Electronics Design: Process

What is design?
Design takes up a set of specifications and provides a most acceptable solution that meets all the requirements.
Design includes all aspects of a product (electrical, mechanical, thermal and so on).
Process breaks down this multi-disciplinary design into simple steps which are easily implementable.
Electronic system design mainly deals with circuit design, PCB design, Embedded controller designs and
Firmware designs and interconnectivity designs

What is Electronics design process and what is Product design process?

Let us take a product say smart phone. It has a PCB with electronic components, a display module again with
electronic components, plastics, battery, cables, switches etc. These are the tangible attributes of this product
The company manufacturing this smart phone must have conceived this smart phone base don lots of
intangibles too. A market research for this product, the physical appearance of this phone, the features, the
specifications, the bill-of-material cost of this product, time to deliver etc, is based on a detailed market research.
Some of the finer aspects of this research also would decide in which countries this phone will be sold, which age
group it targets and so on.
A product design encompasses all these factors above. This process is called the product development phase.
Electronic design process just confines itself to the design of PCB, the components and hard-wares that will go
into it, the design aspects of these hardware, the programming aspects of the software and interfacing with
displays and controls. The Electronic design process is therefore a subset of Product design process
A product design will have many such subsets like Electonic design Process, Plastics design process,
Mechanical design Process, Packaging design Process, Thermal Design Process, EMI/EMC design process,
Environmental design process, Reliability design process, Ergonomics design process, Firmware design
process, Marketing design Process and so on.It involves a lot of technical and Engineering competencies.

Design Process and Its Fundamentals:

Design Process starts with a complete integrated planning that best describes the final intended product
completely. It will deal with the aesthetics and the product specifications comprehensively.
The key issues at this stage are
1. Can I completely identify all the challenges in front of me?
2. Can I identify the competencies my team should have to complete this. If gaps exist, can I acquire those
competencies quickly?.
3. How many design tasks are there and can I launch them in Series/Parallel fashion
4. How to develop/test and validate system/subsystem designs?
5. Final system Integration

A typical product development may be like this:

The eight major steps in a typical Electronics Design project are:

 Market research
 Product specifications
 Design planning
 Hardware/Software/Firmware Selection
 Circuits and drawings
 PCB Layout and fabrication
 Prototype and documentation
 Launch Manufacturing
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Electronic Design and development cycle

.
1. Market Research
During market research the available products in the market are researched. It is by and large a research on
competitors not only existing but the future ones too. Technology, Applications, Cost, features, distribution chain,
Market share, Brand image, Product positioning, Promos and agency approvals are the most important aspects
of market research. This research should help a company to know what it wants and where it wants. It will result
in specifying this product completely. A detailed design specification of that product will be the outcome of Market
research.
 2 Product Specifications
Product specs are documents that will describe the business idea, business objectives, what is the product, how
should it look like, what are the features and functionalities it should have, what technologies and protocols it
should support, what is the market this product is addressing and time to deliver. In addition it may also specify
the inputs it should handle, the aesthetics, the dimensions and the intended bill of material cost.
Example:
A mobile phone specification (in brief)
 15MP+5MP ultra-wide dual camera | 6MP f2.0 front camera
 18cm (7") Full HD+ Infinity V Display with 2000x1080 crystal clear resolution (400 PPI)
 5000 mAh battery with 3x fast charge | 15W Type-C fast charger in the box
 4GB RAM and 32GB internal memory expandable up to 512GB in a dedicated slot
 Fingerprint sensor | Dual SIM (nano+nano) with dual standby and dual VoLTE
 HD streaming | Dolby ATMOS 360 surround sound
 1.8GHz Exynos 7904 octa-core processor | Android Oreo v8.1 OS
 1 year manufacturer warranty for device and 6 months manufacturer warranty for in-box accessories
including batteries from the date of purchase
 Golden Brown Color

Design planning
The job description should contain details about the product, such as its functionality and performance, and
also information about deadlines and cost targets. The design and development department should figure
out and freeze a design approach that will provide the best solution.
This process will generate a list of what is available, what is not available, what shd be purchased, what can
be outsourced and what infra needs to be created. In short a development budget.

