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Prototypes Ordered

A project log for TinyFPGA E-Series

Tiny board with a BIG FPGA. SD card, 64mbit DDR RAM, ECP5 FPGA, 64mbit flash, and micro USB. Do more with up to 45k LUTs.

luke-valentyLuke Valenty 11/21/2017 at 07:080 Comments

I sent the gerbers and associated files to PCBWay for manufacture and assembly.  The BGA package on the ECP5 FPGA I'm using requires 0.15mm via drills and 4 copper layers to route out all the necessary IOs, grounds, and power rails.  This means it's an advanced PCB process that has much more expensive fixed costs.  I've reviewed the board layout and schematic several times.  It should work.  I think.  It will be very interesting to see what sort of issues pop up.  When I do get the prototypes back in a month (if I'm lucky it will be that fast!), I'll have the following things to checkout in roughly this order:

There's plenty of work to do while I'm waiting for the boards.  Beyond getting ready for the initial checkout of the prototype boards, I'll also be designing a pogo-pin test bed for production checkout of all TinyFPGA E-series boards.  The pogo pins will contact each of the IOs as well as all of the power rails and test points on the bottom of the board to access the SD Card interface, JTAG, SPI, PROGRAMN, 1.1v, 1.8v, and 2.5v nets.

Bottom of the TinyFPGA E-series board with test pads

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