High-Speed Communication FPGAs in Defence Projects – Opportunities and Challenges

In recent years, FPGAs have established themselves as a key technology in safety-critical applications. Especially in defence projects, they enable the realisation of demanding systems for fast data processing, communication, and signal processing due to their high computing performance, flexibility, and reusability. This article describes the specific requirements, process models, and challenges associated with the development of FPGAs in the defence environment.

The development and verification processes of safety-critical FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) designs differ significantly from conventional industrial projects. Strict design guidelines, extensive documentation obligations, and compliance with international certification standards such as DO-254 or SIL considerably increase the effort involved.