Our Experience
Design Services
We've all experienced it, when you're trying to get to market quickly or meet the timescales imposed by your customer, and you are suddenly faced with a resouce or skills shortage.
MBS can fill this gap. We can provide the help when you need it and keep your project on schedule. From custom hardware and embedded software design, to providing supporting analysis and documentation for your own design.
MBS has the expertise and experience to offer support at any phase on the projects lifecycle, regardless of the required integrity level, from commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) to the most stringent mission critical systems (RTCA/DO-254). With low overheads and high expertise, MBS also provides a cost effective solution. So contact us today and let us help you satisfy your customers.
Specialist Engineering
The formation of MBS has brought together engineers with unique specialist experience in Flight Controls, Guidance Systems and Auto Pilots. This allows MBS to provide consultancy and design guidance in the following areas:
- Kalman Filters
- Optimal Control
- System Modelling
- Guidance and control system designs
- Navigation Systems
- DSP Algorithms
- Radar Guided Systems
- Autopilot Designs
- Flight Controls
Hardware
The formation of MBS has brought together engineers MBS can provide extensive experience for design support of embedded hardware in a wide range of processor and interface designs. MBS can provide design support for systems based on the industries broadest selection of processors. An example of our design experience includes:
- Power PC
- Texas DSP
- Intel x86
- Motorola 68k/Coldfire
- AMD RISC
MBS has extensive experience in the design of interfaces between commercial aircraft data buses and a wide variety of host computers. Supported data buses are as follows:
- IEEE-1394A/B
- ARINC-561
- ARINC-582
- AFDX
- ARINC-586
- MIL-STD-1553
- ARINC-629
- ARINC-571
- EIA-485/EIA-422
- ARINC-429
- ARINC-575
MBS can provide a wide range of interface configurations with the flexibility to provide the necessary facilities to meet the customer’s unique and demanding requirements. As well as supporting industry standard data buses, MBS can use its experience to develop derivatives of commercial bus interfaces to meet the particular needs of our customers. All MBS’s communication and I/O module designs are available in a wide range of ruggedisation levels, from relatively benign commercial to harsh military environments. Designs can be developed to various integrity levels up to mission critical RTCA/DO-254.
Thanks to the modular nature of MBS’s designs, communication and I/O modules can be merged with processor modules to meet specific customer demands.
Software
Whether it’s coding assembler routines to initialise memory management units, or writing environmental stress screening software - MBS has the experience
Our engineers have designed embedded software to provide many different funtions. We have experience in coding embedded test software up to the standards required for acceptance test of safety critical hardware.
We have unique experience in software design to increase hardware fault coverage and provide detailed diagnostics back to the user, this allows rapid fault finding and corrective action to minimise delays on hardware deliveries.
Our embedded test software has been proven to increase in service reliability by shaking out design problems during test and qualification.
MBS also has experience in software verification. We employ a number of verification processses from logic analyser traces and hardware fault injection through to unique software fault injection techniques.
MBS can also offer support for the integration of the embedded code onto the target hardware. We have vast experience in software integration on various hardware platforms.
Programmable Logic Design
MBS has experience in the design of programmable logic for use in a wide range of applications. Processes have been developed that can be tailored to satisfy the specific integrity requirements of our customers.
MBS can target designs to our customers preferred devices including Altera, Xilinx, Lattice, Cypress and Quicklogic.
MBS has developed it’s processes to satisfy the stringent requirements of RTCA/DO-254, but can be tailored to satisfy cost and time sensitive programmes.
Design Analysis
MBS can provide support in all areas of design analysis to ensure your end products are both robust and reliable. MBS can respond rapidly to customers immediate needs, or provide long-term studies and independent analyses. Design analysis services include
- Electrical Stress Analysis
- Timing Analysis
- Signal Integrity Analysis
- Reliability Analysis
- Power Analysis
- Thermal Analysis• Documentation
Stress Analysis
A detailed stress analysis is required to ensure good in-service reliability by identifying components working close to their maximum specified limits. The design can then be modified to ensure that all devices are within a specified derated limit. This analysis can significantly increase in-service reliability and lengthen the operational life of the target product.
