Custom Electronic Design Services

What is included with custom electronic design services?

Typically, custom electronic design services include the creation of unique circuits and their schematics, printed circuit boards, firmware, software (including apps for mobile devices to connect with your new technology), and housings to protect sensitive electronic components. These services usually start with a concept and progress through multiple stages, including developing a system architecture, selecting major system components to support the features of your product, developing simulations of circuits (especially helpful with complex RF/wireless circuits), developing firmware that enables the electronic hardware to function, creating software and apps to create a graphical user interface, designing 3D models of housings to meet environmental  requirements for your product, building prototypes of the printed circuit boards and housings, completing functional testing of all aspects of aspects of the design of your product, validation and verification testing for medical device products, updating the design of your product to address bugs and issues discovered during functional testing, producing a second round of prototypes for additional testing to verify that bugs and issues have been resolved, completing required regulatory testing and certification including FCC and CE compliance, creating a manufacturing plan, developing relationships and pricing agreements with component suppliers, working with housing suppliers to develop plastic injection molds and tooling for gaskets and other parts, creating manufacturing test plans to prove manufactured products are fully functional, designing production test fixtures and jigs, creating manufacturing flows, and coordinating fulfillment and shipping of final products.

This process is the same for products developed for industries including oil and gas, medical, sensor systems, industrial automation, robotics, security, military, and consumer products. Often, companies in these industries want to develop new technologies that are new and unique and innovate beyond current off-the-shelf products.

Finding the right partner to help you navigate and assist you through this often complex and long process can make all the difference in getting your product to market in a timely manner. VPI is here, ready to help you with the entire process or with pieces of your product development project. We have been down the product development road many times and have valuable experience to support you.

Expertise in processor integration, digital circuits, analog circuits, radio frequency (RF) and wireless designs, including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth IoT communication, mixed-signal circuits, power systems, FPGA, memory management, battery circuitry, and battery usage optimization design, and communication systems all contribute to a successful product development experience. See our engineering discipline pages for more information about our expertise in electrical, mechanical, software, firmware, wireless/RF, and manufacturing engineering services.

These custom electronic product design services will help you deliver products that are tailored to your customers’ needs for functionality, compliance, competitive advantage, and practical use.

What happens when you engage with a custom electronic designer service provider?

Engaging with a custom electronic design service provider like VPI is a structured process that transforms your product idea into a ready-to-manufacture electronic device. This is a multi-stage approach, and the complexity and duration depend heavily on your product’s requirements.

Here is a breakdown of what happens and the expected offerings and deliverables:

The Engagement Process: From Concept to Product

The process is typically divided into several key phases:

1. Initial Consultation & Requirements Analysis

• • What happens: This is the foundational phase where you define your project’s goals, context, and constraints. You will need to provide the product’s function, target market, cost targets, and any physical or environmental limitations to the service provider. Having completed market research to define what your market wants and expects before this meeting is highly encouraged.
• Key Activities:
  • Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA): Signing a legal agreement to protect your intellectual property (IP).
  • Feasibility Study: Assessing the technical and economic viability of your idea is an optional first step. It may be wise to complete a feasibility study if your new technology is very cutting-edge.
  • Product Requirements Document (PRD) or System Specification Document: We will create this detailed document if you have not already completed it, which lists all functional (what it must do) and non-functional (performance, safety, compliance) requirements.

2. System Architecture and Design

• • What happens: The design team develops the overall structure of the electronic system, including hardware, software (firmware), and any mechanical or enclosure considerations.
• Key Activities:
  • Block Diagram Creation: A high-level visual representation of how all the components interact.
  • Component Selection: Choosing specific microcontrollers, sensors, power management parts, and other parts based on cost, performance, and availability in a Bill of Materials or BOM.
  • Schematic Design: Creating the detailed circuit diagrams that show the electrical connections between components.
  • High-Level Housing Design: Considerations for how to protect sensitive electronic system components are captured in the System Specification or PRD.

3. Detailed Design and Layout

• • What happens: The architectural design is translated into the physical layout of the Printed Circuit Board (PCB), the digital architecture of the firmware and software, and the 3D model of the product enclosure or housing.
• Key Activities:
  • PCB Layout: Arranging components and drawing the conductive traces on the board, optimizing for signal integrity, thermal performance, and manufacturability (Design for Manufacturing, or DFM).
  • Firmware Development: Writing the embedded code that controls the electronics.
  • Software Development: Writing the software code that provides an interface for users to interact with your new technology product.
  • Mechanical CAD: Designing the enclosure or housing for the electronics.

4. Prototyping and Testing

• • What happens: Functional models of the design are created and tested against the PRD specifications. This is often an iterative process.
• Key Activities:
  • Prototyping: Fabricating PCBs and assembling them (they become printed circuit board assemblies or PCBAs). Creating physical housing prototypes. Programming PCBAs and assembling them in housings.
  • Engineering Validation Testing (EVT): Testing the core electrical and firmware functions.
  • Design Validation Testing (DVT): Rigorous testing to ensure the product meets all performance, reliability, and environmental specifications.

5. Certification and Manufacturing Support

• • What happens: The final design is prepared for mass production, often including support for necessary regulatory compliance.
• Key Activities:
  • Pre-Certification Testing: Running tests to ensure compliance with standards like FCC, CE, UL, etc.
  • Manufacturing Optimization: Refining the design and documentation to ensure high-volume production is cost-effective and reliable.

Expected Offerings and Deliverables

Our comprehensive custom electronic designer services provide a range of offerings and tangible deliverables.

Core Offerings

Tangible Deliverables

The key assets you will receive upon project completion, which allow you to move into manufacturing, include:

By engaging a professional service provider like VPI, you gain specialized expertise to bypass common design flaws, reduce time-to-market, and ensure the product is designed for high-quality, cost-efficient mass production.