Customer Challenges with Obsolete Components
Futureproofing Aerospace Series. Article #3: What challenges do designers have to navigate when they are faced with component obsolescence?
15 Jul, 2024. 8 min read
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The aerospace industry is continuously evolving, driven by the need to modernize, improve efficiency, and drive down costs. However, as avionics – the electronic systems that power aircraft – continue to advance, the preservation of legacy systems becomes increasingly vital. This whitepaper offers critical insights into the importance of maintaining these systems, the challenges posed by component obsolescence, and the solutions available to navigate these complexities.
Whitepaper highlights:
- Understand the Importance of Legacy Systems: Discover why preserving legacy avionics systems is crucial for reliability, compliance, and cost-effectiveness.
- Navigate Component Obsolescence: Learn about the challenges aerospace designers face due to outdated or discontinued components and how to address them.
- Explore Solutions from Rochester Electronics: Gain insights into how Rochester Electronics specializes in preserving and replicating obsolete components to ensure the continued operation of legacy systems.
One of the most pressing threats to the continuity of legacy systems is component obsolescence. Obsolescence occurs when a component is no longer produced, supported, or available from the original manufacturer, rendering it difficult or impossible to procure. This situation poses a significant risk to the ongoing operation and maintenance of aerospace systems, as finding suitable replacements can be challenging and costly.
Components can become obsolete for a myriad of different reasons, and often, a confluence of various reasons ultimately renders a component obsolete. Influences such as market trends, technological advancements, and economic pressures all come into play in this unfortunate but unavoidable part of the electronics lifecycle.
At Rochester Electronics, we specialize in helping customers navigate the complexities of component obsolescence. Understanding the causes of component obsolescence is necessary for developing effective strategies to mitigate its impact.
In previous articles in this series, we’ve discussed the importance of preserving legacy systems in avionics, which are often threatened by the risk of component obsolescence. We’ve all explored the major causes of component obsolescence. But now we need to ask the important question: What challenges do designers experience when they are faced with components in their designs becoming obsolete?
Imagine your company has been supporting a legacy design for decades, and suddenly, one of your crucial components becomes obsolete. This is the reality many designers have to navigate when they are confronted with component obsolescence. What challenges would you face in such a situation?
Rochester Electronics, believes that the first major step in dealing with component obsolescence is to educate people about its sources and the difficulties it can cause. Read on to learn more about the major challenges that you might encounter when faced with obsolete components.
Redesign Complexity
Redesigning legacy avionics systems to address component obsolescence poses substantial challenges due to the intricate interdependencies within these systems[1]. When a component becomes obsolete, replacing it is rarely straightforward and often triggers a cascade of modifications across the system.
One of the main challenges lies in evaluating potential replacement components. This process is often tedious and time-consuming, requiring a thorough examination of electrical, mechanical, and software interfaces to ensure physical fit, electrical compatibility, and proper communication with other system elements. Subtle differences between old and new components often emerge during this evaluation, necessitating additional adjustments to avoid integration issues.
In the same vein, once a component is selected, updating the physical layout of legacy systems further complicates the redesign process. New components may differ in size, pin configuration, or power requirements, necessitating significant changes to the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) layout and design. Such a process involves detailed schematic capture, layout design, signal integrity analysis, and thermal management to meet all operational specifications.
At the same time, maintaining the system's original functionality and performance characteristics adds another layer of complexity. Designers must ensure that new components do not introduce unforeseen issues or incompatibilities that could compromise reliability. This necessitates an extensive validation and testing phase, which is resource-intensive and involves both laboratory and real-world simulations.
Certification and Compliance
Certification and compliance are arguably the most significant challenges when redesigning legacy avionics systems to address component obsolescence[2].
By law, all avionics systems must adhere to stringent regulatory standards to ensure safety, reliability, and performance. Such standards, set by agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), require comprehensive documentation, rigorous testing, and thorough validation of any changes made to the system.
