High-Density Packaging Solution Further Extends Actel's Reach Into Space and Military Markets

Nowadays the typical 4-ton class GEO bird must survive at least one solar maximum and years of radiation exposure.

Mountain View - Dec 03, 2003
Building on its commitment to develop high-reliability, high-performance products for the military and space markets, Actel Corporation announced Monday the availability of a high-density ceramic column grid array (CCGA) advanced packaging solution for the company's radiation-tolerant and military-qualified field-programmable gate array (FPGA) devices.

Packing in 2.5 times the I/O density in 90 percent of the footprint offered by Actel's existing packages, the CCGA624 package offers an unparalleled combination of density and reliability with minimal board real estate. The hermetically sealed CCGA package is specifically developed for mission-critical systems, such as satellite bus and payload subsystems of commercial and military spacecraft, which demand high levels of reliability and tolerance to thermal stresses in a small footprint.

"Continuing our heritage as the FPGA leader in the space and military markets, Actel is committed to providing innovative FPGAs and intellectual property cores to the community," said Ken O'Neill, director, military and aerospace product marketing at Actel. "In keeping with our legacy, the high-density CCGA packaging solution extends the benefits of our radiation-tolerant and military-qualified FPGA product portfolio to better meet the requirements of applications where tight physical constraints demand the highest levels of integration."

An attractive alternative to the ball-grid array, the CCGA package utilizes 624 high-temperature solder columns to create a higher standoff and provide greater tolerance to the stresses caused by different rates of thermal expansion between the PCB and the package.

As a result, the thermal fatigue life of the package solder joints is significantly increased. Additionally, the solder columns can be placed as much as 50 percent off the center of the PCB's landing pad and provide sufficient flexibility to realign properly with the pad during solder flow operations.

Supporting Actel's antifuse-based RT54SX72S, RTAX1000S, RTAX2000S and AX2000 FPGAs as well as its flash-based, APA1000 and APA600 devices, the CCGA624 is JEDEC registered (MO-158, VAR BE-1).

Additionally, the RTAX-S and RTSX-S FPGAs employ the inherent benefits of Actel's radiation-tolerant devices, including single-event latchup (SEL) immunity; >37MeV-cm2/mg single-event upset (SEU) capability; and total ionizing dose (TID) performance up to 200 Krads.

The RTAX-S family also features embedded RAM with an upset rate of <1E-10 errors/bit-day with error detection and correction (EDAC). The largest device, the 2-million gate RTAX2000S, contains 288k bits of embedded SRAM; 684 user I/Os; and 10,752 SEU-hardened registers.

The CCGA624 for RT54SX72S will be available in December 2003 and the CCGA624 for RTAX1000S, RTAX200S, AX2000, APA600 and APA1000 will be available in the first half of 2004. Pricing starts at $1,540 in 5K unit quantities.

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