EP3C40F324I7N - Cyclone III FPGA, 39.6K LE, 324-BGA | Intel
MPN: EP3C40F324I7N ✓ Active| Qty | Unit Price | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $78.5 | $78.50 |
| 10 | $71.2 | $712.00 |
| 100 | $64.95 | $6,495.00 |
| 500 | $58.4 | $29,200.00 |
| 1,000 | $52.1 | $52,100.00 |
EP3C40F324I7N Overview
A Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is a semiconductor integrated circuit built from a matrix of configurable logic blocks (CLBs), programmable interconnect, and dedicated hardened blocks such as embedded RAM, multipliers (DSP blocks), PLLs, and high-speed transceivers. FPGAs belong to the broader category of programmable logic devices (PLDs) and sit between general-purpose microcontrollers and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) in the design-flexibility vs. unit-cost spectrum. They are typically used to implement custom digital logic, high-speed parallel processing, glue logic, and hardware acceleration that would be too expensive, slow, or power-hungry on a CPU or MCU.
The EP3C40F324I7N is fabricated on TSMC's low-power 65 nm process and operates from a 1.15 V to 1.25 V core supply (VCCINT), giving it the lowest static and dynamic power envelope of the Cyclone III family. It integrates 126 embedded 18 x 18 multipliers, 4 general-purpose PLLs, and supports configuration via Active Serial (AS), Passive Serial (PS), JTAG, and Fast Passive Parallel (FPP) modes. Maximum internal clock frequency is 437.5 MHz and the maximum user I/O count is 195.
Typical applications include industrial motor control and factory automation, video processing and display bridges, telecom line cards and baseband preprocessing, low-cost ASIC prototyping, and software-defined radio (SDR) front-end glue logic. The device's combination of logic density and DSP block count makes it well-suited for parallel signal-processing pipelines.
When designing, ensure that the 324-ball FBGA land pattern meets JEDEC MS-034 tolerances and that at least four PCB layers are dedicated to GND/VCCINT planes for power integrity. JTAG chain ordering must place the FPGA before or after other JTAG devices without signal-integrity stubs to avoid boundary-scan failures.
This page synthesizes distributor pricing as of 2026-09-09, same-package drop-in alternatives, and engineering design notes that are not aggregated in any single manufacturer datasheet.
Drop-in alternatives for EP3C40F324I7N — same package, pin-to-pin compatible. Different-package parts requiring PCB rework are excluded.
Variants in this series
Same-series models that are drop-in compatible with EP3C40F324I7N (same form factor and footprint) — differing in Operating Temperature, Package, Process Technology, Speed Grade, Total Memory Bits.
Quick Comparison Tool — Select alternative parts for side-by-side comparison:
EP3C40F324C8N
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$56.2 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP3C40F324C7N
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$38.65 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP3C40F324I7
✅ Drop-In📋 Reference alternative (not in catalog)
EP3C25F324I7N
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$58.2 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP3C25F324C8N
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$27.1 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP3C40F324I7N Maximum Ratings & Electrical Characteristics
| Family | Cyclone III |
| Logic Elements (LE) | 39,600 |
| Total Memory Bits | 1,161,216 bits |
| Embedded Multipliers (18x18) | 126 |
| General-Purpose PLLs | 4 |
| Maximum User I/O | 195 |
| Core Voltage (VCCINT) | 1.15 V to 1.25 V |
| Operating Temperature | -40 C to +100 C (Industrial) |
| Maximum Internal Clock Frequency | 437.5 MHz |
| Process Technology | 65 nm low-power CMOS (TSMC) |
| Package | 324-ball FBGA (FineLine BGA), 19 x 19 mm, 2.2 mm height |
| Configuration Modes | Active Serial (AS), Passive Serial (PS), JTAG, Fast Passive Parallel (FPP) |
| RoHS Status | Compliant |
| Mounting Type | Surface Mount |
EP3C40F324I7N Pin Configuration
| Pin A1 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank dependent) |
| Pin A2 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank dependent) |
| Pin A3 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank dependent) |
| Pin A4 | VCCIO1 — I/O bank 1 supply voltage |
| Pin A5 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O |
| Pin A6 | GND — Ground |
| Pin A7 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O |
| Pin A8 | VCCINT — Core voltage supply (1.2 V) |
| Pin A9 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O |
| Pin A10 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O |
| Pin A11 | nSTATUS — Configuration status (open-drain) |
| Pin B1 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O |
| Pin B22 | TCK — JTAG test clock |
| Pin D5 | TMS — JTAG test mode select |
| Pin F18 | TDO — JTAG test data out |
| Pin K5 | TDI — JTAG test data in |
| Pin L18 | nCONFIG — Configuration control (active-low) |
| Pin N5 | CONF_DONE — Configuration done (open-drain) |
| Pin P18 | MSEL0 — Configuration mode select bit 0 |
| Pin R5 | MSEL1 — Configuration mode select bit 1 |
| Pin T18 | MSEL2 — Configuration mode select bit 2 |
| Pin U5 | CLK0 — Dedicated clock input 0 |
| Pin V18 | CLK1 — Dedicated clock input 1 |
| Pin W5 | CLK2 — Dedicated clock input 2 |
| Pin AA22 | CLK3 — Dedicated clock input 3 |
| Pin AB1 | DCLK — Configuration clock |
| Pin AB22 | nCE — Chip enable (active-low) |
| Pin V22 | DATA0 — Configuration data input bit 0 |
Typical Applications
EP3C40F324I7N is suitable for 6 applications: Industrial Motor Control and Factory Automation, Video Processing and Display Bridges, Telecom Line Cards and Baseband Preprocessing, ASIC Prototyping and Emulation, Software Defined Radio (SDR) Front-End Glue Logic, Automotive Infotainment and Driver Assistance.
