By Percy Gilbert, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President of Engineering, SkyWater Technology
Percy Gilbert leads SkyWater’s engineering organization, overseeing technology development, manufacturing execution, and the operating systems that protect customer IP. He brings more than two decades of experience in advanced semiconductor manufacturing, including senior engineering leadership roles at IBM, NXP, and Motorola.
Most new chip technologies don’t begin with a design kit.
They begin earlier with materials, device concepts, integration schemes, and manufacturing flows that are still being invented. For teams working at that edge, innovation happens deep in the technology stack, long before standards, volume production, or clear market definitions exist.
SkyWater was built to work in that space.
Our Technology-as-a-Service (TaaS) model exists to meet customer needs for quality-focused manufacturing services as well as to help customers explore, refine, and mature new technologies at the process level where differentiation is created and where traditional foundry services often stop. It’s where many of today’s most consequential technologies are taking shape, from advanced sensing and heterogeneous integration to novel compute architectures and quantum-adjacent systems.
SkyWater’s mission as a domestic chip foundry and advanced packaging provider – serving our customers with technical expertise, rigorous operating discipline, and solid IP protection – has governed how we engage with customers as a top priority since our inception.
Why We Built TaaS
In much of the semiconductor industry, foundry engagement begins after the process is defined. Customers differentiate through design, using a common technology platform optimized for scale.
That model works well when the process technical requirements are mature in established markets. It works far less well when the technology itself is still evolving.
SkyWater’s customers often come to us early when the process is still fluid, when materials are new, and when the path to manufacturability is part of the innovation challenge itself. TaaS was designed to meet customers there.
Through this model, SkyWater collaborates deeply on:
- novel process modules and integration approaches
- new materials and device structures
- low-to-moderate volume iteration and learning cycles
- transitions from exploratory development toward production readiness
This depth of engagement allows customers to move faster and take informed technical risks. It also places SkyWater closer to the core of customer differentiation than most foundry models ever do.
And that changes the stakes.
The Work You Don’t See
When innovation happens this deep in the technology stack, IP sensitivity increases dramatically. Process knowledge, integration decisions, and manufacturing learnings often are the competitive advantage.
From the outset, SkyWater understood that deep collaboration would only work if customers could trust us with their most sensitive innovations; not based on assurances but based on how the system operates.
That understanding drove a second, less visible investment: growing operating infrastructure capable of meeting the IP security, compartmentalization, and control requirements of some of the nation’s most sensitive programs. This is the foundation that has underpinned SkyWater’s customer relationships from the beginning and continues as a cornerstone for how we operate today.
Engineering Trust Into the System
Behind SkyWater’s TaaS model is an operating environment designed to enforce separation, control information flow, and preserve program integrity even while enabling close technical collaboration.
At a high level, that environment includes:
- program-level compartmentalization of process IP, data, and development activity
- organizational and system-level separation between customer efforts
- least-privilege access to tools, data, and manufacturing information
- disciplined communication boundaries treated as part of the control environment
- governance, training, and audit mechanisms aligned with national-level requirements
Together, these elements allow SkyWater to work deeply with one customer’s process innovation without creating exposure elsewhere. Trust is not maintained by intent alone it is enforced by structure.
Experience Shapes Design
These practices didn’t emerge in isolation.
Earlier in my career, including years leading advanced process and product engineering at IBM, I worked in environments where contract manufacturing, system development, competing customers, and government requirements all coexisted. In those settings, trust was not assumed. It was a prerequisite, earned through consistent structure and disciplined execution.
Those lessons are embedded in how SkyWater operates its foundry and its TaaS model today.
Why Customers Trust Us With What Matters Most
SkyWater’s Advanced Technology Services customer base continues to grow because customers recognize a rare combination:
- deep, hands-on collaboration at the process level, and
- a proven operating environment capable of protecting highly sensitive innovation
This combination allows customers to focus on solving hard technical problems, not on managing risk or navigating organizational change around them.
For emerging technologies, that confidence is foundational.
SkyWater was built to operate where new technologies are still being invented – before scale, before certainty, and before the rules are fully written.
Our Technology-as-a-Service model enables customers to innovate deep in the technology stack. The infrastructure behind it ensures that innovation is protected, compartmentalized, and secure.
That foundation has underpinned our customer relationships from the beginning, and it continues unchanged as we move into our next chapter.