CERTON’s DO-254 Design Assurance Guidance for Airborne Electronic Hardware Certification

For nearly a decade, CERTON has provided services and solutions to customers across the Aerospace Industry from General Aviation to Space Flight focused on certification of Airborne Electronic Hardware (AEH) compliant with RTCA/DO-254 Design Assurance Guidance for AEH certification guidelines. CERTON can work closely with your company to ensure successful TSO and/or Type Certification during any phase of your project that includes safety-critical electronic hardware development utilizing the DO-254 standard.

DO-254 Design Assurance Level (DAL)

For systems and equipment using electronic hardware to fulfill a safety related aircraft function, the FAA cites RTCA/DO-254 as a means of compliance to the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) Part 21, 23, 25, 27, 29 and 33. The FAA defines RTCA/DO-254 as a means, but not the only means, of compliance to the FARs. It is an extremely rare exception that an alternative means of compliance is used for electronic hardware in avionics applications.

In order to certify safety-critical airborne electronic hardware using the RTCA/DO-254 guidelines, the system safety assessment process will identify the applicable DAL according to the five failure conditions categories necessary for safe operation identified in the table below.

DAL	Condition
Level A	Catastrophic
Electronic hardware that would cause or contribute to a failure of the system function resulting in conditions that would prevent continued safe flight and landing.
Level B	Hazardous/Severe-Major
Electronic hardware that would cause or contribute to a failure of the system function resulting in reducing the capability of the aircraft or the ability to the crew to cope with adverse operating conditions so that there would be a large reduction in safety margins of functional capabilities.
Level C	Major
Electronic hardware that would cause or contribute to a failure of the system function resulting in reducing the capability of the aircraft or crew with adverse operating conditions that would create a significant reduction in safety margins or functional capabilities, a significant increase in crew workload, possibly including injuries.
Level D	Minor
Electronic hardware that would cause or contribute to a failure of the system function which would involve crew action that are well within their capabilities that causes slight reductions in safety margins or functional capabilities and slight increase in crew workload.
Level E	No Effect (DO-254 Objectives Do Not Apply)
Electronic hardware that would cause or contribute to a failure of the system function which has no affect the operational capability of the aircraft or increase workload.

CERTON has the expertise to develop and certify airborne electronic hardware for any DAL using the RTCA/DO-254 guidelines for compliance and Certification Authority approval. Click here to view several CERTON projects for DO-254 Electronic Hardware that shows our DAL experience.

The CERTON DO-254 Compliant Model

CERTON DO-178B Compliant Model The DO-254 Electronic Hardware Development Lifecycle is made up of six main phases, Project Planning Phase, Validation & Verification Phase, Requirements Phase, Design & Architecture Phase, Implementation & Integration Phase, and Delivery Phase. Each phase in the electronic hardware development lifecycle consist of guidelines and activities to achieve compliance with the certification objectives that need to be filled in order for phase completion.

In CERTON's model of the DO-254 Electronic Hardware Development Lifecycle, the Validation & Verification Phase encompasses activities during all of the development phases once the plans have been approved by a Certification Authority (FAA, EASA, ANAC, Transport Canada, etc.). This is the key to successfully managing the risk on a DO-254 project and the V&V team members should contribute to the development of these plans that will affect the entire program as it evolves.

Electronic Hardware Development projects that fall victim to schedule and budget overruns can almost always be attributed to not having a trained and experienced V&V team in place early and actively involved during all phases of the electronic hardware lifecycle. DO-254 projects are requirements based, and CERTON has the expertise and experience to contribute valuable input related to System Requirements, High Level Requirements, and Low Level Requirements Design and Architecture that will support streamlined implementation and integration, V&V, and Delivery. Errors in the Requirements, Design and Architecture have to be identified and resolved as they are created by the Development team early in the project. Otherwise, the inevitable consequence of detection by V&V after implementation and integration is complete rework from the top all the way down. These avoidable errors become very costly to a program with milestone deadlines, such as First Flight (SOF), Type Inspection Authorization (TIA), and Certification.