1. Purpose and scope
Sign-off is where a frozen design becomes a database the company is prepared to pay to manufacture. For a test chip the checks are the same in kind as for a product, on a scope chosen to protect what the test chip must prove: verification is closed against its plan for the blocks under evaluation, and physical sign-off runs every check the foundry requires for the shuttle, with timing, power integrity and reliability checked at the corners and depth agreed for the test chip.
The stage runs against the shuttle cut-off and has little slack. It is therefore run on a design that no longer moves. The RTL was frozen at the gate that opened the stage, and every change from now on is a reviewed fix whose regression and sign-off checks are re-run. The stage also prepares everything that must be ready when silicon returns, so that the database can be released at Test chip tape-out without further work and evaluation can start the day parts arrive.
In scope: the written reduced sign-off scope, change control after the freeze, coverage closure and regression sign-off, final implementation and timing closure, power and IR drop analysis, physical verification and the foundry's checks, waivers agreed with the foundry, checking the frozen RTL on the prototype platform, confirming the shuttle slot and die area, finishing the pad ring, test board design, package plan and evaluation plan, and preparing the tape-out archive. Out of scope: the release of the database to the shuttle and everything after it, which belong to Test Chip Tape-out, Bring-up & Evaluation.
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