Tekmos' Blog

Last month, Tekmos sent a representative to the annual meeting of the Space Parts Working Group. This is a meeting of government users of satellites, companies that make satellites, and component manufacturers that make parts for satellites. The meeting was for two days, and consisted of presentations from government users and the component manufacturers. It also presented a lot of networking opportunities.

Tekmos sells several products into the aerospace market. We are also working on upgrading our quality system from ISO9001 up to AS9100, which is now being required by some of our customers. After that, the next step is changing our products to offer an even higher level of reliability. And the first stage of that process is to determine what are the limits with current parts. And that is why we were at the Space Parts Working Group.

So, what did we learn? Being space related, radiation damage was a big topic. The higher the orbit, the greater the damage. As a subset of radiation, heavy ions are an increasing concern. Heavy ions are also a problem with the aviation market, and have been identified as a cause of commercial aviation engine failure in at least one instance. Another issue was bond wire integrity, as a result of corrosion, thermal cycle, and vibration during launch. And as with all semiconductor users, there were concerns about obsolescence and counterfeiting. These are all areas that will be addressed as we develop the next generation of Tekmos products.

Tekmos has announced the qualification and release of two of our microcontrollers, the TK68HC711D3 and TK68HC11D0. The micros were originally made at our provider Plessey Semiconductor. Plessey closed their 0.35u fab, and the designs were transferred to the X-Fab foundry located in Dresden, Germany. Originally each design had its own mask set. This reflected the fact that the parts were designed at separate times. When the designs were transferred to Dresden, the designs were merged onto a common substrate die. The new die was designed to support an optional Flash memory, which could be enabled through bond options.

There are no changes to the operation of either circuit, and each chip remains a drop-in replacement for the original NXP parts.

Having a drop-in replacement for parts has shown to be a very cost effective way to extend the life of products when the original component manufacturer discontinues a part. The availability of a drop-in replacement part eliminates the need to make the tough decision whether to redesign a printed circuit board or discontinue a product.

Tekmos continues to be the "go to" supplier when there are problems finding obsolete parts or when additional parts are needed after the date for EOL (End of Life) purchase has passed. Tekmos makes a variety of microcontrollers, microprocessors, and other miscellaneous standard products to satisfy these needs. Tekmos also continues to make custom ASIC replacement parts.

Customers are aware that buying from Tekmos ensures pin for pin, drop-in replacements that can be counted on to work in their applications, without worry about the quality of parts purchased on the grey market.

Tekmos offers customers the ability to have their ASIC or customer specific designs created and manufactured in the United States. This is typically important for companies that require ITAR compliance in their market.

The ability to design a unique customer specific part can provide competitive advantages and exceptional protection of confidential intellectual property.

Tekmos performs all design work in our Austin, Texas technology lab.

We can then have masks created, wafers fabricated and assembled with our partners in their US facilities. Tekmos then tests every part in our Austin test facility before shipment to customers. A customer specific design is essential when the application requires functions that are not readily available from standard products or when IP must be protected under the ITAR compliance rules.

Tekmos can build a wide range of devices including microprocessors, digital, analog, extended voltage ranges and supports extended temperature from -55ºC to as high as 250ºC. Our engineers are very skilled at including existing IP already developed to provide a very fast lead-time for prototypes and production units.

An FPGA conversion consists of implementing an FPGA based design in an ASIC. There can be multiple reasons for doing this, such as reliability, power dissipation, or obsolescence. But the main reason is cost. ASICs will typically cost much less than an FPGA.

ASICs also have a NRE associated with them. So to realize any cost savings, the ASIC volume must be high enough so that the cumulative unit cost savings exceeds the NRE charges.

There is a time value of money. In order to justify an FPGA conversion, the volume should be high enough so that the breakeven point occurs within 6 to 9 months. Here is an example. Assume that the FPGA costs $40 each, and the ASIC costs $5 each. That is a savings of $35 per part. A typical FPGA to ASIC NRE will be on the order of $49,000. That puts the breakeven point at 1400 units. The conversion is economically justified with a 2,000 unit annual volume. The breakeven volume changes with the technology used in the ASIC, the cost of the FPGA, and the package type.

The breakeven point has also changed with time. Back in the mid-90s, the breakeven point was frequently below 1000 units. At the time, there were a number of companies providing FPGA conversion services. Companies such as AMIS, Chip Express, and Orbit Semiconductor. Many of the Japanese companies also offered the service, including NEC, Toshiba, KLSI, and Fujitsu. The FPGA companies successfully fought back by a combination of using more advanced technology nodes, and including large amounts of RAM. The presence of the RAM prevented the ASIC companies from offering the same circuit while using an older technology. The increased use of lower supply voltages also worked against the ASIC companies, since their older technologies did not operate as well when using reduced supplies. By 2005, the FPGA conversion business was gone, along with most of the ASIC suppliers.

Semiconductors are a highly dynamic business, and by 2012, the economics of FPGA conversion had changed again. The mask costs have dropped, and those fabs that allow Multi-Level Masks (MLMs) have seen the mask cost drop by another 75%. The power supplies have stabilized between 1 and 1.2 volts. And while the FPGA technologies can provide more RAM, many applications do not need the extra RAM. As a result, FPGA conversion breakeven points have dropped to the point where conversions are again economical at the 1000 to 2000 unit range.

In life, there is constant, ongoing challenge. These challenges can take many forms. We see examples of this in nature, with the frenetic competitive energy of an ecosystem, bubbling with all forms of life in constant struggle. Or we can find examples in the daily lives of ordinary people, tasking themselves with reasons to strive. For some, these tasks may be to simply work to provide for basic needs. For others, they may find the challenges of life filled with personal objectives, such as improving oneself with knowledge, or pushing themselves to improve a specific physical ability. Whatever the challenge or goal is, there seems to be one constant to make that goal a reality. That is the drive and determination to stay on a task, to see the objective before you, and to move toward that objective with fierce determination. However lowly or lofty the goal, and whether rushing forward or stumbling and plodding, the march must not stop. It is the persistence itself which often wins the day. And as Jim Rohn points out so simply, discipline is the glue that pulls the goal together with the achievement.

A business is no different, or any system within that business. To set the goal, then to make the goal real can only be done with the discipline of effort. When a process is evaluated, what is truly being observed, what is truly being measured, is the simple day to day discipline needed to reach the goal of that process. At Tekmos, we recently went through our BSI Quality surveillance assessment, to verify that our Quality Management System was functioning as represented. We found that indeed, our processes and procedures were functioning as they should. But the real achievement was the opportunity to see that the discipline, the bridge if you will, was in place and moving toward our goals. Our goals are customer driven. And it is good to see that at Tekmos, we have a sturdy, though well-traveled bridge, to bring our customers goals to full achievement.