A Guide to Electronic Product Design for Manufacturing with PCB Design Firms & Engineers

Design for manufacturability services refer to the process of designing a product by putting emphasis on ease of manufacturing and lower production costs. This is typically done by design simplification, preference for existing manufacturing technology or tooling over the custom alternatives, and heavy utilization of computer-aided design (CAD). The whole idea behind DFM is to make sure that the final product can be manufactured in the most economical way possible without sacrificing too much on features, performance, and reliability.

In electronic product design, for example, DFM asks whether you should go for buried vias for a marginal improvement in performance when a standard through-hole design is just as good. Is the VIPPO approach better than microvia for the product’s intended purpose? Your decisions on those early design questions will affect the manufacturability and cost. Lower production cost means the consumers can purchase it at a lower price as well, affording the maker a competitive advantage in the market.

Electronic product design can be a lengthy and costly process. Let’s not forget that you must also consider hiring external experts to make sure you get the right balance between a DFM-focused approach and product functionality. Remember that DFM is only good when it doesn’t cause serious problems with the product itself.

If you’re not exactly loaded with hundreds of thousands of dollars of product development money, there’s good news: engineering-focused freelancing platforms like Cad Crowd, or the more generalized alternatives such as Upwork and Toptal, are now flooded with freelance electrical and electronic engineers, offering a broad range of product development services at competitive rates. With their assistance, you have every chance to develop a brand-new electronic at a fraction of the cost typically associated with hiring big-name consultants and design companies.

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🚀 Table of contents

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DFM is an integral part of the workflow and must be regarded as a catalyst that leads to improved PCB layout, the use of standard materials, effective prototyping, cost-efficient enclosure fabrication methods, and comprehensive product testing and validation, among others. Regardless of the exact type and model of the electronic product you’re developing, the DFM process has to include at least the following points.

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Market research

Let’s say you have a clear idea of a new electronic product. But you can’t be really sure whether the idea is indeed unique or just another version of an existing product until you’ve done a thorough market research. Even if someone has already come up with a similar product before, it doesn’t necessarily mean the idea is useless. You probably have to go back to the drawing board, but you don’t have to start from scratch. Identify the similarities, but make sure you still have something unique to offer. Not every single detail of your idea is going to be identical to the other product, anyway; there has to be at least one notable difference between them.

Assuming they just happen to be pretty much the same, the logical thing to do is to break down the competitor’s product and try to introduce some improvements over the existing features. It can be the material, the dimension, the user interface, the durability (such as waterproofing and shock resistance), the ergonomics, and so forth.

Market research also has everything to do with identifying the target demographics, the size of your market, average retail prices of similar products, patents issued by competitors, and SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis for any product design company.

Product requirements elicitation

An idea isn’t going anywhere unless you act on it. Once an idea is formed, the usual follow-up steps are research and development activities, leading to the discovery phase. When applied to electronic design development, one of the R&D fundamentals is defining your product’s features (by taking into account the information gathered from the market research). Depending on the desired set of features, you’ll end up with a list of both functional and non-functional requirements.

For instance, if your electronic product is a smart home device, the functional requirements will likely include wireless connection capabilities (such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi) to ensure proper integration with the homeowner’s existing system, remote-controlled operation using a mobile app or a website page, user interface with touchscreen or physical buttons, voice activation, etc. Functional requirements should cover everything necessary for the device to work as intended. Then, there are non-functional requirements, which may include privacy policy, data encryption, compliance with region-specific regulations, and customer support. Different types of devices with distinct sets of features should have unique functional and non-functional requirements.

Proof-of-concept

Following market research and requirements elicitation, you have enough documentation as a reference to bring your idea into a tangible product through concept design services. Remember that it’s still early in the development process, meaning you don’t have to get everything right; at this point, what you need is a rudimentary version of the product. The end result is going to be a Proof of Concept (PoC). The main focus here is to determine whether the idea is technically plausible. It doesn’t even have to look like an actual product, but just a collection of hardware pieces assembled together to perform basic functions as defined in the previous step. At the end of the day, the PoC is evidence to support the feasibility of the idea.

Suppose you’re building a smart door lock that can be controlled using a smartphone app. You might need a regular slide latch connected to a battery-powered motor, hardwired to an Arduino board. It will also have a Bluetooth receiver or Wi-Fi connectivity module so that it can communicate with a phone. It has nothing to do with market demand or determining the best way to mass-produce it; your only goal here is to present a concept of a functional product.

