Tiny Tapeout Customer FAQs

The Efabless shutdown is a great loss to the open source silicon community, but our mission remains the same: we are committed to make it easier and cheaper to get your chips manufactured!

We will continue to update this public FAQ as we know more. Feel free to add comments or questions.

Last updated: Sep 1, 2025

Timeline

  • 2025 Q1 - Efabless has unexpectedly shut down. We published this FAQ document.
  • 2025 Q2 -
  • We reached out to all affected customers, and updated them about their options (see below).
  • TTIHP25a: Most TT08/TT09/TT10 designs are being manufactured on an IHP SG13G2 shuttle, but the chips can only be shipped to the EU and Switzerland, and are on loan (see below). Verilog submissions only.
  • TTCAD25a: We’ve submitted all TT08/09/10 designs to Cadence’s SKY130 shuttle in June. Repo: https://github.com/TinyTapeout/tinytapeout-cad-25a. Cadence submission repo: https://github.com/TinyTapeout/tapeout-cadence-june-2025. Silicon is expected in late September, but we’ll only get 40 bare dies per MPW slot, meaning that we won’t be able to ship everyone who submitted to those shuttles (but we’ll at least be able to test the designs for you). We’ll update once we have completed the submission.
  • 2025 Q3
  • TTIHP25b: IHP SG13G2 shuttle with ~300 tiles available for public projects. Closed September 1st. Digital and custom GDS support, and prices similar to the old subsidized Efabless shuttles (50€/tile, 100€/dev kit, 25€ shipping).
    The chips can only be shipped to the EU and Switzerland.
  • TTSKY25a: We plan to tapeout via ChipFoundry.io on SKY130 on their September shuttle. The shuttle is open for submission until September 15th, and the costs are 70€/tile, 300€/dev kit, 100€/analog pin (for analog designs), and 15€ for worldwide shipping. This shuttle uses the SKY130A PDK and supports digital, mixed signal and analog projects. We expect to receive silicon in Feb 2026, and ship the DevKit around April 2026.
  • TTGF0p1: We are planning to run an early experimental shuttle with GlobalFoundries on their GF180MCU process.
  • 2025 Q4
  • TTSKY25b: Based on the demand, we are hoping to offer a second SKY130 shuttle with ChipFoundry in November (and get the chips back in April 2026).
  • TTGF0p2: We are planning to run a second experimental shuttle with GlobalFoundries on their GF180MCU process. We may be able to accept digital only submissions to this shuttle.

For 2026, we are planning to have quarterly shuttles, with either IHP, GF, SkyWater, or a future foundry, and to offer a service level comparable with what we had before Efabless shutdown.

Past shuttles

  • Is TT10 going to run?
  • TT10 is not going to be manufactured.
  • Does this affect my design on TT08 or TT09?
  • Yes, unfortunately these chips are stuck with the foundry and packaging house. All previous assets of Efabless are now owned by an ABC. We will do our best to get these chips but we can’t make any guarantees. We will update here if we see an opportunity to get any of the chips.
  • What happens with all the designs submitted to TT08 / TT09 / TT10?
  • There are now several options to re-manufacture them - see below section As a customer, what are my options?
  • We have submitted most of the digital designs from TT08 / TT09 / TT10 to be manufactured with IHP in April. You are invited to take a look at the TTIHP25a repo, and check out the status of your project in the TTIHP25a project list.
  • We’re offering all affected customers coupons, and they will be able to resubmit their designs to the TTSKY25a shuttle with a deadline in September.
  • Customers who prepaid for TT08/TT09/TT10 devkits will be able to get either the TTIHP25a devkit (on loan and can only be shipped within the EU / Switzerland) or TTSKY25a devkit (can be shipped worldwide) without having to pay anything extra.

Manufacturing options

  • What other options are there for manufacturing?
  • We currently already have a partnership with Swiss Chips and the IHP open source shuttle. The main limitations of this shuttle are: you cannot buy chips, only loan them for up to two years. The chips can only be shipped to the EU or Switzerland. We plan to run a Tiny Tapeout shuttle on IHP with these limitations later this year.
    We are also exploring the possibility of future IHP Tiny Tapeout shuttles with relaxed shipping restrictions (in 2026).
  • Jeff DiCorpo has restarted the SKY130 MPW shuttle service under a new company, chipfoundry.io. There are shuttles planned for September and November this year, and we plan to open a shuttle for the September run.
  • Tim 'mithro' Ansell has started wafer.space to provide access to GF180mcu process technology. We’re talking about running a Tiny Tapeout shuttle later this year, possibly in Q4.
  • Cadence is launching a SKY130 MPW service, similar to the original Efabless offering. The only caveat is that we can only get 40 dies per MPW slot, and we don’t get packaging. We’ve resubmitted TT06, TT09, and also submitted a TTCAD25a chip, which contains most of the TT08-TT10 projects.
  • We are talking with CMC (CMC microsystems, Canada) about manufacturing on the open source PDK GF180MCU.
  • We’re also exploring the possibility of open sourcing additional PDKs, as a longer-term solution.
  • We’ve signed the Open Letter on the Urgency of Access to Open Source Chip Manufacturing, and hope this will help opening up more manufacturing options in the longer term.

Why are the first chips from IHP only available for loan in the EU?

  • These chips are made on a free open source shuttle run paid for by BMBF, and ultimately the German taxpayer. Part of the agreement the foundry made to get the funding was that the chips cannot be sold, and can only be sent within the EU and Switzerland.
  • The maximum loan time is 2 years.
    We will offer remote access for people who want to test their designs outside of the EU.
  • For more details on the loan agreement, please read this: https://tinytapeout.com/ihp-loan-terms 

As a customer, what are my options?

For customers on TT08/TT09/TT10 who ordered a digital design, without any DevKits, we have ported your design onto the IHP April Shuttle (TTIHP25a).

We’ve also included all the designs from TT09 and TT10 and most of the designs from TT08 on the experimental cadence SKY130 shuttle in June (TT08 + TT10 were combined into a new shuttle called TTCAD25a).

For customers who also ordered DevKits, there are two options:

  1. Get your design on the April IHP shuttle and get a DevKit shipped to the EU / Switzerland or test your project remotely through a remote lab we’ll set up. This is the fastest path to get your design to silicon.
  2. Get an equivalent amount of tiles / DevKits / analog pins on any public shuttle during 2025/2026 (e.g. TTSKY25a, which is currency open for submissions). This is a great way to take advantage of the old pricing, and recommended for customers outside of the EU / Switzerland.

In any case, If there's a viable opportunity to obtain the TT08/TT09 chips from SkyWater and speed up silicon delivery, we'll seize it. However, the chances of that happening don't look promising at the moment.

Efabless

  • Why is the loss of Efabless such a big deal?
  • They made it easy and cheap to submit to Skywater’s open source PDK. To get the same price as before we would need around 50 times as much volume as we have now.
  • What happened to Efabless?
  • We don’t have any further information than already published. Their funding round was expected to complete, but fell through unexpectedly.

How to help

  • How can I help?
  • Be patient with us while we work out our options
  • If you have connections with foundries please let us know.
  • If you have a route for funding tapeouts please let us know.