Tiny Tapeout: Demystifying Microchip Design and Manufacturing

Keywords: Tiny Tapeout Tool Kit, Process Design Kit, STEM, IC design, Google’s Skywater 130nm PDK, ASIC chips, PCB.?

Tiny Tapeout: Demystifying Microchip Design and Manufacturing

One of the major challenges in traditional curriculum-based teaching is bridging the gap between classroom learning and practical implementation. This gap has made it difficult to develop engineers who meet industrial standards, drive innovation, and tackle real-world design challenges (Ferreira et al., 2024). Over the years, various approaches have been introduced to address this issue, one of which is the integration of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) into education (Ferreira et al., 2024).

However, despite these efforts, a significant disconnect remains between classroom learning and the practical engineering skills required in the field. Another major hurdle is the scarcity of resources and the high costs associated with IC design and fabrication. Before a chip design can be manufactured, specific requirements must be met, including access to industrial tools, which are often restricted to corporate use (Kosier, 2023).

In recent years, collaborations involving major corporations such as Google and SkyWater Technology have helped alleviate these challenges by developing open-source design toolkits. These initiatives have made IC design tools accessible to individuals and significantly reduced fabrication costs, bringing the expense down to nearly zero, as highlighted by Kosier (2023).

What is the Tiny Tapeout Toolkit?

Figure 1: An X(formerly Twitter) post on Tiny Tapeout call for submission to design IC chip for only $300, Efabless (2024)

Tiny Tapeout is one such educational project that enables individuals, students, and hobbyists to have their simple IC designs manufactured on a real chip.

“Custom semiconductor chips are generally big projects made by big companies with big budgets,” says Long (2023). So, what exactly is Tiny Tapeout?

According to Matt Venn (2024),?

“Tiny Tapeout is a multi-project chip platform that makes it easier and cheaper to get application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designs manufactured.”

This initiative highlights the importance of leveraging open-source tools and process design kits (PDKs), which are freely available without restrictive licenses or non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).

Role of Tiny Tapeout in Research and Education

The Tiny Tapeout Toolkit is an excellent resource for teaching digital design and enabling users to receive real chips.

Alongside other open-source process design kits (PDKs) like Google’s SkyWater 130nm PDK, Tiny Tapeout has made significant contributions to research and education. It provides an effective approach to addressing challenges in academic innovation. In an effort to push innovation to its peak, the Tiny Tapeout Toolkit offers several benefits:

The kit has significantly lowered the entry barrier for students and researchers interested in chip design Halfacree (2023). This has helped bring a new wave of talent into the semiconductor community (Benini et al., 2024). A notable example is Sam Zeloof, who demonstrated that IC design costs can be reduced through personal projects, successfully building his own homemade IC fabrication setup in his parents’ garage (Maxfield, 2018).

The kit is designed to take university-level students with no prior chip design experience to the point of creating their own application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) Halfacree (2023).

Figure 2: Tiny Tapeout making simple ASIC design and manufacture, Barela (2022)

What is the Future, the Impact on the Semiconductor Industry

There is no longer a need to speculate about the possibilities and opportunities this presents in the semiconductor industry?—?it is already evident from what has been achieved with this tool, both now and in the near future.

Statistics from each Tiny Tapeout project over the years have demonstrated what is possible moving forward.

In 2022, 152 projects were submitted, and 100 people were willing to pay $100 for a chip mounted on a PCB. Even as a trial run, the testimonies from this initiative highlight its significant impact on the semiconductor industry, with the chips expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2023 (Tiny Tapeout, 2025).

References

Barela, A. (2022) ‘TinyTapeout: Making it easier to get a chip design manufactured’. Available at: https://blog.adafruit.com/2022/08/31/tinytapeout-making-it-easier-to-get-a-chip-design-manufactured-tinytapeout-matthewvenn/ (Accessed: 9 February 2025).

Benini, L., De Micheli, G., Lou?rat, M.M., Pretl, H. and Wallentowitz, S. (2024) ‘Importance of Open-Source EDA Tools for Academia’. Available at: https://open-source-eda-letter.eu/ (Accessed: 9 February 2025).

Efabless (2024) ‘X (formerly Twitter) Post’. Available at: https://x.com/efabless/status/1772434630538412286?mx=2 (Accessed: 9 February 2025).

Ferreira, C., Gabriel, B., Valente, R. and Figueiredo, C. (2024) ‘Engineering education challenges and strengths: reflecting on key-stakeholder’s perspectives’, Frontiers in Education. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2024.1297267/full (Accessed: 9 February 2025).

Halfacree, G. (2023) ‘Matthew Venn Launches Tiny Tapeout 3 to Take You “From Idea to Chip Design in Minutes”’, Hackster.io. Available at: https://www.hackster.io/news/matthew-venn-launches-tiny-tapeout-3-to-take-you-from-idea-to-chip-design-in-minutes-00e00946e10a (Accessed: 9 February 2025).

Kosier, S. (2023) ‘Sky130 Open-Source PDK’. Available at: https://www.skywatertechnology.com/sky130-open-source-pdk/ (Accessed: 9 February 2025).

Long, J. (2023) ‘Tiny Tapeout 3: Get Your Own Chip Design To A Fab’, Hackaday. Available at: https://hackaday.com/2023/03/05/tiny-tapeout-3-get-your-own-chip-deign-to-a-fab/ (Accessed: 9 February 2025).

Maxfield, M. (2018) ‘Home/Garage-Made Integrated Circuits (ICs)’. Available at: https://www.eeweb.com/home-garage-made-integrated-circuits-ics/ (Accessed: 9 February 2025).

Tiny Tapeout (2025) ‘Tiny Tapeout Chips’. Available at: https://tinytapeout.com/runs/ (Accessed: 9 February 2025).

Venn, M. (2024) ‘Tiny Tapeout: A shared silicon tape out platform accessible to everyone’, IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine, 16(2), pp. 20–29. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/MSSC.2024.3381097 (Accessed: 9 February 2025).

IEEE IEEE OAU Student Branch IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (CASS) IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society IEEE Xplore IEEE Computer Society IEEE Electron Devices Society IEEE IES Technical Committee on Electronic Systems on Chip IEEE International System-on-Chip Conference Tiny Tapeout SkyWater Technology Sam Zeloof Matt Venn