Analog IC design: The case for ASICs

Recently we had a conversation with a design engineer involved in the implementation of a wireless communication system. His input was interesting . He indicated that even though he got a majority of his devices right off the shelf, it turns out that he still had glaring gaps in his implementation . The reason for this, was that his application required some customization which could only be done using ASICs, both digital and analog. His initial solution to the digital problem was the use of programmable logic devices ( PLD). However the cost of the PLD in volume was prohibitive. So ultimately an ASIC was the only solution. Certain analog functions were also put into an ASIC for the same reasons. So the lesson is that although the design engineer can buy off the shelf devices for a majority of his design implementaion he cannot entirely fill his BOM with standard devcies and for the optimum solution may require one or two ASICs. Costs for ASICs can be made quite low. Please visit http://www.signalpro.biz for more information about ASIC implementations.