Preliminary design

PoC isn’t even a preliminary design. The biggest difference between PoC and preliminary design is that the latter takes the DFM approach into account. As soon as you get into the actual design work, you really have to think about production components, hardware cost, development feasibility, software requirements, features, profit margin, and, of course, manufacturability. A preliminary design is the point where you must determine whether the product can be developed at a reasonable cost, mass-produced, and sold at a profit.

Understand that a preliminary design isn’t always synonymous with an early prototype. A design may refer to a detailed diagram, a technical sketch, a CAD file, or perhaps a tidier version of the PoC, and is essential for prototype design engineering services. At this stage of the development, your main purpose is to get a rough estimation of the time and resources you need to turn the idea into reality. If the cost seems too high, you can still make a lot of adjustments to prevent it from going over budget or straying too far from the targeted completion time.

Simplification

DFM likely requires some intense design simplification. Believe it or not, product complexity can be the rabbit hole that sends you down into the trap of unreasonable sophistication, especially for startups and even most engineers. This doesn’t mean you have to settle for crudeness and lack of refinement in the product; it’s just that you might be able to save a lot of resources by going the simple route.

For instance, your smart door lock can have either a numeric touchpad or a physical keypad to enter the key code; how about the idea of using the physical option? It might not be as fancy as other products, but the design means lower production costs. Furthermore, a physical keypad is just as effective; it gives nice, satisfying feedback to the finger, and can be made from a durable material at a reasonable cost, too. Even something as simple as the location of the USB port or battery latch mechanism requires thoughtful consideration; reducing design complexity can save thousands of dollars in mass production.

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Production components

The preliminary design and simplification process will bring you to the development stage, where you must select critical production components. In modern electronic product services, the components may include microchips, connectivity modules, sensors, display, adapters, and connectors, in addition to the blank PCBs and hardware enclosures. A well-defined selection of components allows you to compile a BOM (Bill of Materials); it’s not going to be a final BOM, but a preliminary one just to see the budget situation a bit more clearly.

Bear in mind that the design has not yet been fully tested. Avoid purchasing the components in large volumes at this stage, although it’s good to have some spares for prototyping and initial testing. At least in the United States, some of the most reputable suppliers of electronic components include DigiKey, Mouser, Arrow, Future, and Newark; they should cover all your needs for now, but you’ll want to purchase the components directly from the manufacturers for a high-volume production run (thousands of each component) later on.

Embedded software

Not every electronic product requires an embedded system, such as a conventional analog clock, a toaster oven,a non-digital multimeter, light bulbs, a blender, passive speakers, etc. For those that do require embedded software, however, this is going to be a crucial step for product development experts. The software will define much of the functionality and user experience of the final product. There are several different types of embedded software, including:

• RTOS (real-time operating system) is mainly intended for devices that do concurrent processing and real-time responsiveness, such as medical devices and car electronics.
• Bare-metal firmware is usually installed in simple electronic devices for the sole purpose of controlling the hardware components as they perform specific tasks, such as collecting sensor data.
• Embedded application, as seen in consumer electronics that come with a built-in screen. The application is meant to improve user interaction with the graphical UI.
• Middleware is quite common in electronic products that act as a bridge between other software or hardware systems, like IoT devices. To do the job, they require communication protocols such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

Some devices require operating systems like Windows Embedded, AOSP, and Linux Embedded. However, they’re typically for complex devices designed to do a broad range of functionalities and offer multitasking environments. Operating systems can also provide security features, support for advanced applications, networking capabilities, and hardware management. The type of embedded system you need is determined by the intended functionality of the product.

PCB (printed circuit board) design

You can’t have an electronic product equipped with embedded software if you don’t have a PCB design service provider to connect all the components (including the integrated circuit) and modules. It’s a critical step of product development, involving the following activities.

1. Schematic: This is where the engineers create circuit diagrams to specify all the electrical components and how they connect with each other. Engineers can use such tools as Cadence OrCAD, Altium Designer, or Autodesk Eagle. Think of the schematic as the blueprint for the PCB.
2. PCB layout and simulation: Once the schematic is done, engineers then move on to designing the actual PCB layout. It’s all about placing the components in the right spots on the board and planning for routing traces that minimize interference. Again, there are various tools for the job, such as Mentor Graphics and KiCad; the aforementioned Altium Designer also works well for this purpose, as well as for simulation. At the end of this step, the engineers should have deliverables, including Gerber files and simulation reports.
3. FPGA (field-programmable gate array): a process of programming work to make sure the device performs the functions it’s designed to do. Tools that facilitate the work include Libero IDE, Quartus Prime, and Xilinx Vivado.

