Custom Electronics Design Flow 101

Custom Electronics Design Steps

Do you have a new product concept that will revolutionize humanity?  How about a great product idea that will make you tons of money?

A great product idea is just that, an idea or concept, until you translate it into reality.

That is where Axelsys comes in.  We are focused on Product Realization – the act of turning great product ideas into reality (Field of Dreams stuff – Build it and they will come).  Axelsys provides comprehensive Custom Electronic Product Design and Electronic Manufacturing (EMS – otherwise know as Electronic Contract Assembly) Services.

Over the years, we here at Axelsys have fielded many calls from first time inventors (and from those with a bit more experienced) asking us in one way or another – what is the general flow for Custom Electronics Design.  We thought, why not write this down somewhere people can refer to it – so here you go.

Please keep in mind, the following flow is primarily for Custom Electronics Design, and is intended to act as a simplified general guide.  There are many variations possible.

1. Define Product Requirements (how it will look, operate, interact, cost, etc…)
2. Create System Architecture (High Level Definition or Block Diagram of major functional units).
   1. Specification Documentation
      1. Board Specification
      2. FPGA / MCU / DSP Specification
      3. Software / Firmware Specification
      4. Enclosure Specification (if needed)
      5. Specifications constantly updated throughout design process
3. *Design of the PCB
   1. PCB Schematics
      1. BOM Generation as a result of Schematic Completion
   2. PCB Layout
   3. Gerber Generation
4. Prototyping
   1. Manufacture of small number of boards / systems
   2. Board Bring-up
   3. Software Integration
   4. System Integration / Bring-Up
5. Regulatory Approvals (CE, UL, FCC, etc…)
6. New Product Introduction
7. Production Ramp

An easy 7 step process – right!  If only life were that easy.  Of course there is a lot of work that goes into each of those seven steps.  Also, this general design flow is just that – general (very high level).  There is tremendous detail that we have skipped over for each step.

We will endeavor to cover many of those details as well as good design and outsourcing practice in future posts – please come back and check often as we provide more insight into custom electronic product development, design and manufacturing.

* Note: This flow is primarily for electronic hardware development only. In most cases, though, some level of software / firmware and enclosure design (Mechanical Engineering) must be developed for the hardware to function and perform properly.  This development, while not shown above, generally runs concurrent to Step #3 and #4.