ARINC 429 Transceiver with SPI Bus Interface

Holt Integrated Circuits has the largest ARINC 429 IC product portfolio in existence today. Holt’s ARINC 429 ICs cover a whole range of complexity, from simple analogue bus interface chips such as line receivers and line drivers, to protocol ICs with on-chip FIFOs or RAM. Holt’s unique approach provides fully integrated solutions with both analogue transceivers and digital protocol on one chip. The latest line of ARINC 429 terminal ICs are designed to operate from a single 3.3V supply and incorporate a host Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI).

Holt Integrated Circuit's latest line receivers and line drivers both have internal lightning protection to RTCA/DO-160G, Section 22 Level 3 pin injection test.

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APC Technology Group, has a 35-year heritage in the design, specification and distribution of specialist electronic components, products and systems for aerospace and space applications. Our engineer-led technical sales team have extensive pedigrees in designing-in components and products into space programmes.

As AS9120B Certified Distributors, our space-compatible technologies include, but are not limited to: Radiation-Tolerant, Semiconductors, Microelectronics and Optoelectronic Components, including Integrated Circuits. APC can also supply high-density ‘System-in-Package’ Solutions that miniaturise radiation tolerant systems.​

What is ARINC-429?

Aeronautical Radio, Inc. (ARINC) was a privately held corporation started in 1929, ultimately acquired by Collins Aerospace in 2013. This corporation was founded by and comprised of various airlines and airline manufacturers (components and equipment) with the goal of producing sets of specifications (standards) for avionics hardware for global aircraft use. ARINC-429 is the standard for local area networks on commercial and transport aircraft. Communications, guidance, altitude, altitude reference, flight management, and more are all needed to work together to accomplish a successful flight. ARINC-429 was designed in the 1970’s to accomplish this goal.

ARINC-429 SPECIFICATION

The ARINC-429 technical specification, originally referred to as the Digital Information Transfer System (DTIS), was published in 1977 to define how avionics systems and components should communicate within commercial aircraft. The Mark 33 Digital Information Transfer System, as it is known today, is still the standard most commonly used by airlines. This specification is used to establish 429 bus communications for word structures, electrical characteristics and other protocols.

What is unique about ARINC 429 data transfer is its simple one directional flow of bus communications data. A typical data bus offers multidirectional data transfer between various bus points on a single set of wires. Not so with ARINC-429, but this is not taken as a disadvantage to the airlines as it has allowed for long-term operational cost savings and system reliability.

The ARINC-429 specification entails the following:

• Hardware consisting of only a single transmitter source supporting 1 to 20 receivers (also known as “sinks”) on a single wire pair.
• Data transmission is one directional. Additional busses are required for multidirectional data transfer.
• A data transmitter can only talk to a defined number of data receivers on a single bus on one wire pair.
• For multidirectional communication, 2 wire pairs are required for data transmission in opposite directions.
• Transmit and receive channels are different ports.
• Data words are 32 bits (most messages consist of a single data word) broken into 24-bits containing the core information and 8-bits acting as a data label describing the data transmitted.
• Messages are transmitted at either low speed (12.5 kbit/s) or high speed (100 kbit/s) to receiver components