Skywater Technology creates an open-source Process Design Kit (PDK) that can be used to fabricate semiconductors for digital and/or analog designs. The ultimate goal here is to create a PDK that allows both fabrication and understanding of the semiconductor process. Because it is free, this allows the creation of tools that are free and open-source to proliferate the understanding of the process.

The SkyWater Open Source PDK is a collaboration between Google and SkyWater Technology Foundry to provide a fully open source Process Design Kit and related resources, which can be used to create manufacturable designs at SkyWater’s facility.

As of May 2020, this repository is targeting the SKY130 process node. If the SKY130 process node release is successful then in the future more advanced technology nodes may become available.

The Skywater Technology 130nm processor or SKY130 has 5 layers of metal to allow routing. It also allows a sixth layer called local interconnect (li). However, the li layer despite being close to the transistors has a high amount of resistance and may be unsuitable for some applications.

You can get the PDK at the following site. While the SKY130 process node and the PDK from which this open source release was derived have been used to create many designs that have been successfully manufactured commercially in significant quantities, the open source PDK is not intended to be used for production settings at this current time. It should be usable for doing test chips and initial design verification (but this is not guaranteed).

• SKY130 PDK on GitHub
• Google CodeSearch interface
• FOSS EDA Tools
• SKY130 Documentation

SKY130 Process Node

The SKY130 is a mature 180nm-130nm hybrid technology originally developed internally by Cypress Semiconductor before being spun out into SkyWater Technology and made accessible to general industry. SkyWater and Google’s collaboration is now making this technology accessible to everyone!

The SKY130 Process node technology stack consists of;

Support for internal 1.8V with 5.0V I/Os (operable at 2.5V)

• 1 level of local interconnect
• 5 levels of metal
• Is inductor-capable
• Has high sheet rho poly resistor
• Optional MiM capacitors
• Includes SONOS shrunken cell
• Supports 10V regulated supply
• HV extended-drain NMOS and PMOS

The SKY130 Process Node is an extremely flexible offering, including many normally optional features as standard (features like the local interconnect, SONOS functionality, MiM capacitors, and more). This provides the designer with a wide range of flexibility in design choices.

About SkyWater Technology Foundry

SkyWater is a solely U.S.-based and U.S.-owned, DoD-accredited, Trusted Foundry. Through its Technology Foundry model, SkyWater provides custom design and development services, design IP, and volume manufacturing for integrated circuits and micro devices. The Company’s world-class operations and unique processing capabilities enable mixed-signal CMOS, power, rad-hard and ROIC solutions. SkyWater’s Innovation Engineering Services empower development of superconducting and 3D ICs, along with carbon nanotube, photonic and MEMS devices. SkyWater serves customers in growing markets such as aerospace & defense, automotive, cloud & computing, consumer, industrial, IoT and medical. For more information, please visit: www.skywatertechnology.com/.

SkyWater is building from a long heritage in the microelectronics industry. The SkyWater facility was originally established by Minnesota based Control Data Corporation (CDC) in the 1980s. The CDC fab was acquired by Cypress Semiconductor in 1991. During the Cypress era, the facility was expanded and upgraded multiple times, keeping pace with Moore’s Law into the late 2000s and was known for being a US-based production facility that was competitive with Asian-based fabs. SkyWater spun-off from Cypress in 2017 with private equity backing from Minnesota based Oxbow Industries.

License

The SkyWater Open Source PDK is released under the Apache 2.0 license.

The copyright details (which should also be found at the top of every file) are;

Copyright 2020 SkyWater PDK Authors

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. 
You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.