What it includes
- Circuit design and printed circuit board (PCB) layout, from early architecture through to boards engineered for assembly and manufacture.
- Firmware and connectivity: how the product wakes, sleeps, updates and talks to a phone, a gateway or the cloud.
- Industrial and mechanical design of the enclosure and user interface, developed alongside the electronics, not around them.
- Prototyping at increasing fidelity, from off-the-shelf boards to custom printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs).
- Compliance: electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), electrical safety and radio testing, planned in early so it is not a surprise at the end.
- Design for manufacture, component sourcing and the move into production.
Why it is a discipline of its own
Mechanical products have to be shown to be safe before they are sold, with testing to whichever standards apply, and electronic products are no different. What electronics adds is a further layer on top: EMC testing, radio testing for anything that talks over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, components that go obsolete or onto long lead times mid-project, firmware that has to be maintained after launch, and interactions between the board and the enclosure (antenna position, heat, battery size) that can undermine an otherwise good design. Electronic product development exists to manage all of that as one process.
We develop electronics in-house and with trusted electronic engineering partners, integrating microprocessors, sensors, actuation and custom PCBAs into products ranging from electro-mechanical devices to connected internet of things (IoT) products.