Hi everyone, I'm a student at Cornell University. I am part of a project team called Cornell Custom Silicon Systems. This team is advised by Professor Christopher Batten, who has previously helped lead undergraduate tape-outs (using Sky130 and Chip Ignite). I am currently leading a group of students to tape-out an analog chip using ChipIgnite; we intend on taping-out during the Spring of this year. At the moment, we are looking to acquire the Cadence OA version of Sky130. My understanding is that we need to pay the 200 dollar deposit to secure a slot and to receive support for commercial tools (Cadence, in this case). However, the issue is that there are no shuttles posted for the Spring yet: we want to get our hands on the OA PDK as soon as possible so that we have time to complete the design. If someone could point me to the right person/direction to acquire the Cadence OA PDK, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

@Indira Iyer fyi

@Tim Edwards do you know?

I wonder if a hobbyist can secure a MPW slot by paying a 200 dollar deposit. What kind of tool support are we talking about for analog designs?

The chipignite program is for paid designs afaik. For something very small you could look at https://mailchi.mp/574276e3c9d7/tinytapeout

@Faisal Mateen @Matt Liberty We have the funding to utilize ChipIgnite. Our members are already using Cadence Virtuoso. Our advisor has previously utilized ChipIgnite for undergraduate tape-outs (digital ASICs, not analog).

@Tim 'mithro' Ansell do you know about the availability of sky130 Cadence enablements?

@Jon Ho: Currently we do not provide a Cadence environment. We support it in the sense that if you design a user project with a commercial tool like Cadence or Synopsys, we agree to accept the resulting GDS and integrate it into the Caravel chip and submit it on the shuttle. I got an email from Prof. Batten, though, and we will figure out how to take care of your team and get your projects on ChipIgnite. What you're planning is very close to what Stanford did on the first ChipIgnite run. (Send me your email in a private slack message and I'll make sure you're on the email chain with Prof. Batten and the Efabless team).