A World’s First Silicon Chip Design Breakthrough in Limerick Could Herald High-Pay Jobs in a New Irish Industry

The world’s first fabrication and design of a silicon chip without direct human input has been completed by researchers at Lero, the University of Limerick-based Research Centre for Software, heralding the possibility of creating a new high-tech export-based industry in Ireland.

Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Limerick Conor Ryan led the research team which has just filed a patent for the totally Irish-designed process that came from a project entitled “Automatic Design of Digital Circuits’ (ADDC) funded by Research Ireland.

“This is the first time ever anywhere in the world that machine learning has been used to design and fabricate a silicon chip entirely from scratch. This could pave the way for a new era of automated digital circuit design with Ireland at its centre, creating a new export industry with many well-paying jobs.

“The patent secures the proprietary methods and novel approach to automating silicon chip design’s traditionally manual, complex, and error-prone process. The techniques created by Lero replace traditional methods with an entirely automated flow, reducing the need for human intervention and minimising the risks of design errors,” said Prof Ryan, a lead researcher at Lero.

The Limerick-based team plans to work with selected global chip design and fabrication companies following the successful manufacture of a Lero-designed chip by world-leading chip foundry TSMC, paving the way for a new era of automated digital circuit design.

Prof Ryan said their patent covers the use of a grammar-based optimisation engine that ensures all generated designs are manufacturable and ready for production and opens the door to smarter, faster, and more sustainable hardware design, with potential applications in consumer electronics, healthcare, automotive, and more.

“The system combines cutting-edge machine learning with industry-standard tools and workflows, ensuring the results are compatible with modern manufacturing processes.

“It radically reduces the time and financial resources required to produce integrated circuits, democratising access to advanced hardware innovation. Our process also eliminates an entire step in the traditional verification process,” he added.

Prof. Ryan acknowledged that the project was made possible through partnerships with leading experts and organisations, utilising TSMC’s world-class fabrication facilities.

The process is protected under European Patent Application No. 24213734.7, which is held by the University of Limerick and the Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest, and covers Digital Circuit Creation Tool and Method.