intro.
Our Goals:
Make a DIY version of every nanofabrication tool
Get there with collaborative open source hardware
Nanofabrication labs are expensive and inaccessible. Even STEM students at "prestigious institutions" have limited if any access to nanofabrication tools. Chips run our world, everyone deserves access to the tools that make them. To ensure this level of access, cheap, open source, and easily replicable nanofabrication tools are needed. Labs that make and utilize these open source tools need to appear in mass, world wide.
Hacker Fab is the open source fab project making this happen. 7 real Hacker Fabs have popped up (as of March 2026), with multiple others actively gaining maturing. Multiple critical open source fab tools have been built, documented, and duplicated. Countless devices have been demonstrated with these tools, with documented process development.
Hacker Fab has been built by a delocalized community of contributors. Hacker Fab can only grow to its full potential by gaining more contributors. Anyone can contribute, see the next section to learn how.
working on the hacker fab.
If you are reading this and are working on any project that could be related to hacker fab, we urge you to create a merge request with details on your project (Select Jay Kunselman and Alexander Hakim as reviewers). This could include but is not limited to modifications to existing tools/processes, or completely new ones.
You don't need prior nanofabrication experience to create meaningful contributions.
You do need to read the Required Reading.
You don't need to recreate the entire fab to contribute, although you can.
We communicate entirely over Discord.
this website.
This page is a home for all shared documentation. There are enough resources here to turn an empty room into one that fabricates simple IC's in a matter of months.
Many pages are works-in-progress. It is natural for individual contributors' work-in-progress notes to exist on google drive, notion, etc. Links to these exist at the top of each page, however these notes move to Gitbook as soon as possible.
Any contributor can submit change requests with a free Gitbook account. All of this is on Github, but formatted nicely here on Gitbook. You can contribute directly through Github as well.
For the most up-to-date status on everything, join the Discord.
fab toolkit.
Here is a list of all the tools built or bought necessary to make our devices.
Every build contains:
BOM
Links to Design Files
Links to Code
First Principles Understanding of Machine Design (WIP)
fabrication tools.
RF Sputtering Chamber
Build Chamber + Magnetron for $1,000
Build Power supply for $1,000
Buy dual gas supply components for $5,000
Buy pumping system + gauge for $11,400
Carnegie Mellon
3-Axis Piezo Nanopositioner
Build for $500
verification / metrology tools.
chemicals.
Photoresists + Developers
Dielectrics
Conductors
Etchants
Dopant Sources
background and licensing.
The Hacker Fab was inspired by Sam Zeloof.
The Hacker Fab was started by Elio Bourcart, Alexander Hakim, and Sam Zeloof.
The first Hacker Fab was opened at Carnegie Mellon University, and currently managed by Matthew Moneck, Tathagata Srimani, and Jay Kunselman.
The Hacker Fab is run entirely by independent contributors.
By default, contributions use the following license stack, but may carry an additional NOTICE file depending on the origin of the contribution.
Hardware: CERN-OHL-W
For example, if you release HDL files under CERN-OHL-W and then somebody uses those files in their FPGA, when they distribute the bitstream (either putting it online or shipping a product with it) they do not to make the rest of the HDL design available under CERN-OHL-W as well.
https://ohwr.org/project/cernohl/wikis/faq#q-what-are-all-these-suffixes
Software: MPL v2.0
The MPL’s “file-level” copyleft is designed to encourage contributors to share modifications they make to your code, while still allowing them to combine your code with code under other licenses (open or proprietary) with minimal restrictions.
Documentation: CC BY-SA 4.0
This license enables reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/
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