Selecting your Electronics Design House
Electronics design is relatively one of the less expensive
parts of custom design & engineering work. The cost
of basic design work for an electronics prototype can sometimes
be less than enclosure design and tooling costs, if the
unit has a plastic injection moulded case. Having said this,
all the good electronics design staff cost real money -
the client is paying for the expertise and experience that
the designer has to offer.
It is quite possible to contract and employ an Electronic
Designer without being especially knowledgeable in electronics.
Insist on understanding the principles involved, even if
not the precise details of operation. Experience demonstrates
that there are two breeds of design engineers - the desirable
type are fountains of information, the undesirable types
hide information to make themselves indispensable. If you
employ a "Closed-Book" engineer, you will find
it difficult to ever un-employ him. While there are occasionally
valid reasons, practices which highlight an undesirable
engineer or design house are:
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Electronics Design Service
HAMP offer custom specified electronics
design and product design/development services through which
you can have circuits and electronic products designed as
per custom specifications. We specialize in electronics
designs with minimal possible component count with carefully
chosen, low cost, cheapest available components with great
quality and support. The best reason why you should choose
us is our low electronic design costs, fast turn around
time & top notch quality. Our main aim is to design
your product such that your profits are maximized.
Highlights of our design services - High
Quality, Low costs & Fast Service, backed up by great
support.
Our expertise lies in all fields of electronics
hardware, software, electrical circuits and projects including
the designs for:
embedded systems design using microcontroller
& microprocessors
analog electronics
digital electronics (logic systems design, microprocessors,
microcontrollers, embedded system design)
communications, radio electronics & remote controls
industrial controllers
radio (RF) based control system design
telephone based electronic designs
lighting, display circuits
digital signal processing (DSP)
computer hardware & interfacing
microprocessor & microcontroller based designs
electronic security related circuits like burglar alarms
using latest infrared & ultrasonic techniques for ranging,
motion sensors (detection)
consultation
Complete software development for Windows and Linux platforms.
We have expert programmers in C, C++, Visual Basic &
Visual C++
Use our software development service to interface and control
your custom designed electronics hardware using a PC.
turnkey project undertaking, electronic product development
.... and more...
Products Designed(2-28 Layers board):
IP Access Server
Optical Networks METRO
Wireless
High End Computing Motherboard Mainboard
Server Board
Medical
Automotive
ConsumerMP3 / Digital Camera
Expertises:
DDR/DDRII 800M /QDR/SRAM memory interface
Switch Power Supply
PCI, CPCI, PCI-X, PCIE, SATA, SATA II,
XAUI
ATCA, AMC, HyperTransport
TI DLP-RAMBUS RDRAM
Customers:
GE ShangHai
Marvell Shanghai
Erricson QingDao
Motorola Shanghai
Midoriya Co. JP ( Japan )--www.midoriya.co.jp
Freescale
We have extensive experience using microcontrollers
& processors from Microchip (PIC), Atmel (8051, 8052,
AVR, AVRMega, Tiny), Intel (8085, 8086, 80386, 80486), Motorola
(68HC11), Hitachi (H8), Holtek, Cypress etc.
We design circuits both big and small,
be it for big industries or for small businesses. Some of
the highlights of our service compared to the others are:
Cost: Perhaps the best reason you should
choose us is because our pricing is a fraction of what other
companies charge while we still offer top notch quality.
We operate from Shenzhen known as the "Silicon Valley"
of China where we get affordable and extremely skilled professionals.
customers can expect their designs to be about 1/2 to 1/5th
of the costs in most cases.
Speed: Normally it takes us just a few weeks to complete
a project of moderate complexity, whereas, other companies
can take months. We take projects only up to our handling
capacity and hence we are able to concentrate on each project.
Efficiency & profit maximizing : Our designs are simple,
uses minimum possible number of components and very cost-effective
to manufacture. We normally use parts that are widely available
across the world, unless it's a special case. When we design
a product, we carefully choose the parts that are the cheapest
so that your profit is maximized, with no compromise in
quality. We have been approached and have done several re-designs
of existing products to many companies just to maximize
their profits, successfully. With our designs, your competitors
will be soon out of business!
Support: All these come with great support from our team.
We provide free email and phone support. Most of the problems
we have seen are due to misuse/wrong usage of the designed
product.
Reliability: All the designs will be built in our LABs as
prototypes and tested completely before sending them to
you. So the product is guaranteed to work when mass produced.
