Weeroc Space achieves key tapeout milestone, advancing Malaysia’s IC design capabilities

• Strengthens Malaysia’s growing ecosystem for advanced chip design, talent & innovation
• Marks transition from chip design to fabrication for aerospace-grade semiconductor solution

Weeroc Space, a semiconductor innovator supported by the Malaysia Semiconductor IC Design Park, has achieved a key tapeout milestone—marking a critical step from chip design to fabrication.

Tapeout is the stage at which a semiconductor design is finalised and sent for manufacturing, signalling readiness for production and commercialisation. For Malaysia, such milestones reflect growing capabilities not only in manufacturing, but also in designing and developing advanced semiconductor technologies.

Weeroc Space is the aerospace arm of France-based Weeroc, a European innovator in analogue and mixed-signal ICs for demanding environments. Its presence at the Malaysia Semiconductor IC Design Park reflects ongoing efforts to attract high-value global players while strengthening domestic IC design capabilities.

According to Dr Salleh Ahmad (pic), co-founder and chief technology officer of Weeroc, the milestone marks the completion of a rigorous design and validation process for a fabless semiconductor company.

“This milestone marks the completion of our chip design phase and readiness for fabrication—an important achievement for any fabless semiconductor company,” he said.

The design will now proceed to fabrication, followed by testing and characterisation before integration into end products.

“It is a significant achievement, as very few companies are able to tape out their own products. We are among a small number of companies in Malaysia with this capability,” he added.

Tapeout is widely regarded as one of the most critical stages in semiconductor development, as errors at this stage can result in significant delays and cost implications.

For Weeroc Space, the milestone validates its engineering capabilities and strengthens its commercial positioning, enabling greater confidence in engaging customers and accelerating product development.

More broadly, milestones such as this reflect the growing maturity of Malaysia’s semiconductor ecosystem, with more companies advancing into higher-value IC design and development.

Weeroc Space also acknowledged the support of its ecosystem partners. The company highlighted X-FAB for enabling access to advanced manufacturing capabilities, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) for collaboration in talent development and research, and Cadence Design Systems for providing critical IC design tools and environments.

These partnerships underscore the strength of Malaysia’s collaborative ecosystem in supporting semiconductor innovation.

As Weeroc expands its product pipeline, demand for skilled talent in advanced IC design is expected to grow, creating more opportunities for Malaysian engineers. To support this, the company is strengthening talent development through collaborations with institutions such as ASEM and universities including Universiti Malaya, UiTM, APU, and UKM, alongside targeted upskilling and postgraduate programmes.