wafer.space Delivers 1,000 Chips of Your Own Design — Starting at Just $7 Each

Tim Ansell and Leo Moser are preparing to launch the first production run for wafer.space, a small-scale semiconductor fabrication service that will deliver you 1,000 units of your own chip design for a fraction of the cost of a traditional approach — by taking advantage of multi-project wafer (MPW) layouts.

"Thanks to open PDKs [Process Design Kits, which convert designs into the format required by a foundry], advancing open‑source EDA [Electronic Design Automation tools, used to create said designs], and programs like Tiny Tapeout, it's never been easier to design a chip," Ansell and Moser explains of their startup. "With wafer.space, you can easily turn a design into real, working chips. We provide pooled fabrication with clear specs, an automated submission system, and a shipment of real silicon you can hold, probe, and ship to other people."

Traditionally, designing and fabrication a chip costs millions of dollars — and usually involves signing non-disclosure agreements in order to access the process design kit required to turn your creation into something manufacturable. The growth of open PDKs, which provide access to older process nodes under permissive licensing, has begun to flip that on its head — as demonstrated by Tiny Tapeout, Matt Venn's project to expand chip design and manufacturing to as broad an audience as possible.

Tiny Tapeout, though, delivers only a single chip to each participant, albeit one which includes every project submitted during that particular production run — and all submitted designs must be released under an open hardware license. Ansell and Moser's wafer.space aims bigger: those submitting designs, open or closed, for inclusion will receive either 1,000 raw silicon dies featuring their chip design or 1,000 wire-bonded chip-on-board (COB) package — enough for a small production run of devices.

"Remember PCBs before OSH Park? Orders were painful: opaque quotes, setup fees, big MOQs, long waits, and DIY panelization," Ansell and Moser claim. "Then pooling services like OSH Park fixed it with predictable pricing, frequent runs, and no‑nonsense logistics. wafer.space brings that shift to silicon."

All the chips are built using GlobalFoundries' GF180MCU mixed-signal process, and offer around 20mm² of die space. Those purchasing a slot on the production run also have the option to pick up an undiced 200mm wafer featuring their design — realistically speaking a decorative item once it's left the clean-room environment of GlobalFoundries fabrication facility, even for those who fancy attempting to dice it up themselves, though Ansell and Moser point out it could also be used to experiment with on-wafer probing of the parts.

Ansell and Moser are preparing to launch a Crowd Supply campaign to fill the first manufacturing slot, with bookings to be made by 28 November ahead of a design submission deadline of 3 December. Pricing will be set at $7,000 for 1,000 bare-die chips or $8,500 for wire-bonded chip-on-board packages, the pair has confirmed — with a commemorative undiced wafer priced at $2,000 on top.

More information is available on the wafer.space website, while interested parties can sign up on Crowd Supply to be notified when the campaign opens.