cleary@husc9.harvard.edu (Kenneth Cleary) (09/19/90)
I occasionally hear about students getting small quantities done as an ending to a course in VLSI design. How does this get done for a reasonable price? I'm talking about a price range around $1000 (US), not $10,000 (US). You can't tell me a student has to shell out $10,000, on top of tuition and other expenses, just to get some silicon... So... What places do these SMALL batches? What is the minimum order that you can get down to? Are there considerable discounts if you're willing to forgo high-density, assuming that lower scale integration achieves better yields, and less manufacturing risk? What is the cheapest technology for custom shops (i.e. CMOS Bipolar, NMOS, etc.)? What format do these shops need the design data in? What sorts of experiences have people had?
mathisen@dali.cs.montana.edu (Jaye Mathisen) (09/20/90)
In article <4215@husc6.harvard.edu> cleary@husc9.harvard.edu (Kenneth Cleary) writes: >I occasionally hear about students getting small quantities done as >an ending to a course in VLSI design. How does this get done for a >reasonable price? I'm talking about a price range around $1000 (US), >not $10,000 (US). You can't tell me a student has to shell out $10,000, >on top of tuition and other expenses, just to get some silicon... Here at Montana, EE VLSI design courses have submitted several chips for fab, most of them (I think) done in the Junior level courses. > >So... > What places do these SMALL batches? Ours are done through MOSIS. > What is the minimum order that you can get down to? Depending on the size, something like a mosis "tinychip" nets you about 4 pieces. > Are there considerable discounts if you're willing to forgo > high-density, assuming that lower scale integration achieves > better yields, and less manufacturing risk? I seem to recall that 2 micron CMOS was about the best deal, although I think 3 micron, and 1.2 is available. > What is the cheapest technology for custom shops (i.e. CMOS > Bipolar, NMOS, etc.)? > What format do these shops need the design data in? MOSIS requires it in their CIF format... Prices on a "tinychip" are appx $400. EE488 built a 16 bit microprocessor, with a minimal set of bells and whistles, using the OCT environment from Berkeley. There is no full-custom stuff, everything was created using the synthesis tools. chip dimensions were approximately 4800x4800 microns, in 2 micron CMOS. I think it cost around $2500 to fab, and we should get 8-10 pieces. All the above details were from a pretty shaky recollection... I can put you in touch with somebody who knows far more about it than I do.