Holt Integrated Circuits, a world leader in data bus IC's for the avionics and military indus-tries, today announced compliance of its flagship 3.3V ARINC 429 line driver, HI-8597, with the lightning require-ments of RTCA/DO-160G, Section 22, Level 3 Pin Injection Test Waveform Set A (3 & 4), Set B (3 & 5A) and Set Z (3 & 5B), using no additional external components. Validation was carried out by an independent ISO ac-credited lab using industry standard procedures and practices. A test report from D.L.S. Electronic Systems, Inc. is available on request.

The RTCA/DO-160G specification provides a standardized test methodology which is accepted in the avionics industry as the gold standard for environmental testing of airborne equipment. Compliance ensures Holt devices operate relia-bly in a broad variety of avionics applications with tough en-vironmental requirements.

In addition to the integrated lightning protection capability, the HI-8597 is extremely rugged, demonstrating excellent short-circuit capability on the ARINC 429 outputs (+/-50V for 1 second).

"Because of its integrated single-chip design, the HI-8597 is ideal for applications that require board space sav-ings without sacrificing hi-rel performance," said Scott Paladichuk, Director of Quality at Holt. "This DO-254 certi-fiable ARINC 429 line driver provides the solution to lightning protection challenges for next generation aircraft".

The HI-8597 operates from a single 3.3V power supply, generating all ARINC 429 voltage levels with an on-chip DC/DC converter. Only four external capacitors are required and an internal 37.5 Ohm resistor on each output enables direct connection to the ARINC 429 bus. The built-in lightning protection reduces line driver component count from nine to one in a typical application. The HI-8597 is available in a compact 16-pin E-SOIC package.