Wladek Grabinski of SPICE R&D at GMC and Workshop Manager at MOS-AK (EU)

The semiconductor industry has been evolving and innovating for the past 75 years, ever since the first semiconductor transistor was invented. This rapid growth is driven by the direct and proactive contribution of the FOSS CAD/EDA to the entire technology flow: from state-of-the-art semiconductor technologies, device level compact/SPICE modeling, its Verilog-A standardization to advanced IC designs for various HiTech applications. However, the semiconductor industry also faces many challenges in maintaining the growth of its workforce with skilled technicians and engineers. To address the increasing need for well-trained workers worldwide, we need to find innovative ways to attract skilled talent and strengthen the local semiconductor workforce ecosystem. The FOSS CAD/EDA tools with the recently available OpenPDKs provide a new platform to connect IC design beginners, enthusiasts and experienced mentors to benefit from the collaboration opportunities enabled by the fast-growing open-source IC design movement. FOSS IC design collaboration is increasingly possible due to the rapid growth of OpenPDKs recently offered by SkyWater, GF and IHP. This talk reviews the FOSS CAD/EDA contribution to the SPICE/Verilog-A modeling/standardization, compete IC design flow (Xschem, Qucs-S, ngspice, Xyce, OpenVAF, OpenEMS, Magic, kLayout, OpenRoad) as well as selected open source analog/RF and digital IC design examples.

Biography:

Wladek Grabinski, PhD, is a semiconductor modeling expert with over 30 years of experience in CMOS, BiCMOS, and RF technologies. He earned his doctorate from the Institute of Electron Technology, Warsaw, in 1991, and served at ETH Zürich and EPF Lausanne supporting process characterization and compact MOSFET model development. Formerly with Motorola/FSL in Geneva, he now consults on advanced SPICE modeling, Verilog-A standardization, and low-power analog/RF IC applications within the OpenPDK Initiative. Wladek authored the "Compact/SPICE Modeling" chapter in the Springer Handbook of Semiconductor Devices and has published over 70 papers. He has established the ESSDERC Track3 on SPICE modeling, was also involved in TPCs of IEEE EDTM, ITRS, SBMicro, LADEC, SISPAD, MIXDES; has mentored EPFL IEEE Student Branch. Since 1999, Wladek is managing MOS-AK Association workshop series to promote open-source modeling tools and FOSS IC design.