A Multi Project Wafer is used to reduce the cost of making an ASIC. By using a lot of different designs on the same wafer the Non Recurring Engineering (NRE) costs of making the mask set are shared between all the participants.

The Google shuttle is an example of an MPW.

Our MPW submissions

So far we have made 4 tapeouts to the Google MPWs:

• MPW1
• MPW2
• MPW3
• MPW4

MPW physical implementation

We sent John McMaster some chips to take a look at from MPW1. Here presented his findings at OpenTapeOut

And you can browse his microphotographed die here

Course feedback

This course has fundamentally changed how I will teach VLSI in the future. Having used and taught the closed source tools, I am now a convert to the open-source tool chain. This course was the guiding force to get over the initial hump of the learning curve near painlessly.

Devin (analog course)