistors and passive electronic components such as resistors and interconnections. The layout is called a mask work because, in photolithographic processes, the multiple etched layers within actual ICs are each created using a mask, called the photomask, to permit or block the light at specific locations, sometimes for hundreds of chips on a wafer simultaneously.
在美国知识产权法中,“掩膜作品”是集成电路(IC或“芯片”)的二维或三维布局或形貌,即半导体器件(例如晶体管和无源电子元件)在芯片上的布置 例如电阻和互连。 这种布局称为掩模作品,因为在光刻工艺中,实际IC内的多个蚀刻层均使用称为光掩模的掩模来创建,以允许或阻挡特定位置的光,有时同时用于晶圆上的数百个芯片 。