Design Rules & PDK
You can stay up to date with the latest MPW calls through our website, LinkedIn page and mailing list. You can find information about our schedule and costs here. If you’re interested in participating in a live MPW call, simply fill out our sign up form. For a visual understanding of our process flows, we have animations available on our YouTube channel.
Live MPW Calls
Ge-on-Si MPW #6
CORNERSTONE users are invited to submit designs to Ge-on-Si MPW #6. The sign-up deadline is Friday 13th August 2025. The soft mask submission deadline is Wednesday 9th September 2025 and the hard mask submission deadline is Wednesday 22th September 2025. Please be aware that all deadlines end at 13:00 PM GMT.
For more information, full design rules and quick reference design rules, please download the Ge-on-Si MPW #6 Design Rules documents and the .GDSII template files. To help you comply with the design rules, we offer a downloadable design rule check (DRC) checklist.
CORNERSTONE Ge-on-Si MPW 6 – Design Rules
CORNERSTONE Ge-on-Si MPW 6 – Standard Components
| Design Area [mm2] | 15.45 x 11.47 | Delivery Time |
| Access Cost (Standard)* | £11,000 | 10 weeks |
| Access cost for Enterprises and Academia based in UK† | 50% off | As above |
*Quoted prices are exclusive of VAT, import duties/customs fees, withholding taxes etc.
†Are you a UK company? UK companies and universities may be eligible for a 50% discount on the cost of this MPW run with support from the CORNERSTONE Photonics Innovation Centre (C-PIC) (EP/Z531066/1), funded by UK Research and Innovation. Support will be provided under the Subsidy Control Act (2022) via Minimal Financial Assistance. To be eligible you will need to demonstrate the potential impact of receiving assistance against one or more of the following categories: impact on jobs and skills, access to new technology, accelerating product development. Following submission of your sign-up form, you will receive correspondence with more details of how this support will be provided. For UK companies, the support is only available for first time MPW users with a UK design/development/manufacturing presence and only for prototyping and product development.
To receive Design Rule Check (DRC) feedback from the CORNERSTONE team, users must submit their designs no later than the soft deadline. A two-week DRC window for resubmissions will then be available to those who submit their designs before the soft deadline. Submissions received after the soft deadline will not be checked against design rules; therefore, any fabrication failures related to design rule violations will be at the users’ own risk. Submissions received after the hard deadline will not be accepted under any circumstances.
For information about setting up CORNERSTONE as a supplier to your institution, please contact cornerstone@soton.ac.uk.
SiN MPW #11
CORNERSTONE users are invited to submit designs to SiN MPW #11. The sign-up deadline is Friday 13th August 2025. The soft mask submission deadline is Wednesday 9th September 2025 and the hard mask submission deadline is Wednesday 22th September 2025. Please be aware that all deadlines end at 13:00 PM GMT.
For more information, full design rules and quick reference design rules, please download the Sin MPW #11 Design Rules documents and the .GDSII template files. To help you comply with the design rules, we offer a downloadable design rule check (DRC) checklist.
CORNERSTONE Silicon Nitride MPW #11 – Design Rules
CORNERSTONE Silicon Nitride MPW #11 – GDS Template
CORNERSTONE Silicon Nitride MPW #11- Standard Components
| Design Area [mm2] | 11.47 x 4.9 | Delivery Time |
| Access Cost with Heaters* | £14,250 | 12 weeks |
| Access Cost without Heaters* | £7,750 | 12 weeks |
| Access cost for enterprises based in UK† | 50% off | 12 weeks |
*Quoted prices are exclusive of VAT, import duties/customs fees, withholding taxes etc.
†Are you a UK company? UK companies and universities may be eligible for a 50% discount on the cost of this MPW run with support from the CORNERSTONE Photonics Innovation Centre (C-PIC) (EP/Z531066/1), funded by UK Research and Innovation. Support will be provided under the Subsidy Control Act (2022) via Minimal Financial Assistance. To be eligible you will need to demonstrate the potential impact of receiving assistance against one or more of the following categories: impact on jobs and skills, access to new technology, accelerating product development. Following submission of your sign-up form, you will receive correspondence with more details of how this support will be provided. For UK companies, the support is only available for first time MPW users with a UK design/development/manufacturing presence and only for prototyping and product development.
To receive Design Rule Check (DRC) feedback from the CORNERSTONE team, users must submit their designs no later than the soft deadline. A two-week DRC window for resubmissions will then be available to those who submit their designs before the soft deadline. Submissions received after the soft deadline will not be checked against design rules; therefore, any fabrication failures related to design rule violations will be at the users’ own risk. Submissions received after the hard deadline will not be accepted under any circumstances.
For information about setting up CORNERSTONE as a supplier to your institution, please contact cornerstone@soton.ac.uk.
Visible MPW #1
CORNERSTONE users are invited to submit designs to Visible MPW #1. The sign-up deadline is Friday 13th August 2025. The soft mask submission deadline is Wednesday 9th September 2025 and the hard mask submission deadline is Wednesday 22th September 2025. Please be aware that all deadlines end at 13:00 PM GMT.
