Cadence and SkyWater: Fostering the Next Generation of Innovators

At Cadence, we are passionate about fostering the next generation of innovators. Our commitment to education and innovation is unwavering, and we believe in removing barriers to commercial-grade tools and resources necessary for students and academia to thrive.

In February 2025, the then-current SKY130 multi-project wafer (MPW) aggregator went out of business, leaving many universities and academic organizations without a viable alternative for taping out the designs they had started with the SKY130 open-source process. This sudden change threatened to impact both the spring design class and the associated fall bring-up classes, interrupting the educational process of ideation to fabrication.

Recognizing the challenges of the situation, Cadence stepped up to fill the void, in collaboration with SkyWater, to ensure that no academic institutions were left without a path to tapeout. By offering these services, Cadence helped to ensure that the next generation of engineers and designers can continue to gain hands-on experience on the skills they’ll need to launch their careers and bring their ideas to life.

This is critically important for the global system design world, with additional benefits in the United States. Both Cadence and SkyWater are DMEA-approved suppliers, and so the skills that are learned in this environment can easily translate to help Department of Defense suppliers meet their workforce development needs. Together with SkyWater, Cadence is paving the way for a brighter future, where students have the commercial resources they need to implement their ideas today and for years to come.

Cadence has partnered with chipfoundry.io for a route to chip prototypes and small production quantities. This MPW offering is available to university programs and startups, providing an avenue to use the NDA-free SKY130 PDK and commercial-grade tools to bring ideas to silicon. For more information, visit chipfoundry.io or reach out to info@chipfoundry.io.

Start designing today with SKY130, accessible on support.cadence.com, on the Process Design Kits (PDK) Downloads page, regularly maintained and updated by the Cadence team. For academic access to the Cadence Application Support and Knowledge Portal, sign up for an "Academic or Content Only Access" account and commercial accounts can use their standard ASK login details.

Stay connected for updates – follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe to our news updates!