Design methodology provides a solution-based approach to designing products. It is a classical 5 stage approach
1. Empathize: Design thinking process should have an empathic understanding of the product that is
being design
 2. Define: Define the problem at hand. In this stage, all the product information available from the
Empathise stage is analysed and thoroughly discussed. A clear picture of the challenges ahead are
identified.
3. Ideate: The team generates, through brain storming, several ideas, good and bad ones. Good
ones are tested and investigated further.
4. Prototype:The design team builds and evaluates a number of inexpensive sub-systems and
investigate the problems that come up. This experimental phase will eventaually narrow down the
options and provide the best-fit solution for the product.This stage helps the design team to
completely understand the critical areas of the product design.
5. Test: The product undesrgoes a rigorous test by the design team.

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3. Circuits and drawings

The specifications and the requirements are converted to technical subsystem modules and resources are
allocated in terms of manpower, budget and infrastructure. The product is broken down to smaller modules or
sub systems, functionally and logically.

Each subsystem will have a document specifying the technical and functional specifications. A functional
description will have specifications on electrical, mechanical, environmental, EMI/EMC, thermal and so on. It may
also have specifications related to size, weight, color, safety, maintenance and so on. Each of these modules
may have one or more printed circuit boards. A circuit schematic (circuit diagram) is created manually or through
artwork software. A tentative parts list is also created to get a cost estimate. Some of the familiar issues that
come up during this stage are: Product will use TTL ICs or CMOS ICs? Will it use single sided or double sided
PCBs? What will be the microcontroller – 8051 or ARM? What will be the ROM/RAM capacities? Should a fan be
provided? Where will be the heatsink and so on. Design related documents are generated at this stage. A Bill of
Materials or BOM is generated and a reasonably accurate Costing is arrived at. Defining the software
architecture / platforms / tools happens at this stage. In addition drawings are generated for part assemblies,
chassis, PCB contours, fixtures and controls. The design and development happens at this stage. Optimum
solutions are arrived at for each subsystem. The interconnectivity between subsystems happens then.
Some of the typical technical drawings are
 Circuit diagram
 PCB artwork layout and related family of drawings
 Mechanical parts drawings
 Fabricated parts drawing
 Assembly drawings
 Chassis related drawings
 Outer casing related drawings
 3D and Isometric drawings
 Packaging drawings
 Sales and Marketing drawings

Circuit Schematic (Circuit Diagram)

4. PCB Layout and fabrication

The circuit diagrams are converted into PCB layouts using PCB artwork softwares such as PCB Wizard, Orcad
and so on. The lay out files are sent to a manufacturer who would fabricate the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and
deliver. Alternatively simple boards can be fabricated using manual process too.
 PCB Artwork Fabricated Printed Circuit Board

 Prototype and documentation

 Launch Manufacturing

Prototype
Based on the design approach PCBs are fabricated and populated with components as per the circuit diagrams.
Subassemblies are tested for their specifications and integrated into a full system. A chassis may house all the
PCBs with ineterwiring through connectors. A casing is designed which will be the enclosure for this system. A
front panel may be separately designed to house controls, switches, displays etc. This total package will be
called a protype which will resemble the final product in looks, specifications and functions. Aesthetics may be
lacking. It may be a good practice to make 5 to 10 protypes in R&D itself to ensure repeatability in performance
with different sets of components. In some companies only one prototype is done by R&D but a pilot production
of 5 to 1o units are made by Manufacturing department before bulk production is taken up.

Producing one unit is easy but to get the same consistent result in 100 units will be tough. Sometimes prototypes
are built before stage 4 (packaging and printed circuit layout) but the speed and cost advantages of computer
aided design are making this more uncommon. A hand-wired prototype of all or a portion of the circuit may be
required for the design process. During this stage, defects that cannot be detected in a small number of products
can be found, and minor changes in PCB, designs or schematics can be made.

Documentation:
The complete product documentation is done at this stage. Some of them are
Circuit diagram
PCB artwork layout and related family of drawings
Mechanical parts drawings
Fabricated parts drawing
Assembly drawings
Wiring drawings
Chassis related drawings
Outer casing related drawings
3D and Isometric drawings
Packaging drawings
Sales and Marketing drawings
Testing procedures
Test jigs design documents
Tuning procedures
Maintenance manuals
 Product Manuals
Parts list
Vendor list

Launch Manufacturing
After successful completion of Prototype development R&D will hand over the product to manufacturing
department for bulk production. Mfg may choose to launch a pilot batch or go for bulk manufacturing.
A complete set of documents will be handed over by R&D to Mfg.

