The platform
Every layer of the stack in one tool
Hardware teams usually stitch together a different commercial suite for each layer of a product, each with its own licence server and file format. OpenForge keeps one project and one data model from the substrate up, and drives proven open engines underneath.
Cross-section
Read it like a die, bottom up
Materials sit at the bottom and the factory sits at the top. The labels are the OpenForge core modules that implement each layer.
Fab and factory
Capacity planning, discrete-event line simulation, facility layout, ramp and cost of ownership. Wafer-handler and cluster-tool robotics with kinematics and motion planning.
fabroboticsFirmware and system
Toolchains, SVD-generated drivers, Zephyr and FreeRTOS, co-simulation of RTL with firmware in Verilator and Renode, on-target debug.
firmwareMechanical and manufacturing
Parametric CAD on OpenCASCADE, ECAD to MCAD exchange, CAM toolpaths, 3D printing preparation and topology optimisation.
mcadcamtopoptThermal, airflow and EM
Flow networks and conjugate heat transfer with an OpenFOAM driver, fans and heat sinks, full-wave EM through openEMS and Palace.
multiphysicsemBoard, SI/PI and parts
PCB layout with scoped rules, HDI and blind vias, rigid-flex, BGA escape, length tuning and Gerber, ODB++ and IPC-2581 output. Touchstone, eye diagrams, PAM-N, IBIS-AMI and PDN analysis. Live part pricing, stock and lifecycle.
pcbsipianalyzerspartsPackage and 3D-IC
Flip-chip BGA and chiplet packages with ball maps, stackups, thermal, warpage and reliability, plus product marking and traceability.
package3dmarkingDigital implementation and signoff
Synthesis, floorplan, place and route, multi-corner STA, DFT, power and IR, DRC, LVS and parasitic extraction, with flow autotuning.
flowsynthesisstasignoffautotuneAnalog, photonic and FPGA
SPICE with Monte Carlo and Liberty characterisation; photonic layout with a waveguide mode solver; FPGA synthesis, place and route and pin planning for ECP5, iCE40, Gowin and Xilinx 7-series boards.
characterizationphotonicsfpgaDevice and compact models
TCAD device simulation with DEVSIM: Id-Vg, Id-Vd and C-V, then model cards and an exportable PDK for SPICE.
process.deviceProcess and wafer
Crystal growth, epitaxy, implant, diffusion, oxidation, lithography, etch and bonding, with cross-sections and doping profiles at every step.
processMaterials and chemistry
Material database for semiconductors, dielectrics and metals. Reaction kinetics for CVD, etch and ALD and atomistic band-structure codes come next.
process.materialsprocess.chemistrypackages/core/src/openforge/.Dashed: on the roadmap, not shipped.Workspaces
A real desktop app at work
These are screenshots of the current build of the Qt desktop app running on Windows with its engines in WSL. Each workspace has its own layout of panels, documents and toolbars.
Open engines
Wrap, don't fork
Each engine runs as a separate process at a pinned version, from the PATH, WSL or a container. Upgrades stay cheap, and every engine keeps its own licence because nothing is linked into OpenForge.
| Domain | Engines driven today |
|---|---|
| Digital flow | Yosys, ABC, OpenROAD, OpenSTA, Magic, KLayout, Netgen, Icarus Verilog, Verilator, SymbiYosys |
| FPGA | Yosys, nextpnr, Project Trellis, IceStorm, openXC7 |
| Analog | ngspice, Xyce, Xschem |
| Process and device | DEVSIM, ViennaPS, pymatgen |
| EM and multiphysics | openEMS, Palace, Elmer, CalculiX, gmsh, OpenFOAM, preCICE |
| Photonics | MEEP, gdsfactory |
| Mechanical | CadQuery and OpenCASCADE, manifold3d, FreeCAD |
| Firmware | GCC, LLVM and Clang, rustc, Zephyr, FreeRTOS, Renode, QEMU, OpenOCD, GDB |
| Robotics | MuJoCo, Pinocchio, OpenUSD |
| AI assist | Ollama (optional, local), scikit-learn, Optuna |
Formats and interfaces
Speaks the formats your flow already uses
OpenForge reads and writes the industry's interchange formats, so it can slot into an existing flow one stage at a time instead of replacing everything at once.
A Qt application with perspectives per task, dockable panels, an Altium-compatible keymap and a command palette.
The openforge CLI runs every flow headless for CI, from openforge flow to openforge pcb and openforge ip catalog.
Every platform function is reachable from Python and over REST and JSON-RPC, with a generated inventory of the whole API.
Bring any process through a tech file kept locally. OpenForge does not ship or upload commercial PDK files.
See it on your own design
Partners get the desktop build and an engineer to help bring their first design through.
Request early access