PDKs

A Process Design Kit (PDK) connects your design to a specific fabrication process. It provides the components, layers, design rules, and simulation models needed to create manufacturable chips.

GDSFactory+ supports more than 50 photonic, electronic, RF, and mixed-signal processes.

• Choose a supported PDK
• Start from a sample project
• Configure a project manually
• Manage installed PDKs

Choose a PDK

Start with the foundry process and material platform required by your design. Then check which GDSFactory+ capabilities are available:

• Layout — fixed cells and parametric cells (PCells)
• DRC — design-rule checking for the fabrication process
• Models — circuit models for photonic or electrical simulation

In the tables below, ✅ means the capability is available and ➖ means it is not currently listed as supported.

If you need help identifying the appropriate foundry contact, reach out to the GDSFactory team.

Start from a sample project

For a new design, start from the GDSFactory+ sample project supplied for your PDK. It includes a preconfigured pyproject.toml with the required dependencies, PDK integration, DRC process, and simulation settings.

This is the recommended path because it avoids duplicating process-specific configuration and lets you begin designing immediately. See PDK management for installation and project setup.

Supported PDKs

Photonics PDKs

Electronic / RF / Mixed-Signal PDKs

Configure a project manually

Add the following configuration to your project's pyproject.toml:

[tool.gdsfactoryplus.pdk]
name = "..." # Set the PDK used in this project.

[tool.gdsfactoryplus.drc]
process = "ph18ma" # Set the DRC process used in this project. If not set, defaults to the PDK process.
timeout = 3000 # DRC timeout in seconds.

[tool.gdsfactoryplus.sim.wls]
max = 1.6
min = 1.5
num = 1000

For RF simulations, you can add the following configuration:

[tool.gdsfactoryplus.sim.x]
name = "f"
min = 1 # 1GHz
max = 20 # 20GHz
num = 3000