Field device for determining or monitoring a physical or chemical process variable

A field device for determining or monitoring a physical or chemical process variable, comprising:

• a sensor, which works according to a defined measuring principle;
• and a control/evaluation unit, which, as a function of a safety standard required for a particular safety-critical application, conditions and evaluates, along at least two equivalent digital measuring paths, measurement data delivered by the sensor, wherein:
• said control/evaluation unit is implemented on an FPGA 1, on which are provided at least a first section and a second section, in each section, a digital measuring path, which is composed of a plurality of software-based and/or hardware-based function modules, is dynamically reconfigurable;
• the FPGA 1 has global lines and long lines, which extend across at least two of said individual sections, and which are blocked and grounded,
• the individual sections are isolated from one another by permanently configured spacer regions, said spacer regions are embodied in such a way, that a temperature and/or a voltage change in one of said digital measuring paths has no safety-critical influence on the other section of said digital measuring paths, and, in the case of safety-critical malfunction, no electrical connection occurs between said sections;
• and
• said control/evaluation unit, as a function of the particular defined safety-critical application, partially dynamically reconfigures the function modules in said measuring paths, so that the field device fulfills the required safety standard.