For more information, full design rules and quick reference design rules, please download the Sin MPW #11 Design Rules documents and the .GDSII template files. To help you comply with the design rules, we offer a downloadable design rule check (DRC) checklist.
CORNERSTONE Silicon Nitride Visible MPW #1 – Design Guidelines
CORNERSTONE Silicon Nitride Visible MPW #1 – GDS Template
CORNERSTONE Silicon Nitride Visible MPW #1- Standard Components
| Design Area [mm2] | 11.47 x 4.9 | Delivery Time |
| Access Cost with Heaters* | £14,250 | 12 weeks |
| Access Cost without Heaters* | £7,750 | 12 weeks |
| Access cost for enterprises based in UK† | 50% off | 12 weeks |
*Quoted prices are exclusive of VAT, import duties/customs fees, withholding taxes etc.
†Are you a UK company? UK companies and universities may be eligible for a 50% discount on the cost of this MPW run with support from the CORNERSTONE Photonics Innovation Centre (C-PIC) (EP/Z531066/1), funded by UK Research and Innovation. Support will be provided under the Subsidy Control Act (2022) via Minimal Financial Assistance. To be eligible you will need to demonstrate the potential impact of receiving assistance against one or more of the following categories: impact on jobs and skills, access to new technology, accelerating product development. Following submission of your sign-up form, you will receive correspondence with more details of how this support will be provided. For UK companies, the support is only available for first time MPW users with a UK design/development/manufacturing presence and only for prototyping and product development.
To receive Design Rule Check (DRC) feedback from the CORNERSTONE team, users must submit their designs no later than the soft deadline. A two-week DRC window for resubmissions will then be available to those who submit their designs before the soft deadline. Submissions received after the soft deadline will not be checked against design rules; therefore, any fabrication failures related to design rule violations will be at the users’ own risk. Submissions received after the hard deadline will not be accepted under any circumstances.
For information about setting up CORNERSTONE as a supplier to your institution, please contact cornerstone@soton.ac.uk.
Get Discount
We encourage users to include the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded CORNERSTONE (EP/L021129/1) or CORNERSTONE 2 (EP/T019697/1) in the “Funding” section of relevant journal publications. This is crucial for us to demonstrate the impact of the funding.
If you share the digital object identifier (DOI) of your published journal paper that references one of the CORNERSTONE projects, you will receive a 5% discount on the access charges listed in Table 1 for your first paper. For two or more journal papers, you will receive a 10% discount.
Previous Design Rules
MPW #42 500 nm SOI
The sign-up deadline was Friday 4th April 2025.
CORNERSTONE 42nd Call – Design Guidelines
CORNERSTONE MPW Run 42 GDSII Template
CORNERSTONE 42nd Call – Standard Components
SiN MPW #10
The sign-up deadline was Friday 28th February 2025.
CORNERSTONE Silicon Nitride MPW #10 – Design Rules
CORNERSTONE Silicon Nitride MPW #10 – GDS Template
CORNERSTONE Silicon Nitride MPW #10- Standard Components
CORNERSTONE SiN Refractive Index Data
MPW #45 220 nm on SOI
The sign-up deadline was Friday 30th May 2025.
CORNERSTONE 45th Call – Design Rules
CORNERSTONE 45th Call – Standard Components
CORNERSTONE MPW Run 45 GDSII Template
Ge-on-Si MPW #5
The sign-up deadline was Friday 4th October 2024.
CORNERSTONE Ge-on-Si MPW 5 – Design Rules
CORNERSTONE 5 MPW GDSII Template
Suspended-Si MPW #7
The sign-up deadline was Friday 4th February 2025.
CORNERSTONE Suspended-Si MPW 7- Design Guidelines
CORNERSTONE Suspended Si MPW #7 – GDS Template
CORNERSTONE STANDARD COMPONENTS LIBRARY Suspended Silicon
MPW #44 340 nm on SOI
The sign-up deadline was Friday 30th May 2025.
CORNERSTONE 44th Call – Design Rules
CORNERSTONE 44th Call – Standard Components
CORNERSTONE MPW Run 44 GDSII Template
CORNERSTONE Si SiO2 Refractive Index Data
MPW #38 SOI 220nm Active
The sign-up deadline was Friday 29th March 2024.
CORNERSTONE 38th Call – Design Rules
CORNERSTONE 38th Call – Standard Components
CORNERSTONE MPW Run 38 GDSII Template
Process Design Kit (PDK)
The CORNERSTONE Process Design Kit (PDK) is accessible through Luceda’s IPKISS software, which requires the appropriate license for usage. To acquire the software and obtain a license key, please reach out to Luceda via their website. When contacting them, make sure to specify that you require a license for CORNERSTONE PDK usage.
It’s important to note that if you already possess a valid IPKISS license, the CORNERSTONE PDK is available to you free of charge.
Open source standard components
The CORNERSTONE platform has a number of open source standard components available for use for each of its platforms.
The documents below detail the standard device dimensions for each platform, as well as measured performance data:
Get in touch
If you would like to discuss any of our services, then please do not hesitate to contact us.