PCB layout design: We also design printed circuit boards
(PCB). Our strength lies in high speed high density board
design. We have successfully designed double sided (two
layer) circuit boards as large as 17" x 10" containing
over 750 parts. Our PCB design/layout service can be used
as a standalone service for your existing schematics. We
can also fabricate the PCBs for you at very low costs, both
for production line as well as for prototyping. We offer
very good quality PCB fabrication (SMOBC with silkscreen
legend) for costs as low as $0.2 per square inch (example
for 100 boards with board size of 3"x4" each)
. For higher quantities, the cost reduces drastically.
Experience : We have several in-house design engineers and
technicians along with great talent, experience and passion
for electronics design. We also have several other expert
engineers working with us on a contract basis whom we hire
as required.
Success rate: We have a tremendous track record with almost
100% success rate. That is very rare when it comes to the
electronics design industry.
Our goal: We want our customers to be 100% satisfied. We
will work with them until their product is designed exactly
how they want it. We also even suggest improvements/amendments
that will make the product even better.
In summary: We specialize in low cost electronics designs
with minimal possible component count using carefully chosen,
cheapest components that all comes with impeccable quality
and support.
Is our location distance a problem Not
at all! Most of our customers are from USA , UK , Canada
, Australia and other countries who wish to outsource the
design job in order to minimize their overall costs. Many
of them were concerned about the distance, but once they
gave us the design order and had a chance to inspect the
designed product, they were more than pleased with our work
and have given us many more orders. We can assure you that
distance will not be a problem because Internet has bought
us more closer than ever. Moreover, we will be submitting
timely updates of the work we have done with photos, videos
of our work if necessary. We have designed more than 150
successful products till date and counting!
Circuit diagrams unavailable
Source code unavailable or poorly commented
Numbers rubbed off of integrated circuits
Parts lists unavailable, or without parts costs
Factory test and calibration not described (if complicated)
Secret principles - "Security through Obscurity"
The last item deserves a short comment. In the field of
Cryptology, "Security through Obscurity" is widely
questioned as a principle. Most such systems have proven
to be poorly designed. Perhaps the best model is the 20
Year old Data Encryption Standard (DES). Complete details
of DES operation have been available since its release -
for 20 years it was algorithmically secure. As of 17 July
1998 brute force attacks have been developed that can crack
a ciphertext-plaintext pair in about 56 hours - but that
is not actually a failure of the algorithm, DES has stood
the test of time brilliantly. For security choose algorithm
or patent - not obscurity.
Electronic Design houses can be found in the Yellow Pages
under Electronic Engineers, on the internet [You've found
one], through some specialist directories & magazines,
and by asking around others who use electronics people.
In Selecting your design house, use these criteria:
ABILITY - Check the designers ability to produce and deliver
by examples of his work. Don't be fooled by proficiency
with tools or someone who just knows all the buzzwords -
actual experience counts.
TIMESCALE - Turnaround time for recent
projects. Simple microprocessor circuitry should take 8-12
weeks spec to prototype - longer if a significant amount
of firmware is required. To get faster delivery usually
results in exponentially rising costs, - or cut corners.
BUDGET - Your design house may be reluctant
to estimate costs on your project before having all the
details, but they will often be more forthcoming with the
amount charged for another, similar sized job completed
recently. For most work we quote, and considering the history
that engineering work has of running over time and budget,
that provides you, the client, with a lot of security.
COMMUNICATION - Effective communication
is absolutely essential to your project being successful.
Find a design house that speaks your language. Spend the
time to work over your specification with them. If you have
a clear spec and like what you are reading, then why not
use an Australian Electronics Designer We will make the
effort to keep in touch by phone, we can ship prototypes
anywhere in the world in 48 hours, and we spell out everything
you could possibly want to know about us in black and white
light blue, right here on this website.
DEPENDABILITY - Will the company or individual
be around to provide you with engineering support in 5 years
time It costs quite a bit to get new engineers up to speed
on a previous project - it is worth investing your work
with a reliable vendor. (Actually, its quite funny - on
several projects we have outlasted all the client in-house
engineers - they have all moved on to other careers, and
the sub-contractors are the only members of the original
design team still available to the management!)
SPECIALTY - Industry Specialization (e.g.
go to an eft-pos machine designer to get an eft-pos PCB
designed) is useful, but can pose problems - the specialist
design house probably works for your competition, also.
