Zero to ASIC Course

Matt Venn

Interviews and news from the world of Open Source Silicon, ASICs and Semiconductors.

  1. 19 JAN

    Surviving Space: Radiation, Bit Flips, and Naked Silicon. An interview with Matthew Gill

    A deep dive into radiation, bit flips, orbital hot spots, and what it really takes for silicon to survive in low Earth orbit. Follow Matthew Gill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/42-matthew-gill/ 00:00 Intro  01:30 Matthew is a nuclear engineer  02:26 How do you test without going to orbit?  07:01 How does a bit flip happen?  09:00 What does a hardened PDK and tooling look like?  11:31 ESD testing  14:15 RP2040 on HUNITY  19:39 What is LEO like?  23:35 Building a sensor to measure these effects  25:22 Open source silicon intersecting with space  30:26 What kind of shielding could we add?  33:54 Van Allen belts  39:18 Error detection  41:28 Wafer variability  44:05 Managing thermals  49:44 Thanks

  2. 04/11/2025

    Get started with Analog - Interview with Nanik Adnani.

    take my analog course: https://www.zerotoasiccourse.com/analog/ Nanik's distortion ASIC: https://www.tinytapeout.com/chips/tt0... Kelly Heaton's analog birds: https://www.kellyheatonstudio.com/dee... -- 00:00 Intro  00:55 Nanik Adnani  01:52 Why analog  03:46 Horizontal vs Vertical IP block s 09:20 Advice for getting into industry  11:20 Analog Birds by Kelly Heaton  15:30 Guitar Distortion Pedal on Tiny Tapeout  17:50 The schematic isn't the hard part  20:51 130nm isn't as far from 7nm as you think  23:07 Do a Tiny Tapeout!

    25 min

  3. 04/11/2025

    Testing your ASIC in Space! An interview with Tibor Herman and Pat Deegan

    Tibor's slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/... Tiny Tapeout 6: https://tinytapeout.com/runs/tt06/ Test code repository: https://github.com/psychogenic/spasic... Chat on the discord: https://tinytapeout.com/discord Sign up for the newsletter: https://tinytapeout.com/#sign-up 00:00 Intro  00:21 Tibor Bio  02:31 HUNITY  05:41 Previous missions  10:34 What orbit will it fly in?  17:09 Solar Panel Deployment  19:21 Mission Goals  24:07 Inside HUNITY  34:42 Tiny Tapeout integration  41:58 How to get involved  43:17 Communications  44:34 Sponsors  46:19 Vibration tests  48:30 Picking up the signals

    51 min

  4. 04/11/2025

    MOSbius - A field programmable transistor array for chip designers - interview with Peter Kinget

    Zero to ASIC course - https://www.zerotoasiccourse.com/ MOSbius - https://mosbius.org/ SSCS Chipathon - https://sscs.ieee.org/technical-commi... 00:00 Intro  00:42 Peter Kinget  09:59 Blinky Demo  22:27 MOSBius Mission  25:37 Questions - Design  33:02 Questions - Safety  41:37 Questions - Future plans  50:03 Delta Sigma Demo  57:59 Outro

    59 min

  5. 04/11/2025

    180 GHz chip design with open source tools - an interview with Shafin Hossain.

    Design repo: https://github.com/shafinhossain/TO_M... OpenEMS script: https://github.com/VolkerMuehlhaus/op... 00:00 Intro  00:41 Shafin intro  02:33 Ironman Inspiration  04:11 G band power amplifier on IHP 130 BiCMOS  15:37 Design Questions  25:47 Simulation Questions  29:00 Testing  31:48 General Questions  34:13 Tools Questions  37:36 How to contact Shafin  38:46 Plans for the future  40:38 Outro

    42 min

  6. 13/05/2024

    Rest in peace Z80, long live the open source Z80!

    00:00 intro 00:56 z80 04:54 Submitted to TT07 06:52 NMOS 08:22 dynamic memory 10:28 z80 was everything in one chip 12:00 hand layout 14:10 most widely used CPU in the 80s 17:27 Tiny Tapeout compromise 18:56 voltage compatibility 19:58 Fits in 4 TT tiles 21:09 comparison table 22:47 What is Tiny Tapeout 24:28 next steps 26:29 bond pads 28:09 multicore z80 28:59 pricing 29:30 why not use an FPGA? 30:30 what to use for 1.8v core? 31:02 all the classics? 31:53 important to preserve the old chips 32:50 the plan 35:19 how can you help?

    38 min

  7. 01/03/2024

    Analog Philosophy - interview with Nordic’s principal IC scientist Carsten Wulff

    * Carsten’s background and interest in analog circuit design * Open-source silicon and its benefits vs. challenges * Analog design tools evolution * Obstacles that hinder wider adoption of open-source silicon tools * Advice on approaching an analog design journey

    31 min

  8. 14/02/2024

    Chips in days with Minimal Fab - An interview with Leo Moser

    Talking about the minimal fab with Leo Moser. Leo recently won a competition run by minimal fab and had a design fabricated. He's published a few blog posts about it here: About the Minimal Fab: https://mole99.uber.space/2023/Minimal_Fab/About%20Minimal%20Fab%20and%20the%20ICPS%20PDK.html  NAND tutorial: https://mole99.uber.space/2024/NAND_tutorial/Design%20of%20a%20NAND%20gate%20using%20the%20ICPS%20PDK.html

    24 min
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About

Interviews and news from the world of Open Source Silicon, ASICs and Semiconductors.

Information

  • Creator
    Matt Venn
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    43
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Matt Venn 2025
  • Show Website
    Zero to ASIC Course