The customer's challenge is to ensure that the redesigned system maintains its certification status. Replacing obsolete components often constitutes a design modification, which legally requires a detailed analysis and documentation to demonstrate that the system meets all relevant safety and performance criteria. This includes proving that the new components are functionally equivalent to the original ones and that they integrate seamlessly without introducing new risks or vulnerabilities. Otherwise, the design must go through the entire certification process from scratch.
This is a challenge because the certification process is long and arduous, involving multiple steps, including comprehensive testing, detailed documentation, and thorough impact assessments.
Supply Chain Disruptions
Supply chain disruptions pose significant challenges for avionics designers when addressing component obsolescence in legacy systems[3]. The complexity of the avionics supply chain, coupled with the specialized nature of many components, can lead to substantial delays and increased costs in the redesign process.
Firstly, designers must navigate the availability of suitable replacement components. As components become obsolete, finding direct replacements that meet the same specifications and performance criteria becomes increasingly difficult. The global semiconductor supply chain is notoriously volatile in our post-COVID world, with geopolitical tensions, natural disasters, and pandemics all impacting component availability. Such disruptions are even more profound for avionics components, which are markedly more niche and produced at lower quantities than conventional commercial products.
Supply chain disruptions necessitate close collaboration with component manufacturers and suppliers. Building strong relationships with multiple suppliers can provide more options and greater flexibility when sourcing replacement components. Additionally, working closely with suppliers can help in understanding market trends and potential future disruptions, allowing for more proactive planning and inventory management.
Ultimately, engineers must adopt strategies such as alternative component sourcing, strong supplier relationships, effective inventory management, and flexible system design to ensure the continued reliability and safety of avionics systems in the face of ongoing supply chain uncertainties.
Compatibility Issues
The tightly integrated nature of avionics systems means that any new component must seamlessly interact with existing hardware and software, often necessitating extensive modifications and validation to ensure proper functionality[4].
For example, communication protocols present a layer of complexity. Legacy systems often use older communication standards that may not be directly compatible with modern protocols. Integrating new components might require updating or completely reconfiguring communication interfaces to facilitate seamless data exchange between components. For instance, if a legacy system uses a parallel communication interface and the new component supports only a serial interface, designers must develop bridging solutions such as protocol converters or implement software-based solutions to translate between the two communication standards.
Similarly, software compatibility is a factor in the integration process. New components often come with different firmware or drivers that might not be compatible with the existing system's software. Updating the system’s software to support new components can be a complex and time-consuming task. Engineers need to rewrite or modify existing code to confirm the system can control and monitor the new components correctly. This process involves thorough testing and validation so that the updated software does not introduce bugs or vulnerabilities that could compromise the system's safety and reliability.
Increased Costs
Redesigning legacy avionics systems to address component obsolescence inevitably leads to increased costs[5].
First off, the engineering efforts associated with a redesign are significant. Engineers must conduct detailed analyses and modifications, including updating PCBs, adjusting mechanical fixtures, and reworking software interfaces. These labor-intensive tasks require substantial engineering resources and expertise, translating to high labor costs. Additionally, the process of identifying and validating suitable replacement components often demands custom design work and extensive iterations, further escalating expenses.
The costs are then compounded by the following testing and validation phases. Avionics systems must undergo uniquely rigorous and comprehensive testing to ensure the safe integration of new components. This includes laboratory simulations, environmental stress tests, and real-world operational assessments requiring specialized equipment, facilities, and highly skilled personnel. The iterative nature of this testing, where issues are identified and resolved through multiple cycles, amplifies costs.
Conclusion
Regardless of the causes of component obsolescence, one thing is clear: obsolete components translate into many challenges for the designer. At Rochester Electronics, we’ve made it our mission to help customers overcome the challenges associated with component obsolescence. In the next articles in this series, we’ll show you exactly how we’ve been doing this for over 40 years.
Get the full whitepaper below.
Read more in the series:
Article 1: The Importance of Preserving Legacy Systems in Avionics
Article 2: The Causes of Component Obsolescence
Article 3: Customer Challenges with Obsolete Components
Article 4: Solving Obsolescence with Rochester Electronics
Article 5: Proactive Strategies for Managing Avionics Obsolescence