A good design house works across a large range of industries
and projects.
Of much greater importance is whether the design house is
capable of producing the project technology you are after.
Look for design houses with experience producing products
with a similar level of technology - e.g. SMT, PC based,
realtime acquisition, battery powered, or whatever else
may be appropriate for your task.
Hardware design - 1997
Normally you would start with a list of
subcontractors, rank them according to your criteria, and
then contact each about your project. This may involve email,
but would usually involve a phone call as well. Keep the
information provided brief, but not deceptive. Avoid sending
a subcontractor a 100 page document and asking for his feedback
- you may be astounded by the silence! From the responses,
and based on your ranking, you should pick a short list.
Each of these you would email or call again, with a little
more information, and ask for an estimate.
A large amount of effort is required in the initial stages
of a design project, both for client and design house, in
examining the spec, ratifying the clauses and arriving at
estimated production costs.
If the job is large, it is pretty normal to consider two
or three subcontractors for the same job to the estimate
stage, but it is unusual to have two or more design houses
produce competing quotes for the same job without paying
them a "feasibility study" fee. (Ballpark estimates
are a different matter) Normally the selection process has
narrowed the field to one favourite before the specification
is worked through in great detail.
When choosing a design subcontractor, be wary, also, of
"trying a small job first". Every project should
be considered on its own merits. If the client has difficulty
establishing that the design house can reliably complete
the larger project, completing a smaller task first does
not really alter the situation, - credibility should be
established by references and examples of past work. In
"trying a small job first" the client might even
find the nature (or size) of the project causes the design
house to underperform by lowering the projects priority,
- when a job is important to a client, it rubs off on the
sub-contractors.
If you haven't got a good spec to start
with, your choices are pretty limited - you are better off
with an employee engineer if you expect to "design
it as we go" - a real subcontractor knows that he is
unlikely to get paid for all his time if there is not a
clear objective at the start. One work around is for the
client to engage the subcontractor on a per hour or consultancy
basis. Or, better still - we have a page on Spec'ing your
design work
The "outsource" or "inhouse"
argument for engineering is as old as the design process
itself. I think my most useful contribution would be to
say that the decision really should be based on availability
of inhouse staff. If you have the inhouse staff, uncommitted,
and if they can can complete the project efficiently then
don't outsource the work.
One caveat: Consider the big picture,
- when you outsource you quite often get greater control
over costs and risk, because they get quantified up front.
When you operate inhouse some portions of the project cost
will be invisible - if your project goes over budget, it
is unlikely you will remember that 'Fred' didn't answer
customer calls because he was working hard on finishing
the new circuit board.
These comments are provided in good faith,
and represent the opinions of Steven Murray, manager, AirBorn
Electronics. The comments highlight a useful method for
selecting an electronics design house, but others will have
their own ways. We hope you decide to include AirBorn Electronics
in your selection process
The Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Layout
The connections on the PCB should be identical to the circuit
diagram, but while the circuit diagram is arranged to be
readable, the PCB layout is arranged to be functional, so
there is rarely any visible correlation between the circuit
and the layout.
PCB layout can be performed manually (using CAD) or in combination
with an Autorouter. The best results are usually still achieved
using atleast some manual routing - simply because the design
engineer has a far better judgement of how to arrange circuitry.
Surprisingly, many autorouted boards are often completely
illogical in their track routing - the program has optimised
the connections, and sacrificed any small amount of order
that may have been put in place by manual routing. Generally
autorouted boards are slightly harder for a technician to
repair or debug, for this reason. Historically, PCBs used
to be laid out by drawing or using stick on paper shapes
on mylar film, - that really WAS manual routing!
The CAD PCB layout consists of several
layers, for illustration purposes the holes, outline and
component identification layers can be combined into one
diagram. When we produce PCBs for clients, we use actual
size checkplots during the design process. A PCB will usually
have mounting holes and may possibly have cutouts, by cutting
an actual size checkplot and placing it in the enclosure,
you can see how it will be positioned in relation to other
parts. We can also place components up against the pad markings
as a quick double check of sizing.
The secret to creativity is knowing how
to hide your sources. -- Albert Einstein
We put a bit of effort into the PCB design - it is somewhere
where quality of design can make a difference. These days
most circuit boards are automatically assembled and tested
- but you will still have people working on your circuit
boards, and having a quality design can make all the difference
between a product that is pleasant to work on and one that
they will hate. Machine test points, for ATE (Automated
Test Equipment) bed of nails testing, just need to be pads
or lands. Some test points, however, are not really intended
for ATE but rather for engineering test or modification
- we put labelled test points on for these, as illustrated.
