Aanoit Technical Services provided world class technical assistance to product engineers and designers.
High volume manufacturing interface – Working with contract manufacturers can be daunting. It may seem that the answer to every question is expensive. David Hunt, Aanoit’s owner, is an experienced time and materials (T&M project budget and risk analyst) from one of the “big ten” contract electronic manufacturers as well as lead engineer at RCA responsible for core design of million units per year production. Sometimes the right questions can cut manufacturing costs tremendously.
Analog circuit design evaluation – All circuit design is analog. Digital circuit design is analog design with stylized rules to enhance reusability. Mr. Hunt is a specialist in low noise design capable of evaluation of circuit function, noise evaluation and reduction, ground efficacy, thermal impact and mechanical constraints. All those details that are rarely covered in undergraduate level engineering degrees.
Digital circuit design – Most digital design is now microprocessor based. Unfortunately microprocessor are often selected on the basis of providing excess (and expensive) capability, previous familiarity of managers and/or engineers and other unnecessarily costly influences. On the other hand, products may need to be upgradable. Washing machine models built by the ten’s of millions need to optimize all component procurement costs and should consider single use, dedicated designs. Medical equipment might have to progress through many of generations, variations and implements based on the initial design making versatility and unrealized potential the key to keeping a design competitive in the marketplace. One size does not fit all!
Component evaluation – Components drive the design, right? No! Product function drives design. Prototype component selections are not always the best options for production. Product manufacturing cost can often be doubled or halved simply by packaging decisions that affect supporting circuit design, mechanical design, packaging, connectors (a major manufacturing cost in some designs – predetermined by function in others) and other considerations literally too numerous to mention.
Schematic Design Entry – It is not commonly known that there is a standard for printed circuit readability. Hewlett Packard created a list of suggestions for their engineers in the 1970 era and it is applicable. Simple things like inputs on the left, outputs on the right, negative voltages on the bottom, positive voltages on the top and grounds between, collecting components of functional modules together and other concepts. David Hunt, Aanoit’s owner has written even written a book on Printed Circuit design and it familiar with a number of current printed circuit packages.
Spice simulation of Electronic Design – Circuits are much easier to evaluate in a simulation program such as SPICE. Simulations can be set up and run in less time than it takes to design and manufacture a prototype board even if everything is done overnight. Successful SPICE simulation is a matter of product knowledge and experience running simulations of real circuits. David Hunt, Aanoit’s owner has written even written a book on SPICE simulation and is familiar with a number of SPICE implementations and how they interface with current printed circuit packages.
High speed circuit design – High speed digital design capability is greatly enhanced if the engineer is capable in high frequency RF design. David Hunt, Aanoit’s owner, began working with high frequency microwave circuits in the 1960 era and was a pioneer in surface mount components, originally developed for microwave circuits and adapted to digital design. He was also a Senior Member Technical Staff for RCA developing early dedicated-purpose high-production-volume ARM components embedded into millions of televisions.
Printed Circuit Design – Printed circuit design is more than component selection, operating printed circuit software to create trace patterns, providing physical mounting and establishing connectivity. Knowledge of circuit operation is essential to proper layout, maximal performance, power handling, noise reduction, EMI and RFI immunity and, most importantly, manufacturing costs. Printed circuit design is not a standalone process it must be coordinated with all team members and especially the designer, component selection, component procurement, manufacturing, production test, field support and more. When designing for high speed – low cost manufacturing, experience is the most important factor in successful printed circuit layout. Sometimes the most obscure detail is essential in the tedious process of printed circuit board design.
Printed Circuit evaluation – There are many types of printed circuit board materials, layout methods, component alternatives, connector alternatives, manufacturing alternatives, testing alternatives, handling alternatives, safety alternatives among myriad other factors. An experienced set of “new eyes” evaluating a printed circuit project can save time and money for rework or redesign.
Turnkey Printed Circuit Development – Not all companies want or need an in-house staff for printed circuit design. Using the design engineer for printed circuit layout prevents leveraging that talent into bigger, better, slicker, faster, cleaner, leaner, meaner products. Quite often the hardware designer is essential to software development, or is responsible for that development. Using a technician probably means learning a very sophisticated process “on the job.”
Spice circuit evaluation – Why wait to evaluate hardware when simulation can be had at a fraction of the cost and/or time of hardware development.