ASIC design solutions
Your ASIC design company – Swindon Silicon Systems designs high-performance, low-power ASICs tailored to your application.
Swindon Silicon Systems at a glance
shipped globally
produced annually
in TPMS ICs
test facilities
Performance, efficiency and innovation with custom ICs
Optimised performance
Maintain signal integrity and real-time processing in mixed-signal environments.
Power efficiency
Low power consumption for extended wireless product life and thermal stability.
Compact designs
Reduce board space and product size without compromising performance.
IP protection
Maintain control and protect your competitive advantage with secure custom architecture.
Enable new technologies
Push technical boundaries with application-specific integration.
Reducing supply chain risk and cost with ASIC integration
Bill of materials (BOM) reduction
Consolidate functions into a single, efficient IC.
Long-term supply assurance
Sustain availability with supply chain and obsolescence planning.
Obsolescence recovery
Secure a second source or custom replacement for at-risk components.
Improved ROI
Lower unit costs and increased margins through integration and volume scalability.
Fully managed supply chain
Global fulfilment and account-managed delivery.
Full turnkey ASIC design & development process
From concept to supply, our process is designed to reduce development risk, deliver clarity, and ensure alignment at every step.
Whether you’re navigating a first-time ASIC project or replacing a critical component, we make the journey transparent and collaborative.
Consultation
We work with you to understand your technical and commercial needs to define a viable ASIC solution.
Feasibility & specification
Technical and commercial proposal with architecture options, risk assessment, and fixed-cost model.
Design & development
Evaluation & prototyping
Functional testing in your environment, with collaborative refinement for production readiness.
Production & supply
Complete production management from wafer to delivery, with long-term supply assurance for your ASIC.
ASIC design feasibility studies explained
Requirement analysis
We work with your team to thoroughly analyse your technical needs, performance requirements, and commercial objectives.
Technical evaluation
Our engineers assess technical feasibility, identify potential challenges, and develop preliminary architecture recommendations.
Economic analysis
We provide a cost-benefit assessment, including development costs, unit pricing projections, and ROI timeline.
Deliverables:
- Detailed technical specification
- IC architecture recommendations
- Cost-benefit analysis
- Development timeline and milestones
- Technical and commercial risk assessment
Deliverables:
- Detailed technical specification
- IC architecture recommendations
- Cost-benefit analysis
- Development timeline and milestones
- Technical and commercial risk assessment
Is an ASIC right for your application?
An ASIC typically makes sense when one or more of the following apply:
- You need performance, power, or size that off-the-shelf components cannot deliver
- You’re producing at volumes where BOM cost reduction through integration has a clear ROI
- You need to protect proprietary circuit design or algorithm IP
- A component you depend on is end-of-life and needs a replacement or second source
- Your application requires guaranteed long-term supply (10–20+ years)
If you’re unsure, our feasibility assessment is designed to answer that question before any development commitment is made.
ASIC testing, validation & packaging services
Swindon Silicon’s fully automated in-house test facilities ensure every ASIC meets specification, with test solutions designed for reliability, coverage, and scalability.
- 100% wafer-level and package-level testing
- In-house ATE and wafer probe systems
- Real-time data collection and test repeatability
- Qualification testing to industry standards
- Bespoke test software and hardware created in-house
- Optimised for high fault coverage with minimal test time
- Parametric testing across full operating range
- Application-specific test fixtures
- High-speed ATE with custom vectors
- Environmental stress testing to automotive standards
- Burn-in capabilities for long-term reliability
- Test programs scalable for high-volume production
Reliable ASIC supply. Zero obsolescence surprises.
From proactive forecasting to lifetime assurance, Swindon Silicon ensures your ASIC is always available when and where you need it.
Reliable supply chain management
Our dedicated team oversees every stage of ASIC delivery, forecasting demand, managing WIP, coordinating suppliers, and ensuring on-time fulfilment worldwide.
No obsolescence surprises
We adopt a 4-pronged strategy to keep your ASIC available for the full product lifetime. If a risk to availability emerges, we act swiftly, in close collaboration with you, to secure continuity.
Total quality control
Every supplier is regularly audited, and all ASICs are manufactured and tested under our ISO 9001-certified Quality Management System, ensuring the highest levels of quality and consistency.
Proven sensor interface solutions across industries
From automotive TPMS to aerospace ranging systems, see how a purpose-built sensor interface ASIC solves real design challenges across resistive, inductive, optical, magnetic, capacitive, haptic, and acoustic applications.
Full-turnkey ASIC design services
From specification to delivery, Swindon Silicon offers complete ASIC solutions with guaranteed quality.
Our in-house team manages the full ASIC lifecycle, from early feasibility to design, production, and global delivery, ensuring consistency, accountability, and performance at every stage.
