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www.us-tech.com How to End FPGA Single Source Reliance By Martin Hart, CEO, TopLine Corporation
services for their chip components. As of the date of this article, no other subcontractor has been certified to perform this service. As unbelievable as it sounds, should
A
that single source fail for any reason, our De- fense and Aerospace industry could easily be compromised, because warfighters and electronic defense systems rely heavily on the production of radiation hard- ened field programmable gate arrays (radhard FPGAs) and application spe- cific integrated circuits (ASICs). These electronic components are
an integral part of the control and guid- ance systems of military products rang- ing from warfighters to missiles and more. Without them, such defense sys- tems cannot operate. These circuit de- vices incorporate thousands of tiny sol- der columns that serve to electrically and mechanically interconnect radhard chips to PCBs). These columns must be attached to the device by a qualified subcon- tractor; no one else is allowed to perform this service. The U.S. government has yet to shore up
merica’s largest electronic chip makers rely on a single source subcontractor to provide solder column attachment
ten of these chip makers practice a policy of single source procurement that is driven by a relatively small number of civilian decision makers, primarily engineering managers.
A Solution Proposed Although multiple suppliers capable of
providing this column attachment service do exist, only a single source is currently quali-
gle source supplier of solder columns unex- pectedly shut down. To further compound the problem, there
is no plan “B” safety net to protect the de- fense industry in the event of the loss of this critical supplier. Nor is there a contingency plan in place should a surge in demand, such as a military mobilization, exceed production capacity.
And, as often has been the case,
players in the supply chain are resist- ant to change. This reluctance has been observed time and time again as the manufacturing and defense industrial base waits until catastrophe occurs be- fore making a concerted effort to cor- rect a supply chain deficiency. Let’s begin with the supposition
that any effort to qualify a secondary source of supply for solder column at- tachment on radhard FPGAs can take three to five years.
CCGA attachment is a mission-critical service.
weaknesses in the supply chain by not en- couraging chip makers to broaden their de- pendency beyond reliance upon one supplier. This choke point exists because nine out of
fied for solder columns, according to the Qualified Manufacturing List (QML-38535) published by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). Companies that produce radhard FPGAs are not required to voluntarily quali- fy multiple subcontractors. On top of that, it could take years for an alternative candidate to attain QML status should the current sin-
The Funding Argument 90% of FPGA device makers seem to be
content to accept the status quo by casting their lot with a single source subcontractor. The main reason for inaction, as cited by these electronic chip makers, is the lack of funding needed to qualify another supplier. The cost could be hundreds of thousands of
Continued on next page
Nov/Dec, 2022
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