As Seen in Designing Electronics North America (DENA):
An end-to-end ASIC program with a partner like Spirit that manages design, fab, test, and assembly can reduce lead times and control costs.
As US semiconductor manufacturers expand high-volume commercial production on ever-smaller technology nodes, how do you support critical analog and mixed-signal manufacturing?
Securing the American-made microchip supply chain will require creative solutions for high-reliability, low-volume, and legacy designs. Application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) offer a customizable manufacturing solution. Experienced design work, quality foundry access, and end-to-end manufacturing solutions offer a streamlined go-to-market option for customers.
Foundry consolidations
American manufacturers are looking for ways to increase fab capacity. From federal funding through the CHIPS Act to corporate acquisitions, the market is driving manufacturers toward high-volume chip production. This trend leaves the supply chain vulnerable in a few key respects.
Large-scale expansion supports commercial and consumer technologies, putting critical legacy components at risk of obsolescence. Access to foundries support 65nm production and higher technology nodes into the 180nm range are still essential to programs in the national defense and aerospace industries. The time and effort to qualify new and replacement technologies in these industries can be significant.
A large commercial supply chain may support greater capacity in wafer fabrication, but components will need substrates and packaging. While commercial packaging methods and technology continue to advance, high-reliability components will need access to American-based packaging and assembly with hermetic, ceramic, and custom solutions such as rad-hard hybrids and multichip modules.
Testing access will also become a bottleneck as most manufacturers test only their own components in-house. End-customers who require wafer testing, production qualification, radiation testing, and more will face capacity limits without an expansion among American-based test providers.
ASICs allow more than just design control. They allow you to control your production supply chain and costs.
Why ASICs now?
Modern ASIC solutions allow end customers to take full control over their component functionality, performance, and manufacturing. With the ongoing consolidations and changes in foundry capacity, ASICs can be a controlled way to move through the manufacturing process and establish a production pipeline for longer product life.
In the past, companies have focused on ASIC design and outsourced the rest, but provides like Spirit Electronics are providing vertical integration of the supply chain to make access to ASIC manufacturing even easier.
Forty years ago, ASIC design companies were built around high-volume production. Today the marketplace is specialty, low-volume, rapid-deployment domestic content. The priority is on formfactor, packaging, and function compatibility for end-customers who know their application. We enable our customers to have multiple ASICs and customizable combinations that offset the volume requirement with flexibility, better reliability, and higher security at an achievable price point.
As an authorized distributor for high-reliability OCMs, Spirit has insight into long lead times, price increases, and post-pandemic supply chain pressures. While many off-the-shelf components had lead times stretching past a year, a well-managed ASIC program delivers a fully qualified product in a matter of months.
Power and performance
ASIC design remains the critical first step. A design partner like Spirit has access to IP libraries with many options for digital, analog, and RF technologies. Starting with the end-use application in mind, engineers can match form, fit, and function with improvements to overall performance.
Most ASICs are no longer only digital, analog, RF, and power management on the same silicon. While the priority is form-factor compatibility, ASIC design can reduce unused circuitry from the original IC for a smaller die, drawing less power and extending the overall ASIC life. Efficient design also reduces defect density and offers greater control over the ASIC’s performance and reliability.
ASIC design also improves the board overall. Design can incorporate adjacent logic and other functions to reduce the number of components. ASICs offer not only greater functional control, but also greater supply chain control with less dependence on multiple components and multiple OCMs.
Pricing and security
Successful ASIC programs are intimately familiar with the application requirements. Spirit facilitates the design stage with access to extensive IP libraries. Our engineering team has access to digital and analog designs, as well as RF.
Dr. Naveed Sherwani recently joined our ASIC development team. He brings a design portfolio of over 300 ASICs. Partners with this level of IP expertise reduce time and cost in the design stage. Easy access to a diverse ranger of IP supports efficient design and the flexibility to incorporate more functionality in the same ASIC.
Design is the most demanding stage of an ASIC program, but it has the potential to offer the most enhancements and efficiencies. We have worked with customers who have designed entire product families of ASICs to allow them to pick and choose the best IC for their applications for long-term programs.
