Product category:
Design Services
News Release from: Silicann Technologies | Subject: IC redesign services
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 07 April 2006
End-of-life ICs can be brought back to
life
When IC obsolescence threatens the design of a complete system, one alternative is to have the offending part redesigned by an IC specialist.
You would not be the first to face this situation The system design of your product has developed and proved itself over the years: the sales figures are good, the lifecycle of the product is not close to an end and suddenly something unexpected happens
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 29 Nov 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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The producer of the most important IC in your product announces the "last time buy" and subsequent discontinuation of the chip.
What next? Of course you had good reasons for using this particular chip, and it might even have been developed especially for you.
At first sight it seems that a complete redesign of the system with a new chip is unavoidable.
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The problem described above is well known in most industries.
The lifecycle of semiconductor components and the requirements of customers for long-term availability sometimes diverge dramatically.
Semiconductor production is developing too fast and changes in processes and technology follow each other too quickly.
In the past, the problem has been partially solved by specialised resellers who have bought up large quantities of discontinued chips during the last time delivery period.
Those resellers have been able to guarantee long-term availability after production has ceased.
However, another problem has arisen: the EU RoHS and WEEE Directives prohibit sales of electronic products containing lead or halogens in many industries after 1st July 2006.
And because of the use of solders that contain lead this affects almost all electronic products - including semiconductor circuits.
This additionally restricts availability and use of discontinued chips.
So what next if a redesign of the whole system including a new chip is inefficient?.
Instead of redesigning the system with all the consequences that entails, such as new verification and validation runs, different packages, additional tool costs, changes to manuals, new certifications etc, recreating the discontinued chip could be a better alternative.
In such cases service providers that specialise in the redesign of semiconductor circuits can help.
Creating pin and function compatible redesigns of the ICs can avoid changes to the system.
Based on the available documentation for the affected IC, such as datasheets and specifications, Silicann is able to produce a new design specification.
If any information is missing, further data can be generated using special test equipment.
This design specification provides the basis for the ASIC design process that follows.
Performing such a pin and function compatible redesign has an additional benefit in that flaws in the original IC can be corrected.
Moreover, changes and enhancements in function are possible, for example to avoid critical signal conditions or to implement additional features.
In this way two objectives can be achieved in one design.
On the one hand, the producibility of the previous component without major changes of the system design is ensured.
On the other hand, the adjusted chip and its enhanced functions can also be used for future product releases.
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