MOSIS: an old idea for foundry access suddenly sounds pretty forward-looking

MOSIS, in case you aren’t familiar with the organization, is a source of back-end IC production services, from multi-project wafers (MPWs) to small production runs. But it’s also much more. The company started out in 1981 providing spots on MPWs for organizations doing research, test chips, samples, or limited production. In those days real men still had fabs, so the customers tended to be research programs, universities, or military contractors. But much has changed in nearly 30 years.

MOSIS has spent the time adding foundry relationships, new processes, and support capabilities. Today, the organization can offer processes from a just-announced 45 nm SoI IBM process to 65 and 90 nm CMOS, to specialty processes at up to 700 nm. In addition to consolidating designs to get you a ride on a shuttle, MOSIS offers what they call Taxi Runs—essentially, a single-design shuttle run. Taxis use multi-layer reticles to keep front-end costs down, get consolidated to keep wafer costs down, but give you a run of your own of from three to about ten wafers, as an intermediate step between first silicon and full volume production. And for companies who are ready for production, but won’t be taking huge volumes, MOSIS is offering volumes of up to about 300 wafers/year on IBM processes.

Along with access to wafers or dice, MOSIS similarly aggregates orders for package and test services, so you aren’t stuck with a really nice bunch of dice, but a bunch too small to interest a reasonably-priced package or test house. And in support of these services, the company has evolved an extensive support organization. The services MOSIS offers now include PDKs, tech support, digital libraries, IP, and introductions to potential design partners such as contract design shops. The company even inserts its own test patterns into each MPW run, and maintains its own parametric test capability in-house so it can give you calibrated models for your particular run when the wafers come back.

This makes a very complete package for almost any level of chip-design effort. If you can do a full COT flow in-house, MOSIS can take you through test chips, sampling, and production. If you need IP and design services, MOSIS can help arrange them. And you get an expertise that only a skilled consolidator would have: the ability to sit down with your physical-design team, review the DRC results, and advice the team on the best choices to get yield on an MPW run in an advanced geometry.

Today, according to MOSIS deputy director Wes Hansford, the organization has not just a few university and mil-aero customers, but hundreds of customers spread across the semiconductor spectrum, including established fabless semi companies as well as start-ups. "You could think of us as a manufacturing source that can bridge between shuttle runs and full production," Hansford said. In these days of tight budgets and uncertain demand, that could be a very valuable resource.