Legacy systems reliant on obsolete devices is becoming all too common, but how do you keep you product in production when the ASIC vendor supplying an essential component ceases trading? Even worse when the ASIC is at the heart of a thick film hybrid microcircuit, which itself is only a component in a complex electronic module for installation in a front line military aircraft like Eurofighter Typhoon! How can you best minimise requalification costs when demonstrable military radiation hardness is a requirement?

The original ASIC was produced by ES2 (European Silicon Structures). With our previous experience of ES2 software and processes, and of Lattice Logic software (From the Edinburgh company not Lattice Logic Inc), we were able to migrate the design onto an Actel A1020 antifuse programmable logic device. This particular FPGA family had already been tested for radiation hardness as similar devices were used elsewhere in the product.