Want to Make Your Own Computer Chips? Now You Can!

Even the simplest integrated circuit (IC) chips are insanely difficult to fabricate. Complex chips, like modern CPUs, require many, many billions of dollars in equipment and facility infrastructure to manufacture. As such, hobbyists and small businesses have almost no hope of making their own chips. But wafer.space is skirting that issue by giving you the ability to get in on a custom chip order.

Here’s the deal: you back the wafer.space GF180MCU Run 1 crowdfunding run on Crowd Supply and design your own custom chip. You then give the organizers your design by the deadline and they’ll include it in their upcoming die production run. The wafers will then be manufactured by GlobalFoundries at their facility in Singapore. Afterwards, the wafers will be sliced up and dies will be delivered to backers.

While wafer.space is making this as easy as possible, it isn’t for the faint of heart. You will need to know how to design your chip using the GF180MCU open-source PDK and there won’t be any assistance or support available. It will also require a real investment of between $2,000 and $8,500, depending on exactly what deliverables you want.

But this is a rare opportunity to actually get chip dies made without special connections or really serious investment.

These wafers will be made with the GlobalFoundries 180nm process. Not exactly cutting edge, but more than good enough for the vast majority of designs. The design envelope is 3.88mm × 5.07mm (19.67mm²) and can have five metal layers. Additional constraint information and details are available on the Crowd Supply campaign page.