We put a complete silkscreen identification overlay on most
of our boards, and the quality of this is another way we
can make a better product. The silkscreen contains important
information that assists people to service and install the
product. Aside from functionality (which is rather obvious)
the overlay is the chief distinguishing feature between
a purpose-built product, such as we deliver, and a general-purpose
product such as you might buy from a company like Rabbit.
We would label terminals as: "+12v red" "-pwr
black" "solenoid+" "solenoid-"
whereas competitors may often just give you: "A1 A2
A3 A4". They don't have much of a choice - they have
no idea what you will attach to the terminals.
For dense surface mount boards, we often
need to leave off component values, and sometimes need to
omit the component designators. The silkscreen is the primary
method for labelling connectors, replaceable parts, orientation,
and even installation notes (for instance "Remove J2
while replacing battery - observe battery polarity")
The PCB layout also needs to take account
of EMI and ESD compliance and we have a seperate page on
some techniques that we use to get our PCBs to comply. We
have a tutorial on designing PCBs - it steps through the
CAD process from schematic to layout. We also support the
Autotrax/Easytrax CAD package by providing Updated video
drivers. If you are intending to design PCBs yourself, we
would recommend this very good manual on PCB layout.
Most of the Etched PCB laminates we produce are:
Double sided Laminate
Two layers of copper tracks, one each side of the board
Plated Through Hole
PTH - each hole is copper plated providing a circuit between
sides of the PCB
Fibreglass-resin laminate (FR4)
Solder Mask Over Bare Copper
SMOBC - green insulating ink everywhere except connections
Component legend
Identifying lettering, component outlines and values in
white or yellow ink
Tinned
Tinning is application of Solder to all exposed copper,
increasing solderability
Hot oil levelled
Hot oil - or hot air - levelling makes the tinning flat,
so that surface mount components can be positioned reliably.
Different methods of PCB construction:
Conventional
A rigid PCB (usually of thickness 1.6mm), with wire-leaded
components mounted on only one side of the PCB, with all
the leads through holes, soldered and clipped. Conventional
circuitry is generally easier to debug and repair than Surface
mount.
Surface Mount Technology (SMT) or devices (SMD)
A PCB with tag-leaded components soldered flush to PCB pads.
Holes are still needed on the PCB, but not where the component
leads are attached. Surface mount circuitry is generally
smaller than conventional. Surface mount is generally more
suited to automated assembly than conventional.
Surface mount & conventional mix
In practice, most boards are a mix of surface mount and
conventional components. This can have its disadvantages
as the two technologies require different methods of insertion
and soldering.
Double sided Laminate
A bare PCB laminate having tracks on both sides, normally
with PTH holes connecting circuitry on the two sides together.
Double sided Component Assembly
Mounting components on both sides of the PCB. Normally only
surface mount circuitry would be mounted on both sides of
a PCB.
Multi-layer
A PCB Laminate may be manufactured with more than two layers
of copper tracks by using a sandwich construction. The cost
of the laminate reflects the number of layers. The extra
layers may be used to route more complicated circuitry,
and/or distribute the power supply more effectively.
Gold plated
Certain areas on a PCB may be gold plated for use as contact
pads. Unless the whole PCB is gold plated before etching,
this technique is limited in its application, normally,
to pads on the edge of a PCB, as an electrolytic plating
bar must be attached to the pads, and then removed part
way through the PCB manufacturing process.
Flexible PCB
A technique used extensively with membrane keyboards, combination
connector/circuit boards, and circuit boards to fit in awkward
shapes - e.g. cameras.
Chip On Board (COB)
Where the IC die is attached direct to a PCB, and bond out
wires from the IC connect directly to PCB lands. The chip
is then covered with a black blob of epoxy. A technique
used mostly with very high volume, cost sensitive applications,
e.g. musical greeting cards.
Phenolic PCB
As distinct from Fibreglass, Phenolic is a cheaper PCB laminate
material.
Daughterboard
A circuit board mounted to another circuit board - such
as a plug in card.
