Skywater and Google enable open source 90nm FDSOI manufacturing

This will then give IC design houses a route to volume production. 

Skywater has been given $15 million for the project by the US Department of Defense (DoD).

Google is to provide the  expertise and computer power as it did in 2020 when it enabled  open source design on Skywater’s 130nm process.

SkyWater’s  SKY90-FD open source offering is based FDSOI technology developed at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory.

The DoD said it is already using many open source software projects, and this approach is thus playing a growing role in mission-critical systems and defense applications.

 An advantage of open source is transparency, according to the DoD, which enables identification of design flaws and malicious code, something that is not always possible with proprietary software..

“Investments in commercial endeavours such as the partnership between SkyWater and Google is another example of how the Department of Defense can leverage technology advancements within the open source community to effectively and efficiently improve our defensive posture for the future,” says the DoD’s manager on the project, Matthew Kay.