Design & expertise
- Complete in-house design team
- Custom mixed-signal IC design & verification
- Design-for-Test (DfT) built into every project
Test & validation
- 100% wafer and package-level testing
- In-house ATE and wafer probe stations
- Environmental and burn-in testing to automotive standards
Production & packaging
- Fabless model with established foundry partners
- Standard and custom packaging options (WLCSP, QFN, System in Package)
- Zero-defect manufacturing and yield optimisation
Supply & assurance
- Fully managed global logistics and fulfilment
- Obsolescence mitigation strategy
- Long-term supply commitment with 150M+ ASICs shipped annually
ASIC design solutions for your industry
Automotive ASICs
For automotive engineers working on safety-critical sensing systems, Swindon Silicon is the global market leader in TPMS ASIC, with more than 150 million sensor interfaces shipped annually. We also design ASICs for braking systems, MEMS accelerometer interfaces for BEV applications.
Industrial ASICs
Factory automation demands precision and longevity in equal measure. Swindon Silicon’s ASICs are deployed in position encoder systems, proximity sensing devices, and touch screens, purpose-built for the performance and supply continuity that industrial processes require.
Aerospace ASICs
In avionics and defence, where standard components often aren’t qualified to operate, Swindon Silicon designs high-reliability mixed-signal ASICs for navigation, inertial sensing, altimetry, and ranging, backed by long-term supply assurance across the full product lifecycle.
Engineering capabilities & technologies
We specialise in ASIC solutions for demanding environments:
- Mixed-signal analog + digital design
- High-voltage and low-noise circuitry
- Power management ICs
- MEMS and sensor integration
- RF and communication ICs
Swindon Silicon’s team combines proven IP, high-yield production flows, and design-for-test techniques to optimise every stage of development.
Quality assurance & supply chain integrity
We operate a robust fabless supply chain, supported by in-house quality assurance to meet the highest industry standards:
- ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001 certified management systems
- A zero-defect mindset focused on continuous improvement and full traceability
- Detailed audit and qualification programs
- Secure global fulfilment and real-time inventory management
Our obsolescence assurance guarantees long-term availability, ensuring your ASIC investment is protected across the full product lifecycle.
Latest updates & insights
Frequently asked questions
What is an ASIC?
An Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) is a custom chip designed to perform specific tasks more efficiently than off-the-shelf components.
What is an ASIC vs. an FPGA?
- ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit): A custom-built chip designed for a specific application. It offers the best possible performance, lowest power consumption, smallest size, and strongest IP protection — but requires an upfront design investment and is most cost-effective at high production volumes.
- FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array): A general-purpose chip that can be programmed and reprogrammed after manufacturing. It’s flexible and ideal for prototyping or low-volume production but is larger, less power-efficient, and more expensive per unit compared to an ASIC.
In short: FPGAs are flexible but inefficient; ASICs are fixed but optimised. Companies often prototype on FPGAs and then move to ASICs when scaling to volume. Explore the full advantages and disadvantages of ASIC vs FPGA.
What are the main challenges in mixed-signal ASIC design?
The four challenges of mixed-signal ASIC design are managing noise coupling at the analogue-digital boundary, maintaining accuracy across process, voltage, and temperature variation, designing an effective calibration and trim architecture for production, and meeting long-term reliability and qualification requirements such as AEC-Q100.
Noise coupling is particularly critical – high-speed digital switching generates transients that propagate into sensitive analogue circuits through shared supply rails and substrate. Managing this requires physical partitioning of the two domains, separate supply routing, and careful layout, and it is an area where depth of experience across real programmes makes a material difference to outcomes. Swindon’s design process addresses each of these challenges from specification through to production test, with Design-for-Test built into every project from the outset.
What is the difference between an ASIC and a SoC?
A SoC (System on Chip) integrates multiple functional blocks, processor cores, memory, peripherals, and analogue interfaces into a single device. An ASIC is defined by its application specificity rather than by its level of integration, so a mixed-signal SoC designed for a specific sensing application is itself an ASIC. Swindon designs both dedicated sensor-interface ASICs and more complex mixed-signal SoCs, depending on the application requirements.
Is an ASIC right for my project?
If your application requires high performance, long-term supply, or design integration, ASICs can reduce cost and improve reliability at volume.
What’s the typical development timeline?
Timelines vary by project complexity, but most ASICs are delivered within 12–24 months including specification, prototyping, and production.
What volume of production is needed to justify an ASIC?
There is no fixed minimum, but ASICs typically become cost-competitive with discrete component solutions at production volumes as little as 1,000-10,000 units per year and above, depending on complexity and the cost of the components being replaced. Swindon Silicon works with customers from the feasibility stage to model unit economics and confirm whether an ASIC investment makes commercial sense before committing to development.
How does Swindon Silicon protect my IP during the ASIC design process?
There are no standard parts in Swindon Silicon’s portfolio; every ASIC is purpose-built for a specific customer application.
What happens at end of life for an ASIC?
Swindon Silicon actively manages the product lifecycle from the outset. Where process technology changes or end-of-life risks emerge, we work with customers to coordinate last time buys, manage process transfers where feasible, and provide structured transition planning, minimising disruption to your production.