Working with Customers

A-Systems, Incorporated works closely with our OEM customers to identify and develop replacements for integrated circuits which have become obsolete. We utilize custom and semi-custom integrated circuit manufacturing techniques plus programmable devices as appropriate to create form, fit and function replacements for analog, digital and memory devices which are no longer available.

Our focus is on smaller quantity needs where low non-recurring costs and short lead times are more important than unit costs. We develop an equivalent part utilizing semi-custom monolithic integrated circuit technology as well as standard cell, gate array and the various logic array technologies such as PLCC and PLDs. In some cases for large body ICs such as memory products we can develop SMT equivalents for the original IC.

We have developed replacements for military projects requiring temperature, humidity, shock and vibration qualification followed by field trials “in the mud”.

SOME TYPICAL QUESTIONS:

How are we able to do this with such low budgets and short lead times?

First, we are not developing state-of-the-art products. Some of our products replace obsolete ICs which are years, and sometimes decades old designs. We apply modern technology to this old designs with great success.

We work with free-lance designers who have been designing similar devices for the original IC manufacturers for years.

We work with small foundries who will fabricate as few as a single wafer for us. These foundries typically work with smaller wafers which don’t contain so many die (as opposed to the larger current state-of-the-art wafers) . Often our wafers contain as few as 1000 die of a given IC.

We work with testing and packaging houses who are set-up to handle small quantity orders.

First, the larger semiconductor houses are concentrating on the high volume ICs which keep Wall Street and the Investment Bankers happy. Remember, these are the same companies who are obsoleting the ICs in the first place as the production volumes drop off.

This trend is being exacerbated as the larger foundries swallow up the smaller ones. For example Benchmarq was bought out by Unitrode who was in turn bought out by Texas Instruments. In an earlier acquisition cycle RCA, GE, Intersil and several other semiconductor manufacturers were combined and eventually became Harris Semiconductor. Now Harris has sold their entire semiconductor division to a group of Investment Bankers. How many of the old RCA 1800 Series Microprocessor products do you think these investment bankers will be producing in the future? The answer is NONE!

Sometimes this works out. More often than not however, the OEM guesses too low in their remaining product lifetime needs or else their budget is just not adequate to cover the most optimistic forecast of IC usage.

A second problem arises in identifying which of the ICs you are using are about to become obsolete. Unless you are buying direct from a semiconductor manufacturer you may not receive notice that an IC is being obsoleted. Most smaller OEMs are in this category. Even the large OEMs have a problem with this issue. The IC manufacturers typically provide LONG LISTS of parts which are being obsoleted. Just looking through this list and crossing them to the OEMs own in-house drawing numbers is very time consuming. I have talked to a person responsible for checking the obsolete IC lists who has a five inch high stack of sheets of parts numbers to be obsoleted. The person in charge just can’t keep up with the volume of parts on the lists.

Finally, this problem can occur when an OEM’s product life goes beyond expectations. This good news gets tempered by the bad new regarding the availability of old ICs. This is often the case for military products. Even after the product runs have stopped there are demands for support including spares and repair parts.

We have developed clones for various early memory ICs which are out of production. We have also developed clones for analog and digital ICs. We are not able to clone microprocessors.

We will need information regarding the IC functions. A catalog part number or specification sheet will be adequate. If this information is not available contact us regarding other ways in which we can create a specification for you. We will need to know the case style needed. We will need to know the quantities needed, both immediate and projected for the future (including the estimated lifetime).