Timing Analysis
A Timing analysis is required to ensure that no timing constraints are violated over worse case thermal and electrical conditions. The timing analysis details all inherent delays including PCB track delays and associated skews. The final worse case calculated margin can then be analysed to ensure a robust product over all operational conditions.
Signal Integrity Analysis
Fast signal edge rates in modern digital designs have increasingly focused attention on signal integrity issues early in the design lifecycle of the product. Fast rise times generate signal reflections along the board tracks leading to non monotonic edges and damaging overshoot/undershoot. Without correct signal conditioning, failures can occur immediately or when the product is subjected to temperature extremes. Alternatively the increased stresses from poor signal quality can lead to in-service reliability issues.
Reliability Analysis
Reliability Modelling and predictions allow an early, initial assessment of a design, and determination of progress towards meeting RMS objectives and customer needs. Product and system-level modelling/predictions also provide a quantitative means of evaluating reliability design alternatives and trade-offs, highlighting opportunities for improvement early in the product life.
Test and Qualification
Environmental Stress Screening Plans, marginal design tolerances, workmanship errors and manufacturing process variations can create latent defects in a manufactured product which may not be apparent during normal acceptance testing, but which will result in failures later in the manufacturing process, or under the stresses of the operational environment. These latent deficiencies produce a high failure rate in the early phases of the product/system life cycle. An effective method for reducing the number of delivered latent defects in a product is environmental stress screening (ESS).
End Product Qualification
MBS can provide support and guidance on the qualification of customer's products. MBS can plan and organise qualification programmes for all levels of testing. Qualification test plans, procedures and reports can be generated for all areas of product qualification that meet FAA JAA requirements. MBS has many years of experience in the design of products operating in harsh environments, where they are subjected to extreme temperatures, thermal cycling and high shock and vibration conditions.
MBS can provide support in the design of both air-cooled and conduction cooled products as well as techniques to improve the thermal and mechanical robustness, including stiffening bars, heat sinks/spreaders, PCB design and layout.
Conduction-cooled cards can be utilised in applications where there is no direct cooling air, or where there are requirements for reliable operation when cooled air is removed for sustained periods. MBS has experience in advanced cooling techniques such as the use of aluminium frames, top-side copper shunts or dedicated cooling layers in the PCB's. These all provide low thermal resistive paths for the conduction of heat from the electronic components to the edge of the card where it is transferred to the chassis.
Ruggedisation
MBS's engineers have many years of experience in the design of products utilised in harsh environment applications, where they are subjected to extreme temperatures, thermal cycling stress, and high shock and vibration conditions.
Products can be designed to provide cooling via one of two methods, air-cooled or conduction cooled. Air-cooled (also referred to as convection-cooled) products are for use in applications where cooling air is blown over the surface of the card. VME, CompactPCI (3U and 6U) and PMC designs as well as custom form factors are all available in air-cooled configurations.
Air-cooled cards can comply with the mechanical specifications of the ANSI/VITA-1, ANSI/VITA-30 or ANSI/VITA-20 published standards.
Additional stiffening bars, heat sinks and heat spreaders can be utilised to conduct heat away from "hot spots" such as processors and FPGA's.
Conduction-cooled cards can be utilised in applications where there is no direct cooling air, or where there are requirements for reliable operation when cooled air is removed for sustained periods. Advanced cooling techniques such as the of aluminium frames, use of top-side copper shunts, dedicated cooling layers in the PCB's provide low thermal resistive paths for the conduction of heat from the electronic components to the edge of the card where it is transferred to the chassis.
Conduction- cooled cards can be designed to comply with the mechanical specifications controlled by the IEEE 1101.2 specification (VME) or ANSI/VITA-30-199x (cPCI) as well as custom form factors.
Technical documentation
MBS has the experience to provide professional documentation to complement your design program.
Our engineers have produced documentation to the highest standard to satisfy the toughest customers in the industry.
Whether it’s to accurately capture all of your critical requirements, or to produce a complete design implementation analysis document. MBS has the expertise.
MBS can also provide a design analysis service, where we will work with your engineers to provide all necessary supporting analysis presented in a professional documentation suite, ready for delivery direct to your customer.
Imprint | Privacy Policy | Copyrights of images
Tel.: +49 (0) 8105 7756900