DEVELOPER TOOLS

Building on its commitment to provide a comprehensive portfolio of high-reliability, high-performance solutions for military and aerospace designers, Actel Corporation announced it has expanded its package selection to include a Land Grid Array (LGA) option for its RTAX-S field-programmable gate array (FPGA) family. With this package, military and aerospace customers have the flexibility to use their proprietary or preferred-vendor technology to attach columns or solder balls to the LGA package. Customers will benefit from extended shelf life, accelerated design time, reduced cost, enhanced thermal and electrical performance, improved board-level reliability and reduced solder joint stress. In combination with Actel's RTAX-S FPGAs, the LGA package is particularly well suited for mission- critical applications in the military and aerospace industries. "As the FPGA leader in the space and high-reliability markets, Actel is committed to continuously enhancing its repertoire of robust and reliable design solutions for the military and aerospace community," said Ken O'Neill, director, military and aerospace product marketing at Actel. "In keeping with our heritage, the extension of the LGA packaging option to Actel's radiation-tolerant RTAX-S family provides our customers with more choices and allows us to better meet the requirements of military and space applications where board space comes at a premium and reliability is essential." LGA Package Extends Product Shelf Life Typically, column-attached products have a shelf life that is limited by the solder column finish. With the availability of Actel's new LGA package, customers can buy the LGA-packaged products and store them for extended periods of time, attaching the columns or solder balls when the part is actually needed for design implementation. This is especially beneficial and cost efficient for military and aerospace customers who work several years on a particular program. Technical Details of Actel's LGA Package The LGA package is a laminate substrate-based, fine-pitch chip-scale package that provides a low package profile. The package body dimensions are identical to the CCGA packages currently available. Reliable programming is assured by using corresponding programming adaptor modules supported by Actel's Silicon Sculptor II Programmer. The package is hermetically sealed and complements the inherent radiation-tolerance benefits of the RTAX-S architecture, including single-event latchup (SEL) immunity; single-event upset (SEU) capability of >37MeV-cm2/mg; and total ionizing dose (TID) performance of up to 200 Krads (Si, parametric). Availability The LGA package is now available for all RTAX-S devices offered in ceramic column grid array (CCGA) packaging, including RTAX1000S and RTAX2000S devices. For further information about Actel's advanced packaging solutions, please visit the company's Web site at www.actel.com.