The customer owns the design and IP. Your ASIC is not at the mercy of an OCM determining pricing, lifespan, or availability. You have greater supply chain security with production and capacity control.
ASIC manufacturing
ASIC design includes managing foundry services. Spirit delivers the GDS2 or RTL file to the foundry with confidentiality and security of the design, protecting customer, program, and application information. Foundry selection is based on the technology in the design. Lower-volume ASIC manufacturing with analog and mixed signal technology requires access to analog wafer processes.
Spirit Electronics has partnered with Texas Instruments to offer foundry services in TI’s 300mm wafer fabs with support for 45nm to 130nm tech nodes. TI is currently expanding its US capacity to four fabs in Texas and Utah. TI is a leading manufacturer in analog technology with a track record of quality through manufacturing processes and operational controls.
Working with an ASIC partner like Spirit offers designers continued control in the entire production process. Spirit is already an expert on design and can coordinate the production schedule in a high-quality foundry. Our foundry management supports access to TI and other fabs depending on the design requirements. Foundry services can be flexible to meet scheduling needs and control requirements, especially for US-based manufacturing and assembly for military and defense applications.
Testing and qualification
Testing is essential at the wafer level, especially in initial production runs, to verify ASIC performance and reliability. Spirit Electronics has a full test lab in-house to perform wafer probe and characterization. While many OCMs are able to test only their own products, Spirit can test any wafer, component, or system that comes through our door. We are already familiar with the ASIC from its design stage and can engineer a test program to verify performance all the way through military- and space-grade qualification.
Knowing the application requirements, Spirit takes over testing right where our designer has left off, converting the design output into a test program. We can take the automatic test pattern generation capabilities out of the design to create a fast and repeatable automated test equipment (ATE) program. Spirit’s lab can easily scale to test complex designs and ASIC systems. Spirit can perform system-level testing on the SiP as well as the board assembly. For ASICs with defense or space applications, Spirit runs full qualification flows, including preconditioning, static and dynamic burn-in, HAST, life test, and even radiation.
Substrate design and packaging
ASIC assembly is a key part of the design, manufacturing, and test processes. Spirit manages substrate design for both organic and ceramic substrates as well as design for temperature management or radiation shielding. Substrate and packaging providers are currently limited, especially in the domestic US market.
Spirit takes care of sourcing and logistics to mitigate any bottlenecks at this stage. Our current roadmap includes increasing in-house assembly capabilities to improve domestic capacity. This level of program management guarantees quality control and testing availability throughout the assembly process. Spirit can test at the wafer level, component level, and system level to ensure the finished ASIC meets design specs. Our in-house circuit card assembly line also supports board assembly at subsystem or module level.
IP security and long-term program support
ASIC IP ownership provides a higher level of technology and supply chain security, no matter the life of your program. Whether you need 5-, 10-, or 15-year program support, Spirit has the expertise to store die and components with nitrogen, ESD controls, and secure inventory management so you have ASICs ready for assembly on your production schedule.
Long-term ASIC support is a boon in industries like aerospace and defense, where technology has a much longer life than consumer and commercial electronics. Where commercial manufacturers expect rapid release of leading-edge technology, legacy technology in avionics, communications, and satellite systems often requires decades of program support.
Legacy technology support and obsolescence mitigation
As the semiconductor race drives toward smaller tech nodes, OCMs will prioritize advanced products. The market’s incentive to continue support for legacy technology will diminish. ASICs offer an ideal solution because they can be customized for legacy application compatibility. Spirit specializes in design and manufacturing for legacy tech nodes in the 65nm to 130nm range, with advanced digital design as low as 16nm.
ASIC IP ownership and production control removes the risk of obsolescence. Designing an ASIC replacement and working with a streamlined production and test partner makes ASICs a more accessible and cost-controlled solution against changes in the domestic chip market.
End-to-end ASIC programs
With the US semiconductor market working toward supply chain security, ASICs offer an opportunity for greater IP and production control. An end-to-end ASIC program with a partner like Spirit that manages design, fab, test, and assembly can reduce lead times and control costs.
Effective application-specific design can go to market faster with better performance efficiency. Amid a changing market, an ASIC program allows you to control your own supply chain.