A complete product design cycle is illustrated below

A product design cycle will have two distinct phases

1) Product definition phase: Marketing team will explore the market and find out through market research
where opportunity exists. Define the characteristics of a product, its saleable cost, market size, features required
and specifications. Design team then takes over and explores several approaches to provide the most
appropriate solution. They would come up with several choices and the Management may prune it down to one
or two approaches.
2) Design and Development phase (In our case, Electronic Design and Development phase):
Product Conceptualization: Having shortlisted the approaches, R&D will attempt to define the product
accurately will commence. The product plan will be done in terms of an over-all proposal, technical
specifications, features and functions. Gaps will be identified and an accurate picture of overall requirements will
be documented next. The big system will now be split into small subsystems and resources (people, facilities,
finance and Infra) will be allotted. Often this will be a parallel process.
Electronic Design and development: The sub-systems are converted into hardware or firmware using discrete
components and microcontrollers. The subsystems are then integrated and the final system testing is done.
Often the design and development makes 5 to 10 systems to understand the design spread and tighten up the
designs. At the end of this satge there will be 5 to 10 prototypes with repeatable performance.

Documentation: The complete product documentation is done at this stage. Some of them are
Circuit diagram
PCB artwork layout and related family of drawings
Mechanical parts drawings
Fabricated parts drawing
 Assembly drawings
Wiring drawings
Chassis related drawings
Outer casing related drawings
3D and Isometric drawings
Packaging drawings
Sales and Marketing drawings
Testing procedures
Test jigs design documents
Tuning procedures
Maintenance manuals
Product Manuals
Parts list
Vendor list

The various steps in product planning and development are discussed in detail below
Product planning and development process

Introduction
What is product design process?
Product design process is the complete process of conceiving an idea and converting it into a viable product thro
a systematic design development and production process, distributing it through a marketing process and
providing customer support.

What is product planning ?

Initially an entrepreneur or company may identify a number of opportunities in the market, synergic to the
strengths and evaluate them. Finally only a few may be shortlisted.. Product planning process is the stage where
an idea is converted into a tangible design concept and is taken up by the Management for approval. In a
successful product planning process, the project is approved, resources (people, funds and infra structure) are
planned and provided.

Fig : Product planning Process

An objective plan is created for each such project. The formulation of a product plan and an objective plan are
the initial steps before an actual product development process.

The product plan will undergo changes based on the feedback from design, manufacturing, sales and customer
support teams

The Product Development Process

Product development is really complex and is a continuous process throughout its life cycles. Even
established Operating systems in the market continue to update their products periodically. It is a multi-diciplinary
effort involving teams specialising in design and development, engineering, manufacturing, quality assurance,
sales and marketing, purchasing, and customer support.

Fig : A typical product development Process

Product planning
Is the product feasible? If yes is it profitable? Is it in line with the company’s strengths?
If the answer is yes to all these the Management approves the product development..
The product design begins during this phase.
The product concept is discussed thoroughly, with the target market, price and time in mind.
The product concept is split into smaller modules (subsytems)
The product designer assesses the technical feasibility and approximate cost to produce.

Design and engineering

This the crucial phase of the product development process.
This is the costliest part of the exercise too.
The design broadly addresses functional requirements, Expected Performance/Features, Aesthetics
(Shape or form factor), BOM Cost, When to market, DFM, modularity, Reliability
The product will frequently undergo design reviews and consequent changes
The emphasis will be on simple architecture, lowest bill of material and ease of high volume production
The subsystems will be designed and developed for their specifications
The system will have modular design so that field repairs can be faster and can be done by Low Tech
employees.
Design for manufacturing and Design for reliability will be built into these designs.
Finally all the subsytems will be integrated and a complete system design evaluation will be performed
Usually a batch of prototypes will be done (say 5 to 10) to establish repeatable performance
A complete bill of material will be made and Purchase will be fully involved here
This will be followed by generation of production drawings. The drawings are discussed later on
Design tooling and design test jigs are fabricated
Testing procedures will be made
Some parts and assemblies will be outsourced
Product specifications at system level and subsystem level will be generated
Transfer of technology will happen between design group and manufacturing group.
Marketing and sales will be trained by the design group
Customer support will be trained by the design group