Click the Continue arrow below for "PCB Etching,"
or go on to:
How to design a new electronic product
Photographs of our work page 1, p2 p3 p4 p5
Circuit Diagrams, examples of our work
Our Design services, our Products, our contact DetailsPlextek
is a Cambridge based electronics design house, specialising
in product and systems design for communications, automotive,
aerospace, defence and medical applications. Specific skills
include RF, microwave, radar, software, DSP, FPGA, MMIC,
optoelectronics.The Leading Edge of Electronics Design
Plextek is one of the largest independent electronics design
consultancies in Europe. We are situated 10 miles south
of Cambridge, UK. Established in 1989 and now with one hundred
staff we are one of the leading consultancies in our field.
Since our foundation we have been selected by clients with
a requirement for high quality custom electronic product
and system design. We provide design services to the communications,
defence, automotive, industrial, scientific and medical
(ISM) markets and can also provide a design and supply service
for customer specified electronic products.
Plextek undertakes a wide variety of programmes
from small design support or feasibility study contracts
to complete product design, through to the development of
full custom systems and system integration. Examples of
product designs we have successfully undertaken include:
Multi-media GSM/GPRS handset
Flight qualified synthesiser subsystems for avionics Radar
Bluetooth based hands-free car kits
FPGA based radar signal processing board
RF power amplifier modules
Tunable laser controller
Various full custom GaAs MMICs
Custom receiver designs for defence and communications applications
Plextek has developed a number of full custom systems as
a means of providing solutions to a client's problem. Examples
include:
A broadband wireless access system
Product and system design for stolen vehicle recovery
Utilities telemetry (radio remote meter reading for utilities)
Formula One motor racing telemetry
Sonobuoy tranceivers
A medical telemetry system
Our clients range in size from small companies seeking specialist
advice through to large companies such as Sony, Smiths Industries
and QinetiQ, seeking to expand their resources in a particular
area or to outsource a specific project.
One aspect that sets Plextek apart from
many traditional 'Research & Development' establishments
is its keen commercial awareness and the ability to design
for manufacture or to provide a one-stop design and supply
service. This extends to designing for the particular manufacturing
environment and to the design and development of production
functional test equipment.
Plextek has earned an international reputation
for quality, innovation and service, based on the calibre
of its personnel and a series of highly successful projects.
Plextek holds BS EN ISO9001:2000 certification and is an
approved supplier to a range of government departments and
utilities including the DTI, MOD and the Home Office. We
are full members of the European Telecommunications Standards
Institute (ETSI), participating in the development and generation
of standards.
If you would like to discuss how you could
make use of Plexteks design services please contact usestablished
on July 1, 1992 with the commitment for design, application
& sales of consumer voice IC and the software development
for the 4 bit / 8 bit micro-controller is also served.
At present, besides the head office in
Hong Kong, Aplus has set up branch office in ShenZhen China
named Aplus Electronics (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd. to expeditiously
expand sales force in china market.
And also allied IC design company in Taiwan
to specialize in high-end consumer IC design & development
which including recording controller and multimedia and
so on
By August, 2005, there are more than 500
IC design houses in China. The employment also increased
from 3000 in 2000 to 20,000 by the end of 2004. The sales
revenue for IC design reached 5.76 billion RMB in 2003,
accounting for 12.6% of the total product value of IC industry,
and the sales revenue increased to 11 billion RMB in 2004,
accounting for 20% of the total product value of IC industry.
RIC (Research in China) estimated that by 2008, the sales
revenues for IC design in China will exceed 80 billion RMB.
China semi-conductor market has enjoyed
a continuous 5-year rapid growth; its growth rate has exceeded
the U.S. and Japan. In the future 3 years, the amount of
IC design houses will exceed 800 in China. Great changes
will be seen in the design capabilities, product categories,
and business operating capabilities in China's IC design
sector.
In terms of entire business layout, China
IC design sector has formed a relatively concentrated industry
layout centering on Beijing-Tianjin Delta, Yangtze River
Delta, Zhujiang River Delta and Western Area Delta. IC design
sector in these areas is relatively mature and normalized
in relations with the industry chain, and with a total sales
revenues accounting for 80% of the whole IC design sector
in China. A group of IC design houses with a turnover over
1 billion RMB have occurred. As a whole, the scale of IC
design sector in China has fundamentally come into shape.
The Top ten IC design houses in China
in 2004
On the aspect of IC design technology, China has achieved
considerable progress. At present, the line width for the
majority of mass production has reached 0.18