All those steps must be taken with DFM in mind. Remember that it’s not just about creating a device that works, but one that’s also manufacturable in a cost-efficient manner.

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Enclosure modeling and physical prototyping

What comes immediately after PCB design is the enclosure modeling. Actually, those two steps should run somewhat concurrently because the PCB will end up inside the enclosure. Ease of assembly is part of the DFM approach. Your partner engineer or design firm might use CAD tools like SolidWorks, Autodesk Fusion, PTC Creo, etc., to build the enclosure as digital 3D models.

The specification sheets, including dimensions and materials, must be clearly noted. It’s advisable to build a prototype for the enclosure using a design for additive manufacturing service or CNC machining, only to check the aesthetic and test if it fits well with the PCB without sacrificing features like water and dust resistance.

As this stage of development comes to a close, you should end up with your first true physical prototype. The PCB design is optimized, and the enclosure is built to fit just right. What follows is a series of test runs, design improvements, and simulations until you arrive at the final prototype. It’s an iterative process, but thanks to software tools, much of it can be done virtually to save time and money.

Note that although 3D printers and CNC machining are accurate and detailed, most plastic enclosures for electronic products today are manufactured using the time-tested injection molding technique. The electronics are probably more difficult to develop, but the plastic can be a challenge to scale up. Be that as it may, injection molding is still the best method for large-volume production because it’s fast, reliable, and cost-efficient.

Production cost estimation

BOM is an extensive list, but it just doesn’t have enough information for you to calculate the total manufacturing cost, based on which you determine the best retail price. Start with the preliminary BOM, but now you have to factor in the additional cost of the PCB design, enclosure design, prototyping, testing, retail packaging, duties, warehousing, and logistics.

Pilot production

The initial batch of production doesn’t have to be in an extremely large volume. Some manufacturing design companies have a minimum order quantity (can be hundreds to a few thousand), so make sure you only order enough to meet this MOQ. The products from the first batch are primarily intended as validation to check the design specifications and manufacturing consistency. It’s also important to test whether the embedded software interacts properly with the hardware.

In many cases in electronic product development, it takes several rounds of limited production runs until everything is optimized. Minor modifications to the enclosure or PCB design might be necessary.

Mass production and certification

Following a successful pilot production, it’s time to transition to full-scale mass production. It’s always advisable to collaborate with a local manufacturing facility to simplify communication and ensure quality control. This is not to say that overseas partners are bad; it’s just that you’ll have an easier time maintaining a strong presence and direct oversight if the facility isn’t located too far away.

As for the certification, make sure you actually send the final product (when no other changes are expected) for it. If you certify too early, any changes in the design will require you to recertify. Depending on where you plan to sell the products, you may need to get certifications from the FCC, CE, RoHS, UL, and other ISO standards. While most of the certifications are for the electrical components, they require you to certify the product with the enclosure.

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Conclusion

Designing a brand-new electronic product (with the intention to mass-produce and sell it at a profit) is a complex endeavor filled with challenges and obstacles that may derail even the most carefully planned project. The guide presented above is by no means a comprehensive explanation about what steps to take to mitigate risks or how to establish a good partnership with a prototype maker and manufacturer. That being said, the guide should provide a general overview of the typical workflow and what you can expect at the end of every stage of development for engineering design services.

In real-world applications, anybody will need help from product design professionals as well as electrical and electronic engineers to handle everything with due diligence, especially when DFM is a major concern. Working with a design specialist enables you to optimize the PCB layout, the placement of electronic components, and the enclosure design to avoid unnecessary hassles and mistakes during the manufacturing process. In the old days, finding a capable engineer and design firm willing enough to even listen to your idea might be rather difficult, but things have come a long way to the point where you can now search a massive database of professionals on freelancing platforms like Cad Crowd. Furthermore, freelance engineers and designers offer their services at competitive rates to afford you a chance at transforming your idea into reality in a cost-efficient way.

How Cad Crowd can help?

Transform your electronic product idea into a manufacturable reality with Cad Crowd’s specialized PCB designers and engineers. Our pre-vetted professionals optimize your designs for production while delivering cost-effective solutions at every development stage. Request your FREE quote today and bring your innovation to market faster and more efficiently.