An exciting new opportunity for developing open-source silicon reached fruition at the end of 2022!

GlobalFoundries (GF) teamed up with Google to fund open-source projects using GF’s foundry and their open-source 180nm PDK GF180.

Open-source PDKs like GF180 and Skywater 130nm are essential for making silicon design more accessible. To now have GlobalFoundries involved with fabricating designs will hopefully mean increased opportunities to turn designs into silicon.

GF180’s first multi-project wafer (MPW) tapeout was in December 2022, and several people from the Zero to ASIC and Tiny Tapeout communities were able to submit designs. Here are some highlights:

• TinyUserProject enabling quick and easy submissions to the Open MPW shuttles,
• Tiny Tapeout design that outputs “TinyTapeout” sequentially on a 7-segment display (@mattvenn),
• Test structures like D-triggers with and without set/reset, designed using Wokwi (Shaos)
• SkullFET GF180 implementing barebones transistors shaped like skulls (@urishaked)

You can look through other submissions on the Efabless Projects Page.

If you’re curious to learn more about the GF180 PDK, check out the interview with Prof. James Stine, who actively contributes standard cells to the PDK.

Photo Credit: Enrique Jiménez, redistributed under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

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