By John McHale

PLAINVIEW, N.Y. ? Engineers at Aeroflex Circuit Technology are combating obsolescence with their new ACT15530 CMOS integrated circuit used to implement MIL-STD-1553 and similar Manchester II encoded, time division multiplexed, serial data protocols.

"Working with our customers Aeroflex saw the need for the ACT 15530 as a replacement product and developed ACT15530 as a fit, form, and functional replacement to products that were no longer available to the avionics customer," says Susan Koltun, sales manager at Aeroflex.

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Aeroflex engineers designed the device basically as a replacement for the Harris HD15530, which was obsoleted a couple of years ago, says John Vanchieri, senior design engineer at Aeroflex.

Aeroflex engineers originally developed the ACT15530 in house for their military and commercial applications, including applications at the Naval Air Warfare Center, Koltun says. Now the company is selling it as a separate component, she adds.

The Aeroflex device can survive extreme temperatures as hot as 200 degrees Celsius, which would include applications such as going down to the bottom of an oil well, Vanchieri notes.

"Aeroflex will continue to support out military, high-rel, and commercial customers, against obsolescence, diminishing manufacturing sources and major redesign problems," Koltun continues.

The device is divided into two independent sections, encoder and decoder, with a common master reset. The function of the encoder section is to produce the sync pulse and parity bit and encode the data bits. The decoder section recognizes the sync pulse, decodes the data bits and checks for parity.

Aeroflex guarantees the ACT15530 to support the 1-megabit-per-second data rate of MIL-STD-1553 over its stated temperature and supply voltage ranges. The device interfaces with CMOS, TTL, or N-channel support circuitry and operates from a standard 5-volt supply.

The circuit is also applicable to party line digital data communications applications that require high reliability command and control signals. Designers can use Aeroflex's transceiver products (4400 Series), to achieve the bit error rates and word error rates of MIL-STD-1553, company officials say.

ACT's 15530 Manchester encoder/decoder will be available to a Standard Microcircuit Drawing for procurement in the near future, Aeroflex officials say. The SMD simplifies the procurement and allows ACT to deliver product off-the-shelf, eliminating the costly paperwork of source control drawings, they claim. The ACT15530 is $125.00 each in lots of 100 and is available now. Several package and quality options are also available.

Aeroflex's MIL-STD-1553/1760, MIL-STD-1397, and ARINC 429/629 products are designed for military, naval, smart munitions, avionics, and commercial aviation platforms.

For more information on the ACT15530 contact Aeroflex by phone at 516-694-6700, by mail at 35 S. Service Road, Plainview, N.Y. 11803, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.aeroflex.com.