Ridgetop Group, Inc. is an AS9100D- and ISO9001:2015 certified organization that provides advanced, high performance designs to its customers. Adding to that distinction is the recent completion of the AS9100D audit for certified quality and manufacturing processes. The designs provided by our organization have been diverse, including both PCB- and IC-based solutions. Some of the designs have been applied in very harsh aerospace environments.
Board and System-Level Condition-based Maintenance (CBM) Solutions
Ridgetop has broad experience in assisting its clients with implementation of advanced diagnostic and prognostic solutions, including:
- Advanced Lithium Ion Batter Management Systems with CellSage™
- Data Memory Modules (DMM) for commercial aircraft auxiliary power (APU) systems
- Dynamic strain measurements using advanced Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors on composite materials
- Power systems with linkages to Health Usage Management Systems (HUMS)
- Optical range finder designs
- Many more…
CBM Integration with Integrated Vehicle Health Maintenance (IVHM) , HUMS, and Communication Buses
A key attribute to Ridgetop’s Advanced Diagnostics and Prognostics is modularity at various levels. The levels range from die-level prognostics all the way up to subsystem and system-level embodiments.
Ridgetop has been on the forefront of mining data buses for equipment degradation signatures, including MIL-STD-1553, ARINC429, and TTTech — a fault tolerant data bus used in flight control systems.
In recent years, Ridgetop has been invited to provide communication solutions using MTConnect and CAN-MD. Both solutions seek to provide maximum flexibility for system builders who are incorporating CBM+ or IVHM to reduce maintenance and sustainment costs. This enhanced process flow for manufacturing equipment is illustrated below.
A CBM+ and MTConnect Enabled Solution
Semiconductor and IC Design
In the area of IC design, Ridgetop serves both commercial and government customers. For the DOD, Ridgetop has been certified as a Trusted Category 1A Supplier under the DOD’s Trusted Foundry program and has access to frequent shuttle runs. Ridgetop is fully acquainted with the demanding requirements from the DOD, NASA, DOE and their Prime Contractors. Our specialty is in the design of analog/mixed-signal circuitry that may also have some radiation-hard performance requirements, such as TID, SEE, and TDR.
Ridgetop has used design tools from Cadence, Mentor, Silvaco, and Tanner, and has designed analog/mixed signal circuitry down to the 14 nm process node. Ridgetop also has a line of predesigned and characterized IP blocks that can be used to accelerate the time-to-market for your systems. Examples include precision bandgap references, op-amps, comparators, ADCs, DACs and test structures.
Our design services include:
- Analog/mixed-signal and gate array integrated circuits with varying process nodes of 0.5 μm down to 14 nm
- High-speed, high performance, high linearity ADC and DAC design
- Fuel Cell and Battery Management System components
- FPGA-based designs, from basic specification to gate level, with timing analysis and programming
- IP blocks of specialized functionality
- Modeling and simulation
- Completion of back-end design from existing EDIF/SPICE to GDSII layout
- Rescaling “legacy” designs to smaller process geometries
- Radiation-hardened/foundry-specific designs. (For more information on radiation-related design services, click here.)
PCB Board-Level Design
Ridgetop has provided board-level designs for its customers, including laser rangefinder components, and data memory modules (DMM) that are DO-178B compliant for commercial aerospace firms. In addition, we have extensive experience in the development of custom test boards and instrumentation clusters for automated measurement applications.
Test System Load Boards, ATE Programming, and Defect Analysis
Ridgetop has extensive ATE experience in precision current measurement applications, including Iddq, as well as ATE system programming and customer test fixture design and development. Installations have been made at over 70 semiconductor firms worldwide. Recent engagements have extended to precision measurement of transorbs and precision, low-impedance connector test fixtures.
For more information, please contact us or download our Engineering Design Services overview.
Ridgetop is certified as category 1A under the Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA) as part of the Trusted Supplier Program. Ridgetop has history of designing analog and mixed signal ICs for demanding applications in space satellites that are subjected to extreme temperatures and radiation. Our designs have utilized bulk CMOS, CMOS-SOI, and SiGe at process geometries down to 28 nm channel lengths. Radiation hardness is also a concern, and Ridgetop has addressed those requirements as well. A recent Ridgetop design was delivered to ON Semiconductor for the U.S. Air Force STELLAR Star Tracker.
Under contract to NASA, Ridgetop designed an effective 3-axis wireless rotational sensor. The RotoSense™ sensor has been tested on fast-spinning pinion gears on helicopter gear boxes, and also rolling stock for railroad safety improvements.