Winslow – Avoid PCB Re-Designs (11/2023)

Thinking of redesigning a PCB to fix semiconductor or component obsolescence? STOP – It might be unnecessary, too costly and unsustainable! But DO NOT discard your PCBs or ambitious production goals before reading this….

How about we let you know that there is a simple solution to short or long term obsolescence, without a new PCB design and with just one change to your BOM? There are two common reasons why semiconductors are not available: First, reduced supply or temporary obsolescence or very long lead times. We have all heard this before. In many cases, no exact production date is known. Second: Your chip has become obsolete due to rationalisation, perhaps a company takeover or a technological change.

Either way, it’s painful and your business needs a solution, and fast. The truth is that there is usually something similar on the market that you may be able to use. Maybe there are products in a different size or pinout, a different technology, voltage or clock rate, or SMD instead of leaded and vice versa?

For many years, the “obvious” solution has been to design the PCB to fit the available chip. This is obvious because in many cases it is known how to do it, but it is a slow and expensive solution, with no backwards compatibility. Once you have redesigned the PCB, the old PCBs cannot be repaired or refurbished if the discontinued chip fails. Managing the various PCB revisions is a logistical nightmare, consumes internal resources and comes at a high cost when it comes to re-qualifying or approving them. More and more companies and their shareholders are concerned about sustainability. What if there was a SINGLE version of the PCB throughout the life of a product? Is that so unimaginable?

If you want to go this way, you need an adapter – an award-winning adapter! The adapter solution is fully compatible and can be used backwards and forwards throughout the life of the product. Sounds like a novel idea? Winslow Adaptics has been designing and manufacturing these adapters since the early 1990s, when a key account approached us for an adapter solution for an obsolete PGA device, which we replaced with a functionally identical PLCC device. Adapters have proven to be robust for decades in harsh, high reliability and critical environments.

These adapters are soldered in the same place and in the same way as your obsolete chip, a “fit-form-function” replacement, it is just a change in the bill of materials. The circuit board remains unchanged. The adapter sits between the PCB and the new component. It helps that new electronic components are almost always smaller than the ones they replace. We take advantage of this and ensure that the adapter is the same size as the component it replaces in almost all cases.

The simplest adapters are called “footprint converters”. They are the simplest form of adapters. They are stock items that allow you to easily change your PCB from footprint to footprint at minimal cost when component availability changes. PLCC to DIL, PLCC to PGA, DIP minimiser, DIP to SOIC, QFP to PGA, etc. …

It is reassuring to know that RTCA/DO-254, Design Assurance Guidance for Airborne Electronic Hardware, will be adopted when required. Examples include migration of an obsolete ASIC or CPLD device to an available FPGA. The design may include additional memory and on-board supply voltage changes. Winslow has already produced adapters to correct design errors, avoiding the scrapping of expensive PCBs.

If in future years the replacement chip used on the adapter also becomes obsolete, and it happens, we will make another adapter for you… bi-directional compatibility and timely supply is possible, forever with just one board!

Authors:
John Dyson, Winslow Adaptics Ltd, Technical Sales
Roland Karasch, KAMAKA Electronic Bauelemente Vertriebs GmbH, President