Custom
Electronics for the Systems That Fly
Safely
DO-178C-aware firmware development. ARINC 429 and MIL-STD-1553 bus interfaces implemented natively on custom silicon. UAV flight controller hardware qualified to the full DO-160G environmental envelope. Full-stack aerospace electronics engineering from propulsion monitoring hardware to avionics data acquisition units.
The Problem We Solve
Aerospace Electronics Is Defined by Two Constraints That Exist Nowhere Else Simultaneously.
The physics of the airborne environment and the regulatory framework of airworthiness. Temperature from -55°C to 85°C, altitude-induced pressure changes, vibration from turbulence and engine harmonics, electromagnetic interference from onboard systems, lightning strike threat — and overlaid on these, DO-178C software assurance, DO-254 hardware assurance, DO-160G environmental qualification, and TSO authorization. Most electronics engineering firms understand neither constraint in depth. Firms that understand the physics rarely understand the regulatory framework. Firms familiar with the standards rarely have the electronic hardware engineering capability to apply them to modern silicon and firmware toolchains. Ankh operates at the intersection of both.
The instinct of most electronics firms when entering aerospace is to adapt existing commercial or industrial products to the airborne environment — add conformal coating, upgrade the temperature-rated components, rewrite the IP rating on the datasheet. This approach fails the DO-160G qualification campaign and the DO-178C design assurance review for the same reason: neither the hardware nor the software were designed from requirements with the airborne constraints and design assurance obligations in mind. Building electronics that fly requires aerospace engineering discipline applied from the first schematic, not aerospace compliance added to a design that was never conceived for the environment.
Three converging market forces are creating sustained demand for custom aerospace electronics engineering: the UAV and advanced air mobility revolution generating demand for custom flight controller, payload, and propulsion management electronics at a pace legacy avionics suppliers were never designed to address; the eVTOL and urban air mobility sector navigating novel certification pathways with no legacy type certificate, making design assurance awareness critical from the first prototype; and the aerospace MRO technology modernization wave as airlines and MRO providers digitize maintenance operations using custom inspection hardware, parts tracking electronics, and HUMS data acquisition platforms.
Aerospace & Aviation Electronics
From UAV flight controller hardware qualified to DO-160G to ARINC 429 bus interface boards for legacy avionics integration programs — custom electronics for the full aerospace development spectrum.
DO-160G environmental qualification design — Category B and C temperature and altitude, vibration and shock, EMI, and lightning. IPC-A-610 Class 3 assembly standard awareness. AS6171 counterfeit parts avoidance for aerospace component sourcing. FPGA design for avionics bus interfaces and high-speed data acquisition.
ARINC 429 — 8-bit label encoding, 32-bit word structure, BPRZ modulation, current source output, multi-receiver bus topologies. MIL-STD-1553 remote terminal, bus controller, and bus monitor implementations. AFDX virtual link management for modern avionics data networks. CAN Aerospace for UAV and light aircraft applications.
Custom flight controller hardware — 1kHz IMU sensor fusion, deterministic motor control loop firmware, loss-of-link safe state handling, RTK GNSS integration. ESC electronics for fixed-wing and multirotor platforms. Payload interface electronics. Firmware architecture designed for DO-178C-aware development.
DO-178C development process support — requirements-based development, traceability matrices, structural coverage analysis (MC/DC for DAL A), and certification evidence package preparation. DO-254 hardware design assurance for complex electronic hardware and FPGA designs. DO-160G test planning support.
Computer vision for automated aircraft structural inspection — composite delamination detection, corrosion mapping, engine borescope image analysis. Deployed as decision support tools that enhance inspector capability with regulatory human oversight. HUMS anomaly detection and predictive maintenance AI for rotorcraft and fixed-wing platforms.
Platforms & Protocols
Built on Aerospace-Grade Platforms
Why Engineering Teams Choose Ankh
Design Assurance Aware from Day One
DO-178C, DO-254, and DO-160G are not certification steps applied at the end of a development program — they are engineering disciplines that govern requirements management, design decisions, test strategy, and configuration management from the first line of code and the first schematic. A firmware developer who encounters DO-178C requirements for the first time during a certification campaign has a fundamental problem: the traceability records that DO-178C requires were never created, the structural coverage analysis that DO-178C demands was never planned for, and the software configuration management that DO-178C mandates was never established. Ankh brings design assurance awareness into program inception — not as a checkbox exercise, but as a genuine development process discipline that produces certification evidence as a natural output of the development work.
Avionics Bus Fluent at the Silicon Level
ARINC 429 is not a protocol you learn from a library — it is a protocol you learn from the specification. The 32-bit word structure with octal label encoding, the BPRZ modulation, the current source output with its electrical interface requirements for maximum stub length and receiver impedance, the word rate management for labels ranging from continuous transmission to once-per-second updates, and the multi-transmitter topology limitations that shape your bus architecture — these are design decisions that affect hardware layout, FPGA resource allocation, and firmware timing. Ankh has implemented ARINC 429 at this level, in FPGA fabric and on custom silicon, not through pre-built modules that obscure the bus from your firmware. The same is true for MIL-STD-1553 remote terminal implementation and AFDX virtual link management.
Full DO-160G Environmental Envelope
DO-160G environmental qualification is not a single test — it is a 26-section qualification matrix covering temperature and altitude (Section 4), vibration (Section 8), explosive atmosphere (Section 9), waterproofness (Section 10), fluids susceptibility (Section 11), sand and dust (Section 12), EMI conducted and radiated (Sections 21 and 20), lightning (Sections 22 and 23), and electrostatic discharge (Section 25), among others. The applicable categories for each section depend on the aircraft installation environment, the equipment function, and the certification basis. Ankh designs hardware with the DO-160G test matrix in mind from component selection — not as a qualification exercise applied to a finished design, but as a design constraint that shapes PCB layout, enclosure design, component derating, and EMI mitigation strategy from the beginning.
UAV to Certified Avionics — The Full Spectrum
A research drone controller for an academic UAV program and a DO-178C DAL C data acquisition unit for a regional aircraft OEM are both Ankh projects. An eVTOL battery management system for a demonstrator vehicle and an ARINC 429 retrofit interface for a legacy airliner health monitoring system are both Ankh projects. The development rigor, evidence requirements, and engineering process that apply to each are fundamentally different — and Ankh meets programs where they are. For research and demonstration platforms, velocity and iteration cadence. For certification programs, the structured process, traceability, and configuration management that DO-178C and DO-254 require. The firmware architecture decisions that work for one do not necessarily work for the other, and Ankh designs accordingly from the requirements that actually apply.
32-Channel ARINC 429 DAU for Regional Aircraft OEM Flight Test Program
Custom 32-channel ARINC 429 bus monitor and data acquisition unit for a regional aircraft OEM's flight test program. Custom FPGA-based bus interface with 1ms timestamp resolution, 512GB onboard storage with RAID redundancy, DO-160G Category B environmental qualification for temperature (-40°C to 70°C) and vibration. Ground-based data analysis platform for flight test parameter extraction and exceedance reporting. Delivered from requirements to qualified hardware in 34 weeks.
Start a Similar ProjectEngineering electronics that fly? Let's build it airworthy.
DO-178C-aware firmware development from the first requirements baseline. ARINC 429, MIL-STD-1553, and AFDX at the silicon level. Full-stack delivery from UAV flight controller hardware to DO-160G-qualified avionics data acquisition units — with the design assurance discipline built in.
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