Gate arrays using the Falcon multiproject wafer service

Over the last few years custom and semi-custom integrated circuits have become a common, and accepted, interconnect technology-both in the commercial and educational sectors. It is now common practice for ASICs to be routinely considered in new equipment, and new graduates are increasingly being expected to have a knowledge of the design route to silicon with a good familiarity of the design tools likely to be encountered in industry. This greater awareness of the uses and advantages of this technology has generated greater demands from silicon suppliers-both in terms of the product range available and the services offered. Micro Circuit Engineering in Tewkesbury have been involved in the supply of custom silicon for over 15 years, and this paper is intended to review the experience we have gained in this time, and to highlight the trends we are observing, and the way we are responding to these demands, by looking at some of the designs in which we have been involved