SSCS PICO Open-Source Chipathon 2026 Announced

The IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society has announced the 2026 SSCS "PICO" Open-Source Chipathon, the latest edition of its global "Build It. Test It. Publish It." program for open-source integrated circuit design. Sign-ups and program kickoff are on May 1, 2026, with tapeout submissions due September 2026, silicon return roughly four months later, and conference presentations slated for July 2027.

Teams worldwide — from pre-college students through industry professionals — will design open-source ICs targeting the GF180MCUD PDK across four tracks:

• Track A — Foundational building blocks
• Track B — Sensor circuits
• Track C — MOSbius learning chips
• Track D — AI / LLM-assisted Circuits

Prof. Mehdi Saligane leads Track D (AI/LLM-assisted Circuits) and serves on the program's Tooling and Reference Flow Committee, and is the primary contact for questions about the chipathon.

The program is sponsored by the IEEE SSCS with support from the OpenROAD Initiative.