Today I wanted to discuss one of the more focused product ranges Force offers solutions to as well as explore a specific case study. Whilst we provide a wide offering of semiconductor solutions to our customer base, there are often situations where a continued high demand, pushes us to develop more focused and comprehensive long-term solutions.
To that end we have made significant investments over the years into original Xilinx base material. On top of this we have several ex-Xilinx engineers at our disposal, a plethora of original Xilinx hardware and a wide array of custom test programs for Xilinx FPGAs and Memories. All of this results in us being able to offer comprehensive functional verification and pass across significant cost savings to our customer base vs our competitors.
Our range of solutions to Xilinx devices includes Upscreen Verification and characterisation, Die Extraction, Assembly and qualification as well as FPGA to FPGA conversion and ground up product redesign. A specific Xilinx FPGA solutions PDF can be found on the link below.
The case study I would like to talk about is our FT3000 range. These are direct replacement to the original XC3000 Logic cell array family and whilst we can offer solutions to all device ranges (from 3020 to 3090) we will be discussing the FT3042 below.
Our customer had a long-term requirement for the obsolete XC3042-100PG84B. After residual market material analysis, we presented the customer with a few options. Two offerings were selected for further evaluation as both could be supported long term, specifically die extraction/reassembly and product redesign. Project redesign whilst feasible involved a 9-12 month period for first prototypes and then further months for review and production fabrication. The customer ultimately decided this would take too long and selected die extraction/assembly to move forwards with and provide samples.
A base material sample was taken in which the die was extracted from our stock of a XC3042 base material housed in a PQFP package. After the die was cleaned, dressed and die attached (more details on the technique can be found here it was rehoused in a Ceramic Pin Grid Array which met the original Xilinx Footprint.
Subsequent environmental testing to Mil-Std 883 M5004 was performed including die shear, bond pull, constant acceleration, temperature cycling and Burn-in testing. The customer was thrilled with the product and after in application qualification full production started in early 2015. After sample approval production units were built and tested and the form-fit and function FT drop-in replacement can now support the customers application for the remainder of its life cycle.
The customer was in the normal situation of being reliant on their end customer for orders and scheduling. Force Technologies proposed stocking of additional base material as a low cost method to ensure project continuity. They accepted the proposal and banked thousands of pcs of base material that is held and build to order from at customer request. As the base material is moisture sensitive it is held under J-Std 033 and JEP160 guidelines in a clean and inert atmosphere (nitrogen) in sub 5% RH stable temperature conditions. FT periodically reviews all its base material to ensure product does not degrade and functionality remains identical to testing performed prior to stock being committed to storage.
As always if you have any specific part issue you would like to discuss our staff are always available at Sales@forcetechnologies.co.uk to help resolve your semiconductor obsolescence requirement.