Process Design Kits (PDKs)

Silvaco lists 47 process design kits across 10 foundries: ams AG, DB HiTek, GSMC, Pioneer Micro Technology, Tower Semiconductor, TSMC, UMC, Vanguard, X-FAB and YITOA Micro Technology. Tower Semiconductor (15 kits) and X-FAB (13) supply the most, followed by 10 TSMC PDKs. The other seven foundries have one or two kits each.

The listed kits run from TSMC's 40nm CRN40LP to X-FAB's 0.8µm high-voltage CMOS. Mature and specialty processes dominate: 35 of the 47 sit between 150nm and 350nm, 5 between 55nm and 130nm and 6 above 350nm. If you design below 40nm, ask before assuming there's no kit.

If you're licensed, you download it yourself, from the Foundry-Specific PDKs route in the support portal once you've logged in. Registering takes one short form with a company or university address. Without a license, or for a process that isn't listed, the request goes through your local Silvaco office instead.

Demonstration kits are free. Any support portal account can download them, from the route called Free Demo PDKs. Silvaco doesn't publish terms for foundry-specific kits, so for the kit your process needs, your local Silvaco office is the place to ask.

It depends on the kit. Most name Gateway for schematic capture, SmartSpice for circuit simulation, SmartView for waveforms, Expert for layout, Hipex for parasitic extraction and Guardian for DRC and LVS. Three TSMC RF kits add SmartSpice RF. Where a kit lists no tools, it covers Silvaco's custom analog design tools generally.

Possibly, even if it's missing from the list, because the published kits are only part of what Silvaco supports. Give your local Silvaco office the foundry, the process and the node you design for. They'll tell you whether a kit exists and how you'd get it.