tsv = tab-separated values.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab-separated_values

It’s super easy to create tsv file with league/csv.
http://csv.thephpleague.com/

Install

$ composer require league/csv

php

use League\Csv\Writer;

$tsv_list =[
  [1, 2, 3],
  ['foo', 'bar', 'baz'],
];

$writer = Writer::createFromFileObject(new SplTempFileObject());
$writer->setDelimiter("\t");
$writer->insertAll($tsv_list);

file_put_contents("/path/to/data.tsv", $writer->__toString());

The point is setDelimiter method.