Evolution of the MOSIS VLSI educational program

Discusses the evolution of the MOSIS Service and its Educational Program (MEP) from its beginnings to the present. MOSIS was started in 1981 by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Program Agency (DARPA) to provide their research community with access to advanced IC fabrication technologies at a reasonable cost. The cost savings resulted from the use of the multiproject wafer (MPW) concept, enabling users to share the costs of fabrication. In 1985, the prototyping service was extended to U.S. universities. At that time access to MOSIS fabrication was provided to accredited U.S. universities that offered classes in IC design. During the past decade, more than 12,000 student IC designs were fabricated and 53,000 students have participated in the U.S. program.