Design to Cost

All engineers want to save time and money when designing electronics, and saving a fraction of a cent per component can make a huge difference in total production costs. Browse our library of resources for insider tips and tricks on integrating real time pricing from your supply chain and designing your PCBs at the most effecient costs possible.

Manufacturing Startup Costs: Budget for Tests and Success

PCB Manufacturing Startup Costs: Budget for Tests and Success So you have a hot new hardware device that you plan to manufacture and bring to market? Maximize your chances of success by budgeting your startup costs. Read Article

PCB cost drivers

PCB Manufacturing Cost Drivers and Designing to Cost Whenever I’ve engaged with a startup client that wants to understand board design and manufacturing costs, they often get surprised when I tell them the major PCB cost drivers and start giving some ballpark estimates. For a startup hardware company, or even a major enterprise that does not normally engage in electronics manufacturing, the numbers can be surprising, especially for low-volume runs. There is this perception that electronics Read Article

COVID-19 Challenge

COVID-19 Challenge My name is Piotr Lazarek. I’m a 19 year old engineer studying at Dulwich College in London. Because of the pandemic, I was forced to fly back to Poland for quarantine. To be frank, it wasn’t an easy time for me—after a week, I was practically dying of boredom. Thankfully, around that time, I received an invitation for a project called “COVID-19 Challenge”. The project was aimed at sixth form and university students who were passionate about Read Article

Printed Circuit Assembly and Design for Cost

Printed Circuit Assembly and Design for Cost The design process for an electronic system requires decisions that will influence the cost and performance of the printed circuit assembly (PCA). General Principles There is value in being able to quickly estimate the impact of design on cost. Because of the increasing pressure to shorten time to market, design engineers may not have the luxury of using trial and error and price quotes to fine-tune a new design. In addition, the further down the Read Article

Datasheet Reliability with Ben Jordan

Datasheet Reliability with Ben Jordan In this OnTrack episode Judy Warner and Ben Jordan discuss about Datasheet Reliability. Can you trust them? And what does “Gilded” mean? This & more about verifying app notes. Watch the full episode. Read Article

Rigid Outer-Layers to Reduce Cost

Rigid Outer-Layers to Reduce Cost Why is a 4-layer Rigid Flex Less Expensive than 3-layer Rigid Flex? Designing flex and rigid-flex can be tricky. Not only do you need to design for a product that will bend, fold and flex, you are working with different materials and fabrication processes. Plusm it is difficult to clearly communicate how the part should flex in final application. Typically, the goal is to use the most cost-effective stack up that meets both your electrical and Read Article

Cost vs. Price:The Economics of PCB Design

PCB Manufacturing Cost vs. Value: The Economics of PCB Design Every decision made in the design process of any PCB or system has an economic as well as an engineering effect. Some of these effects are more visible or tangible than others but if the “dollars and cents” elements are weighted along with the design decisions it is more likely that that the resulting product will be both economically efficient and well-engineered. As with most everything in life, price and cost are not the same things Read Article

47 How To - Using File-Based Libraries in the New Components Panel Watch Video

1:51 New Components Panel Watch Video

Low Power Electronics: Do You Need a Battery to Keep Your Circuit Boards Online?

Low Power Electronics: Do You Need a Battery to Keep Your Circuit Boards Online? I was recently chatting with a friend of mine about his new hardware startup and how his progress on his new product was coming along. He was building a Bluetooth device and his first run at a prototype only kept his circuit board online for 40 minutes before draining the battery. I’ve noticed the difficulty of many IoT devices is that often they need to run for long periods of time. Whether it’s something you can wear or a sensor in a smart home Read Article

Differences Between Hardware Design for Hobbyists and Commercial Applications

Differences Between Hardware Design for Hobbyists and Commercial Applications Although hobbyist and professional hardware may seem similar in terms of function, professional designs must abide by broader considerations. Read Article

Coupled Versus Uncoupled Inductors: Which is Right for Your Switching Power Supply?

Coupled Versus Uncoupled Inductors Procurement: Which is Right for Your Switching Power Supply? I recently took a deep dive into the various types of topologies surrounding switching power supplies. This article examined the benefits and downfalls of some of the most common topologies and aimed to assist you in the process of choosing how to power your design. The SEPIC topology is a very common switching mode power supply that can operate as both a Buck and a Boost converter. In other words, the SEPIC can act as a step-down (Buck converter Read Article

The Cost of CAD Software: What Strong Design Tools are Really Worth

How Much Does Cad Software Cost and Is It Worth It? We've all been there, we buy bargain products to save money only oftentimes for disappointment. This might happen when that knock-off shirt doesn't fit you properly or the cost CAD software ends up being far from what you were looking for. Although it takes money to make money holds true at times - the question still stands: How much should I invest in this software in order to achieve my desired result and how much does CAD software cost? The Read Article

How Blind, Buried and Through-Hole Vias Can Impact Your PCB Design

How Blind, Buried and Through-Hole Vias Can Impact Your PCB Design Growing up, I was obsessed with all things Super Mario, but honestly, who wasn’t. Specifically, I was a sucker for the Super Nintendo, old school version. Bounding from platform to platform, tossing pixelated turtle shells, saving princesses… what a life. One of the best, albeit strangest, of the game, no doubt, was jetting in and out of those little green tubes that were seemingly all over the place. Who made them? Why were they even there Read Article

Electronic Parts Obsolescence Management, It's Your Move

Electronic Parts Obsolescence Management, It's Your Move I started playing chess a bit more seriously a few years ago and have since become quite capable of planning out moves several turns in advance with an accurate prediction of how my opponent will react to them. I wouldn’t even consider competitive with my chess skills, but there are professionals who can predict moves and match outcomes between 60 and 100 moves in the future. While it’s a strong practice to get into, being able to predict moves Read Article

Finding the Perfect World for Multilayer PCB Design

Finding the Perfect World for Multilayer PCB Design and Fabrication I have always been a huge Clint Eastwood fan. Dirty Harry always seemed to be a little too quick on the draw for an urban twentieth-century environment, but The Man with No Name—he was perfect for the ruggedness and lawlessness of his time. Obviously, I always rooted for him to beat up the bully, outdraw the outlaw, or get the girl, but the most intriguing thing was that he was usually quick to make a decision. Of course, the results varied Read Article

How Component Placement can Make or Break Your Manufacturing Budget

How Component Placement can Make or Break Your PCB Machine Manufacturing Budget With each new PCB design, there comes a time when you must make decisions based on more than performance alone. Physical space is easily overlooked in the world of equations, schematics, and oscilloscopes—we'll often focus on signal integrity over such mundanities as component volume. In the days of room-filling computers, we didn’t have to be deliberate with our space. However, cost, time and space requirements have obviously changed. There is Read Article