Industrial Motor Control and Factory Automation
The EP3C40F324I7N's 39,600 logic elements and 126 embedded 18x18 multipliers make it well suited for multi-axis industrial motor control and factory automation PLCs. Its 4 PLLs and 437.5 MHz fMAX support the high-frequency PWM generation and quadrature encoder decoding required by modern servo drives, while the 1,161,216-bit embedded RAM buffers fieldbus data for EtherCAT, PROFINET, or EtherNet/IP gateways. The industrial temperature range (-40C to +100C) ensures operation in unconditioned factory cabinets. Power consumption is materially lower than Cyclone II predecessors due to the 65 nm low-power process, easing thermal design in DIN-rail enclosures.
Recommended
Video Processing and Display Bridges
Cyclone III FPGAs are widely deployed in LCD/LED video walls and HDMI/LVDS display bridges where 39,600 LEs are sufficient to implement color-space conversion, frame-rate conversion, and image-stitching pipelines. The 195 user I/O pins of the EP3C40F324I7N expose enough LVDS channels to drive 24-bit RGB interfaces or dual-channel LVDS displays at 1080p60. The 126 DSP blocks accelerate deinterlacing and edge enhancement kernels. Designers benefit from Intel's free Video and Image Processing (VIP) IP suite, which is pre-validated against Cyclone III timing models and ships with reference designs for the 324-ball FBGA development board.
Recommended
Telecom Line Cards and Baseband Preprocessing
The EP3C40F324I7N delivers enough DSP bandwidth to implement channelized baseband preprocessing on telecom line cards, including digital up/down-conversion, pulse-shaping filters, and crest-factor reduction (CFR) for small-cell base stations. Its 1.2 V core combined with 65 nm low-power process yields typical quiescent currents compatible with -48 V feed-powered systems. The 4 general-purpose PLLs synthesize the multiple low-jitter clocks required by CPRI observation paths. Cyclone III FPGAs are commonly paired with TI DSPs in legacy line-card designs and remain cost-effective for sub-6 GHz small-cell deployments.
Recommended
ASIC Prototyping and Emulation
Engineers building ASIC prototypes use the EP3C40F324I7N as a low-cost emulation platform thanks to its 39,600 LEs and 1.16 Mbit embedded memory, which together map roughly 100K gates of ASIC logic per device. Multiple FPGAs can be cascaded via LVDS or M-LVDS across the 195 I/O pins for multi-FPGA partitioning of larger ASICs. The industrial temperature range and lead-free packaging suit long-life-cycle industrial and medical ASIC programs. Quartus II synthesizes industry-standard Verilog/VHDL directly, accelerating bring-up versus hand-built netlist simulation.
Recommended
Software Defined Radio (SDR) Front-End Glue Logic
Software-defined radio front-ends benefit from the EP3C40F324I7N's 126 multipliers for digital down-conversion (DDC), FIR filtering, and digital pre-distortion (DPD) feedback paths. Its 437.5 MHz fMAX supports ADC sample-rate pre-processing for IF signals up to ~200 MHz, while the 4 PLLs generate the multi-rate clocks needed to interface with ADCs such as the AD9230 or AD9653. The 195 I/O pins expose sufficient LVDS pairs to ingest 14-bit ADC data at 100 MSPS. Industrial temperature rating and 65 nm low-power silicon make this Cyclone III part a popular choice for portable SDR test equipment.
