Many MPC/MPW arrangements were first nationwide activities, but were expanded international, global co-operative activities based on emerging and later mature semiconductor foundry technologies available from research institutes or universities and commercial foundries:
CMC Microsystems CMC Microsystems is a not-for-profit organization in Canada accelerating research and innovation in advanced technologies. Founded in 1984, CMC lowers barriers to designing, manufacturing, and testing prototypes in microelectronics, photonics, quantum, MEMS, and packaging. CMC technology platforms such as the ESP (Electronic Sensor Platform) jumpstart R&D projects, enabling engineers and scientists to achieve results sooner and at a lower cost. Annually, more than 700 research teams from companies and 100 academic institutions around the world access CMC's services and turn more than 400 designs into prototypes through its global network of manufacturers. This support enables 400 industrial collaborations and 1,000 trained HQP to join industry each year, and these relationships assist in the translation of academic research into outcomes—publications, patents, and commercialization.
Muse Semiconductor Muse Semiconductor was founded in 2018 by former
eSilicon employees. The company name "Muse" is an informal acronym for MPW University SErvice. Muse supports all
TSMC technologies and offers an MPW service with a minimum area of 1mm^2 for some technologies. Muse is a member of the TSMC University FinFET Program.
MOSIS The first well known MPC service was
MOSIS (Metal Oxide Silicon Implementation Service), established by
DARPA as a technical and human infrastructure for
VLSI. MOSIS began in 1981 after
Lynn Conway organized the first VLSI System Design Course at
MIT in 1978 and the course produced 'multi-university, multi-project chip-design demonstration' delivering devices to the course participants in 1979. The designs for the MPC were gathered using
ARPANET. The technical background additionally to education was to develop and research in a cost effective way new computer architectures without limitations of standard components. MOSIS primarily services commercial users with MPW arrangement. MOSIS has ended their University Support Program. With MOSIS, designs are submitted for fabrication using either open (i.e., non-proprietary) VLSI
layout design rules or vendor proprietary rules. Designs are pooled into common lots and run through the fabrication process at foundries. The completed chips (packaged or bare dies) are returned to customers.
NORCHIP The first international silicon IC MPC service NORCHIP was established among four nordic countries (
Denmark,
Finland,
Norway and
Sweden) 1981 delivering first chips 1982. It was funded by Nordic Industrial Fund and
R&D financing organisations from each participating country. Targets were training and to enhance cooperation between research and industry specifically in areas of analog and
digital signal processing and
power management Integration. Parallel with NORCHIP organised by same nordic countries there was Nordic GaAs program NOGAP 1986-1989, which produced modelling techniques for GaAs IC devices, and demonstrators of high speed digital and RF/analog
MMICs. From 1989 to 1995 nordic universities, research institutes and small companies have been participating in european EUROCHIP and from 1995 on wards in EUROPRACTICE.
CMP CMP a French company working since 1981 started MPC operation with NMOS offering but expanding offering to CMOS and various other technologies. CMP was also the first official pan-continental MPC/MPW operation having link to MOSIS among other MPW arrangements globally. CMPs services have included variety of technologies including
multi-chip modules (MCMs) suitable for the packaging of
chiplets.
AusMPC Similar arrangements utilising silicon IC technology were also AusMPC in Australia starting 1981, E.I.S. project (started year 1983) in Germany and EUROEAST (1994-1997) covering Romania, Poland, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia. BERCHIP MPC activity starting in 1994 was organised in Latin America. Numerous MPW services have been launched since 1994 worldwide.
Tiny Tapeout Tiny Tapeout is a multi project chip service that lowers the barrier to entry to chip design by using open source tools and PDKs. To reduce the cost of tapeout, up to 512 analog and digital designs are connected via a power-gated
multiplexer. As of 2026 supported PDKs are
Skywater's SKY130,
IHP's SG13G2 and
Global Foundries' GF180mcu. Tiny Tapeout schedules multiple tapeout opportunities per year. ==References==