Aviation Applications
Supply Chain Assurance
Secure Communications
Applications
Addressing Low Power, High Reliability, and Flexibility Requirements in Aviation Applications
Microsemi has a 25 year history of providing products to the Commercial Avionics Market. Our SoC FPGA products are the foundation upon which DAL A applications are built upon. SmartFusion2 continues that tradition with better performance and new features designed to address new requirements in the Commercial Avionics market.
The Electrification of Aircraft
More and more systems in commercial aircraft are becoming electrified. Mechanical systems are being replaced with redundant electrical systems. While overall aircraft weight is being reduced, saving fuel, the requirement for increased power efficiency for all electronics is rising as a result. SmartFusion2 is a COTS SoC FPGA with mainstream FPGA features available now for the first time for the commercial avionics market. With the inclusion of Multiply Accumulate blocks, a standard 4 input Look-Up-Table with DFF and high speed SERDES interface. Smartfusion2 brings a new performance/efficiency options in an SEU immune configuration cell COTS SoC FPGA to the commercial avionics market. To learn more about Smartfusion2 please click here:
The growing content of electronics in commercial aircraft and the long production times of devices required to service this market poses a new problem. Are you purchasing authorized components? Do you have a paper trail that proves the authenticity of the device you're using? With the introduction in SmartFusion2 of the digital certificate, users can read from the device in a secure and encrypted form the following information electronically. Enabling users to validate the devices authenticity throughout its life:
- Company Name
- Division Name
- Family Name
- Production Site
- Full Part Number, Including Speed, Temperature, and Voltage Grade
- Date Code
Some threats are unknown until something un-imaginable happens. Communication into and out of commercial avionics must be jam proof and have anti-spoofing capabilities to prevent the un-imaginable. SmartFusion2 brings world class security features commonly found only in smart cards to the Commercial Avionics FPGA designer.
All SmartFusion2 devices have world class Design Security and higher end devices have the ability to secure data or have Data Security features. Design security assures your design is protected from theft from known attacks. Data Security ensures data in your design is secure in its storage or transit. For more details on SmartFusion2 advanced security features please click here.
Continuing our Heritage
Being immune to SEU FPGA configuration upsets, Microsemi SoC FPGA's can be used at the highest Design Assurance Level (DAL) for flight critical operations with confidence.
| DAL Level |
Occurrence/hour |
Classification |
Mitigation |
Application Examples |
| A |
10-2 per flight hour |
Catastrophic |
Need Redundancy and Dissimilar Technologies |
primary flight controls navigation |
| B |
10-7 per flight hour |
Hazardous |
Need Redundancy |
secondary flight controls |
| C |
10-5 per flight hour |
Major |
May Need Redundancy |
backup systems |
| D |
10-2 per flight hour |
Minor |
No Redendancy |
announcement systems maps |
| E |
N/A |
No Effect |
No Redundancy |
inflight entertainment |
Microsemi SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA offers the following additional benefits to aviation customers:
- SEU tolerant memories
- Built in Self Test
- Mainstream FPGA fabric with integrated math blocks with Large RAM and Micro Ram blocks
- Supply Chain Assurance via the X.509 Digital Certificate Learn more
- Embedded Trace Macrocell to aid in DO-178C Certification for the Microcontroller subsystem
- The ability to permanently reset the Cortex-M3 Microcontroller with an SEU immune flash switch
- Comprehensive product change notification process
- Regularly published reliability data
- Global IP partner network
Commercial Avionics Applications that can benefit from SmartFUsion2
- FADEC
- FPGA based Signal Processing
- AFDX Switch/Endpoint
- Reliable communications for the control plane.
- GPS Receiver/SAASM
- FPGA based correlator, secure anti-spoofing
- APU's
- FPGA based power conversion algorithms
- Flight Data Recorders
- Encrypted reliable data storage
- Surface Actuators
- FPGA based motor control with secure comms
- Braking Systems
- FPGA based Signal Processing
- IFE - In-Flight-Entertainment Systems
- Audio decoding
- video buffering
- LCD Control
- Ethernet connectivity
AFDX End System
Reliable, secure, and low power AFDX end systems can be created in a single chip using SmartFusion2 as shown in Figure 1, alternatively a PCI Express or PCI interface can be used to support existing Host Processors as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 1 Single Chip AFDX End System
Figure 2 AFDX End System bridge to Host Processor
AFDX Switch
An AFDX switch can also be implemented in one or more SmartFusion2 devices as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 AFDX Switch
