1 (a)

What is the purpose of the product or design?

(What is the purpose or idea behind this product? What is the problem is it solving?
This information helps team members get a perspective and then, they can start thinking about how to design.)
 Block Diagram for a Good Overview
(Start with a rough block diagram (hand-sketch) of the product to define different sub-blocks and keep ref
2 (a) is important to have a good high-level overview of the project. NOTE: One can use draw.io to create the b

Example Block Diagram

OLED Display
(128x64 Single Color)

Main
Controller

1x
1x Ethernet
USB
100Mbps
2.0
 different sub-blocks and keep refining as the discussion progresses. This
ne can use draw.io to create the block diagram and insert here)

ck Diagram

Display
ngle Color)

Isolated
RS485
ain
roller
WiFi

1x Ethernet
100Mbps
https://www.pallavaggarwal.in
3(a)

3(b)

3(c)

3(d)

3(e)

3(f)
Prerequisite Design Requirements
Environmental Conditions
(This will not only influence the circuit but also the enclosure design)
Temperature Range
Humidity Range
Vibration - the level of vibration the product may face

Shock - the level of shock the product may face

Impact - the level of impact the product may face
What will be the type of installation, is it indoor or an outdoor?
What is mount type like DIN rail mount, wall mount, pole mount, will be kept on the table?
Is the environment corrosive (chemical fumes, gases, etc)?
Is product need to operate near Sea?
Is weather proofing required?
Compliance Requirements
(Various certifications required to comply with the norms where you want to sell your product. There are various wel
available which you need to follow. If you are not aware of which all standards to follow, you can check other similar
which all certifications they have or you can speak to an expert.)
CE / FCC
UL
Temperature / Humidity /Vibration / Shock
Electrical Safety
Flamability, Explosion Proof
IP Rating
Target BOM Cost
(Target BOM cost gives the necessary direction to the design engineer for selecting various components, PCB techn
Like, smaller PCB will cost less, mounting components on both sides of the PCB will cost more time and cost in the
reduces the PCB size, etc.)
Electronics Board (no including enclosure, shippment charges & duty)
Expected Production Volume or Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ)
How many units per month or per year you are planning to produce or per lot
Product Long Term Availability
Any plans/need to make the product available for 5 years/ 10 years like in case of Industrial/Medical/Automatove ind
you want to manufacture the same design? This will influence engineer's decision during component selection
Warranty
(Information about the warranty is useful to understand the reliability needs & field issues. This helps design enginee
care while selecting components and designing circuitry. Design for a warranty of 1 year and 10 years could be entir
 Eaxmple

0 to 50 Degree C
5-95% RH
vibration during transportation, mounted on vehicle

shock during transportation, mounted on vibrating

machine?

Not applicable
Indoor
Table
No
No
No

Yes
No
Yes
No
No
IP65

5000 INR

100

3 - 4 years

2 years replacement warranty or 1 years warranty on

manufacturing defects
Main Technical Specification

4(a)

4(b)

4(c)

4(d)

4(e)
4(f)

4(g)
Main Technical Specification
Hardware Features
(Hardware spec will mainly cover all the detailed requirements related to various features as shown in the block diag
have created) Example details could be as mentioned below:
It should have WiFi connectivity.
It should have a display which the user can see from 5 feet.
Easy interface to configure via a keypad(4×4).
One LED to state power ON, another to show if GPRS is active or not.
It should have one RS232, two RS485 interface.
It should have 4x Digital Inputs, all should be 24V compatible.
It should have two relays to control external equipment.
It should be powered by 5V DC input.
Power supply should have LEDs for indication
Whole product should not consume more than 5W peak and 2W typical.
Hardware Protections
(Basically, think about how the product can fail from a hardware point of view? Define all protections to make sure th
works reliably for a longer period. Example: Power supply protection for overvoltage, reverse voltage, Surge&Isolatio
RS232, RS485, etc. ESD protection on all I/Os and so on..)
Power Supply
Over voltage
Reverse Voltage
Over Current Fuse
RS232
Isolation 4KV
ESD
Surge 4KV
RS485
Isolation 4KV
ESD
Surge 4KV

Firmware Spec
Is there a need for PC based configuration software, how the user will use it, which all OS it should support?
If there is a mobile app required, which all Mobile OS it should support?
Create a structure of the code, various modules required, a flow chart
Define functional details and screens.

Field Upgradable Firmware

Which wireless connectivity to be used for firmware upgrade
Which wired connectivity to be used for firmware upgrade
How will you make it absolutely easy for support/field staff?
How will you ensure it is fail safe. If during firmware upgrade if power goes off, it should still be able to handle it

Any PC or Mobile Software

Is there a need for PC based configuration software, how the user will use it, which all OS it should support?
If there is a mobile app required, which all Mobile OS it should support?
How user will install?
Define functional details and mock screens.
User Experience Requirements
Make a list of features which will improve the whole user experience while operating the product.
Some Medical or Pharmaceutical use-cases might need minimal or no human touch. This is to avoid spreading infec
contamination.

Enclosure Spec
It will be good to start visualizing how the product will look like. How many PCBs it will have, how they will interconne
is good to create hand-sketches and discuss different ideas with the team.
- Always keep users need in mind while designing the enclosure.
- You should also consider creating 3D models and fit all the components inside to analyze if it goes well from ease
manufacturing, repair and user experience point of view.
- Enclosure design will also be driven by environmental conditions, compliance requirements & thermal managemen
Size
Material
Target Cost
Sketches
3D Drawing
Final Assembly in 3D to check if everything is coming properly
 Must have
Good to have
Must have
Must have
Must have
Must have
Good to have
Must have
Good to have
Must have

Yes
Yes
Yes

No
Yes
No

Yes
Yes
Yes
5. Production

5(a)

5(b)
5. Production
Manufacturing (DFM)
(Various considerations from manufacturing point of view w.r.t to the available manufacturing ecosystem should
listed as design inputs to the engineers)

Validation & Production Testing

- Proper test plan need to be created both for the validation and for the production testing. A proper plan will help
designer ensure that the product is easy to test in both the scenarios.
- For example, providing necessary access to test points & interfaces for design validation. Any additional firmwa
changes required to enable the testing.
- In high volume production, testing time is very important. Design the product in such a way that all test points a
accessible and the automated test setup takes the least amount of time to setup and test the product with maxim
coverage.
6 Field Failure Strategy
(It is impossible to design a circuit which doesn’t fail, so better to think about the scenarios in which product could fa
6(a)

6(b)
6 Field Failure Strategy
(It is impossible to design a circuit which doesn’t fail, so better to think about the scenarios in which product could fail and
Do you want the user to ship back the product when it fails?
In this scenario you would want to make sure design is so rugged. If product failure is more it will impact user’s con
brand value. The turnaround time should also be very low.
Or you are going to have nearby service centers? This ultimately adds up to the cost of the product because you n
maintain service centers and all the costs associated to it.
Ultimately, you need to decide if the product / board is going to be repairable or not. This information is useful for de
engineers when designing the product and taking various decisions which will influence reliability nand repairability o
product.
7 Documentation & Support
7(a)

7(b)
7 Documentation & Support
Documentation
Datasheet
UserManual or Video
Documentation for customer to sharing different stages in lifecycles and how it would be handled
FAQs / Troubleshooting Guide
Support
How customer will request for support? email or phone or ticket or forum?
Standard SLA if any
Process or mechanism to review support requests regularly and improve the products/documentation/support
RMA support via online form?