
Established in November 2004, the EWA Montpelier, Vermont facility is home of the Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Design Center for Special Operations , specializing in the design, design, production, testing, packaging and integration of custom and low volume production chipsets. The secure, state-of-the-art development environment, staffed by a cadre of semiconductor industry experts, provides a 100% domestic solution for both government and commercial customers.
The EWA Montpelier Facility also provides a wide range of systems engineering, software engineering, and test & evaluation support to the National Center for the Study of Counter Terrorism and CyberCrime at Norwich University , headquartered in Northfield, VT. In addition, t he Montpelier facility serves as a hub for homeland defense-oriented design and development, test and evaluation, as well as a host of other premium technical and engineering services.
Products and Services
Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Design Center
In April 2005, the EWA Montpelier, Vermont facility inaugurated its ASIC Design Center with the awarded of the "Advanced Miniaturization Technology for Special Operations Program" for the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) in Tampa, Florida. This multi-million dollar contract enabled EWA Montpelier Facility to expand the Design Center and commence specialized chip design and development. Today, the Design Center supports customers whose products are at different levels of product maturity to include:
New Concepts & Designs - Create a design and prototype to verify product functionality, then miniaturized using ASIC technology to create a small and more efficient form factor
Existing Devices Requiring Miniaturization - Reduction of circuit board(s) into ASIC chipset(s) that are then integrated into smaller, lower power, reduced weight form factors.
Older Technology ASIC Designs - Convert existing / legacy ASIC design(s) into newer optimal ASIC technology, often permitting the introduction of additional capability and performance.
ASIC Designs Requiring Fabrication - Serve as a "second source" for fabrication by obtaining the current ASIC design (in a current IBM technology) and running it through our ground rule checking and adjudication process to allow the design to be submitted for fabrication.
ASIC Chipset Integration - We can do more than give you a bag of chips - We typically support the design and development of the new (smaller) circuit board and/or device package and integrate the ASIC chipset(s) into the new form factor.
EWA is contractually coupled with a domestic foundry to utilize local fabrication facilities in Vermont. As such, EWA can provide high quality, reliable chipsets in a range of process technologies, such as CMOS, RF CMOS, and silicon germanium BiCMOS, in a range of transistor sizes from 0.5 µm to 90 nm. This allows EWA to choose and implement the technology that best meets the performance and cost requirements of the customer. The experienced EWA Montpelier staff is very comfortable developing mixed signal (analog/digital) ASIC chipsets.
The EWA Montpelier facility employs a Cadence-based ASIC computer aided design (CAD) environment. Through contractual agreements with domestic manufacturers such as IBM, EWA's Cadence-based CAD environment is able to integrate the manufacturer's PDKs (design kits) for technologies that are in manufacture. The Design Center also has extensive simulation and analysis capabilities using Agilent's ADS toolset, as well as ESD-safe laboratory facilities and test equipment that support ASIC test, evaluation, and verification. The most valuable resource of the EWA Design Center is the full-time professional staff that is comprised of experienced experts of the semiconductor industry. This experienced team, coupled with the modern CAD facility, allows the EWA Montpelier facility to offer many choices and options that best meet the Customer's performance and budget requirements.
Computer Network & Software Engineering
The EWA Montpelier, Vermont facility is actively involved in a variety of projects involving multi-level security network development and custom applications development in Linux and Windows-based environments. The EWA Montpelier, Vermont facility has established a disciplined and structured process for software specification, design, development, testing, and documentation, based upon best commercial and DoD software development practices. Typical activities include:
Software analysis and requirements definition
DOD STD 498 Software design & development
Computer programming
Database development
Software integration
Configuration management
Network administration
Quality assurance
Software test & evaluation
The EWA Montpelier facility also provides engineering and information technology (IT) support for the establishment, test, upgrade, and operational support of systems, networks, and workstations. The facility contains a continuously updated software development environment (tools, networks, and equipment ) as well as an independent verification and validation (IV&V) laboratory. This disciplined and modern development environment is staffed by a growing and highly skilled technical staff comprised of software engineers, computer scientists, network engineers, information assurance analysts, programmers, and technical writers.
Systems Engineering & Integration
The EWA Montpelier, Vermont facility has proven track record of experience in systems engineering throughout the lifecycle of a product or system from initial concept to final decommission. A major focus has been the leveraging of commercial off the shelf (COTS) products and solutions that are procured, integrated, and tested to provide cost-effective and timely solutions for government and commercial customers.
The EWA Montpelier, Vermont facility provides a wide variety of systems engineering and technical support services. Classical systems engineering services include:
Scientific research
System analysis and requirements definition,
COTS market analysis; evaluation of technologies
Development of operational concepts and tactics (CONOPS)
Analysis and evaluation of concepts, technologies, systems and subsystems.
More often, a more practical subset of systems engineering and technical services are requested by the customer to include:
System development planning and review
System and subsystem specification
Hardware and software design
Test planning & execution
Integration planning and execution
Procurement sourcing & support
Interface control & configuration management
Safety engineering
EWA-Vermont Operations
384 River Street
Montpelier, VT 05602
Phone: (802) 229-5190 | Fax: (802) 229-5851