Purchasing and Out sourcing

Based on the bill of material Purchase department should come up with a procurement plan
They need to find vendors who can supply mechanical assemblies, plastic parts and also the electronic
components
They need to find PCB suppliers, out sourcing partners and packaging material suppliers
They need to follow JIT (Just-in-Time) inventory system
The cost estimate of the BOM (Bill of material) is the responsibility of Purchase group and cost
reduction is the responsibility of every group in the organisation.
BOM cost is perhaps the most critical and important specification that will determine the profitability of
the organisation

PRODUCTION

When a prototype testing is successful, transfer of technology begins between R&D and Manufacturing
groups.
Some of the important documents that will be exchanged between these two groups are
Bill of Material
 Circuit Diagrams
Semi conductor masks if any for ASICs
Test specifications and Testing procedure of subsytems
Test specifications and Testing procedure of final product
Firmware related programing and test procedures
Assembly line layout documents
Seat-wise activity charts for the entire assembly
Mechanical parts drawing
Plastics parts drawing
Fabricated parts drawings
Fixtures drawings
Outsources parts and assemblies drawings
General assembly drawings
Test Jigs drawings and operating procedures
Tool drawings for plastic moulds and metal parts and packaging materials and other assemblies
Plus more………
R&D must be very familiar with the choices and sources for all these above.
Design for manufacturing (DFM) and Design for testing should have been built into the designs right from the
start of designs..
.

Sales and Marketing

Marketing and Sales will always have a premier front-end position in any organisation
The sales group will have to put in place a distribution network consisting of distributors, dealers, whole
salers and retailers, small and large accounts and so on..
Effective marketing would always include effective advertising and promos to create a demand (pull) in
the market
Marketing needs to analyse the risk potential from competitors and advise the organisation. Failure at
the market intelligence front will injure the organisation very seriously.
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Customer support
If the design is ideal, the product will never fail and we do not need customer support but this never
happens in the real world. Products do fail and we need to support the customers.
How can we minimize customer support costs?
Build reliability into designs. Make worst case designs. Environmental specifications must be
0°C to 50°C for consumer grade products and -20°C to + 55°C for military grade products. Go thro a
robust software testing and weed out all software bugs. Power supply must handle input mains
variations between 160 Volts to 280 volts.
Remember a resistor costs Rs 0.20 in production but the same resistor in a field repair, costs thousands
of rupees since it includes travel bill of an Engineer.
The design must be modular so that the field repairs are faster and can be done by low tech people.
Deploy remote trouble shooting thro on line connectivity as far as possible.
Fig : The Product Development Process
The product life cycle is an important concept in marketing. It describes the stages a product goes through
from when it was first thought of until it finally is removed from the market. Not all products reach this final stage.
Some continue to grow and others rise and fall.
What are the main stages of the product life cycle?
The main stages of the product life cycle are:
1. Research & development - researching and developing a product before it is made available for sale
in the market
2. Introduction – launching the product into the market
3. Growth – when sales are increasing at their fastest rate
4. Maturity – sales are near their highest, but the rate of growth is slowing down, e.g. new competitors in
market or saturation
5. Decline – final stage of the cycle, when sales begin to fall
This can be illustrated by looking at the sales during the time period of the product.

Overview of the Product Life Cycle

Extending the Product Life Cycle

For successful products, a business will want to do all it can to extend the growth and maturity phases of the life
cycle, and to delay the decline phase.
What can businesses do to extend the product life cycle?
To do so, it may decide to implement extension strategies - which are intended to extend the life of the product
before it goes into decline.
Examples of extension strategies are:
1. Advertising – try to gain a new audience or remind the current audience
2. Price reduction – more attractive to customers
3. Adding value – add new features to the current product, e.g. improving the specifications on a
smartphone
4. Explore new markets – selling the product into new geographical areas or creating a version targeted
at different segments
5. New packaging – brightening up old packaging or subtle changes
Evaluating the Product Life Cycle Model
The product life cycle model is by definition simplistic. It is used to predict a likely shape of sales growth for a
typical product. Whilst there are many products whose sales do indeed follow the classic shape of the life cycle
model, it is not always true.For example, some products may enjoy a very sharp growth phase, but may also
quickly move into a sharp decline phase. Pagers is a typical example. They are replaced by superior products
from competitors or from technology improvements. Other products with particularly long life cycles seem to
enjoy a maturity phase that lasts for many years.