[sdiy] IC Prototyping was: SSM2040

[Dave Manley]

Googling I found a company Zetex that claims to build the 700 series 
parts.  On the Zetex site (http://www.zetex.com/3.0/700series.asp), 
there is a list of partners, one of which is On Chip, which is the 
company that did the CEM chips.  Does this mean the CEMs are analog 
arrays? No, not necessarily, but it is interesting that there is a 
relationship between On Chip and the Series 700 family.  If I had to 
guess, I wouldn't bet on CEMs being analog arrays.

If anyone has some dead CEMS, it would be interesting to crack the 
package open and take a look at the die.  The 700 series manual gives a 
plan view of all the die foundations in the family.  A full custom part 
will look nothing like an array.

-Dave


Eric Brombaugh wrote:
> Cool - DEI is in a little industrial park about 3 miles from my house! 
> Looks like they mostly do replacement devices for obsolete military & 
> space qualified parts - there's a fairly good business in that in this 
> area due to a lot of old fabs that are available cheap and those gov't 
> customers are willing to pay well to keep their ancient product lines 
> rolling.
> 
> Correct me if I'm wrong - weren't the CEM chips all done on a quick-turn 
> analog array? Those parts would probably translate to the DEI process 
> pretty easily. The big issue there would be either getting the rights to 
> the circuits, or the effort of recreating them from scratch. I believe 
> that's basically what DSI did for their Evolver & Prophet 8 voice chips.
> 
> Eric
> 
> Barry Klein wrote:
>> Wow, Googling this stuff is getting interesting:
>> http://www.deiaz.com/docs/BR-MW-01700-00-B.pdf
>>
>> Barry
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dave Manley [mailto:dlmanley at sonic.net] Sent: Friday, November 
>> 02, 2007 3:00 PM
>> Cc: Barry Klein; synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
>> Subject: Re: [sdiy] IC Prototyping was: SSM2040
>>
>> Another option is a semi-custom approach such as the one offered by 
>> Array Design.  This is a company run by Hans Camenzind, who is 
>> probably better known as the designer of the 555 timer.  His idea is 
>> to predefine a family of die with varying numbers of transistors, 
>> resistors, etc. The design is then customized with metalization 
>> (similar to a Gate Array).  This should greatly reduce the cost and 
>> time to manufacture a part (assuming the family is at all active).  It 
>> wouldn't give you a exact clone, but it could enable making some 
>> interesting devices.
>>
>> http://www.arraydesign.com/
>>
>> The reference manual for the family is here:
>>
>> http://www.arraydesign.com/700series.html
>>
>>
>> Hans is in his mid-70's at this point, so I wonder if this company is 
>> still an option.  I don't know if there are any other companies 
>> offering similar services.
>>
>> If you've never seen a book on designing analog ICs there is a free 
>> download by Hans here:
>>
>> http://www.designinganalogchips.com/
>>
>> Lots of good reference material on IC current mirrors, voltage 
>> references, diff amps, opamps, OTAs, etc.  Also some interesting 
>> historical information.
>>
>> -Dave
>>
>>
>>>> Barry Klein wrote:
>>>>> take a read of this discussion:
>>>>> http://www.edn.com/blog/1700000170/post/1850011785.html
>>>>> Read the last two paragraphs.  How is it going to be inexpensive
>>>>> to make
>>>>> your own IC?  How would any of us, even if we had 10K$ even proceed?
>>>>> I suppose there is some university teaching this stuff but it is
>>>>> not common
>>>>> knowledge otherwise.  Are they hinting it will be?
>>>>>> From discussion:
>>>>>> AFAIK, nobody has produced a pin compatible 2040 or 3320 clone.
>>>>> I believe that's correct, but there's nothing stopping anyone from
>>>>> doing so if they felt it was worth the effort.
>>
>>
>>
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