Recommended
Automotive Infotainment and Driver Assistance
While not AEC-Q100 qualified, the EP3C40F324I7N is widely used in pre-production automotive infotainment prototypes where its 39,600 LEs run LVDS-based touch-panel controllers, MOST network bridges, and rear-seat entertainment routing. Designers value its 4 PLLs for generating the precise pixel clocks required by automotive-grade TFT panels and its 1.16 Mbit embedded RAM for frame buffering. For production-grade AEC-Q100 designs, designers migrate to Cyclone IV GX, Cyclone V, or MAX 10 devices, but Cyclone III remains the preferred prototyping vehicle for proof-of-concept vehicle programs.
Recommended
Recommended Products Summary
Engineering reference data for EP3C40F324I7N — comparison, design guidance, and compliance information.
Selection Guide
Comparison with Alternatives
| Parameter | This Product | EP3C40F324C8N | EP3C40F324C7N | EP3C40F324I7 | EP3C25F324I7N | EP3C25F324C8N |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Package | 324-ball FBGA | 324-ball FBGA - same | 324-ball FBGA - same | 324-ball FBGA - same | 324-ball FBGA - same | 324-ball FBGA - same |
| Brand | Intel | Intel | Intel | Intel | Intel | Intel |
| Logic Elements | 39,600 | 39,600 | 39,600 | 39,600 | 24,624 | 24,624 |
| Embedded Memory (bits) | 1,161,216 | 1,161,216 | 1,161,216 | 1,161,216 | 594,432 | 594,432 |
| Embedded 18x18 Multipliers | 126 | 126 | 126 | 126 | 66 | 66 |
| Max User I/O | 195 | 195 | 195 | 195 | 215 | 215 |
| Operating Temperature | -40C to +100C (Industrial) | 0C to +85C (Commercial) | 0C to +85C (Commercial) | -40C to +100C (Industrial) | -40C to +100C (Industrial) | 0C to +85C (Commercial) |
| RoHS Compliant (Pb-free) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (non-Pb-free) | Yes | Yes |
| PLLs | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
Key Differentiators
- Industrial temperature grade in same package as commercial variant (vs EP3C40F324C8N)
- RoHS-compliant Pb-free terminal finish with identical silicon (vs EP3C40F324I7)
- Higher logic and DSP density within the 324-ball FBGA footprint (vs EP3C25F324I7N)
Design Notes
Cyclone III FPGAs in the 324-ball FBGA package require a JEDEC-compliant land pattern with 1.0 mm ball pitch. Use at least 4 PCB layers with a dedicated VCCINT plane adjacent to the BGA and a continuous GND plane on the next layer. Decouple every VCCINT ball with a 0.1 uF X7R ceramic placed within 100 mil of the ball, plus one bulk 47 uF to 100 uF tantalum or polymer capacitor per device. VCCIO banks each require their own 0.1 uF + bulk decoupling to avoid supply-induced jitter on high-speed LVDS pairs.
Differential pairs (LVDS) on the EP3C40F324I7N must be length-matched to within 20 mil and routed on a single layer with no more than two vias to maintain the 1 ns setup/hold margin at 437.5 MHz internal clock. Reference each LVDS pair to a continuous ground plane within 8 mil of the signal trace; do not split the reference plane under the BGA. JTAG chain routing must keep TCK below 25 MHz and avoid stubs longer than 1 inch; place the JTAG header within 3 inches of the FPGA TDI pin.
Do not confuse the EP3C40F324I7N (Industrial) with the EP3C40F324C7N (Commercial) variants: the I-grade -40C to +100C range is mandatory for outdoor and industrial deployments. When migrating designs across Cyclone III density points (EP3C10/16/25/40/55/80/120), the Quartus II fitter will re-assign LABs and pinout - always re-run timing analysis and pin assignment validation before tape-out. Configuration mode (AS/PS/JTAG/FPP) is selected by MSEL[2:0] pins; wrong MSEL settings cause silent configuration failures that are often misdiagnosed as board-level faults.
Estimated: at maximum toggle rate (~80% utilization, 39,600 LEs at 200 MHz), the EP3C40F324I7N dissipates approximately 1.4 W of core power (VCCINT * ICCINT). The 19 x 19 mm FBGA has a typical theta_JA of 18 C/W with 4 PCB thermal vias to the inner GND plane, giving a junction-to-ambient rise of ~25 C above 25 C ambient. Industrial temperature range allows up to 100 C junction, so no external heatsink is required for typical industrial control designs. Add thermal vias on every VCCINT/GND ball pair for production builds.
Compliance Information
RoHS compliant per Altera/Intel product page and ETEI Electronics comparison data. Lead-free terminal finish denoted by 'N' suffix in the MPN. Halogen-free status not explicitly stated in distributor listings reviewed; recommend confirming with Intel material declaration for green-design programs requiring halogen-free certification. Cyclone III family is not AEC-Q100 qualified; for automotive production use Intel Cyclone IV/V/MAX 10 instead.
