Bench Talk

What Can Design Engineers Do in the Face of Increasingly Complex Electronics?

(Source: GoodandEvil / stock.adobe.com; generated with AI)

It is no secret that a vast effort is underway to electrify virtually all human technologies that can be viably electrified. This means massive growth and diversity in the electronics industry, impacting everything from sensors, actuators, controllers, and every electronics domain. Many electrical and electronic systems used to be of a single domain, either analog, power, RF, or digital, but now, virtually all devices contain critical design elements from each domain that cannot be ignored when delivering competitive products to market. In the past, a single engineer, or a small team of engineers, could deliver a product to market in a reasonable time span (usually a year or several). Now, products are being developed and released within a matter of months, and these electrical and electronic products are much more sophisticated than what was previously produced in many times the development cycle.

As technology and demand move full speed ahead, how can design teams meet this new pace of product development? Here, we will explore several methods and considerations to aid design engineers in the face of increased electronics complexity.

Software Is a Designer’s Best Friend

Fortunately, electronic design automation (EDA) and computer-aided design (CAD) software options and features have been growing alongside the complexity of electronic systems. There are now more EDA and CAD suites being offered including features that were previously packaged as expensive add-ons. As competition has grown in the EDA and CAD spaces, costs for these software licenses haven't risen as high as they could have. Many organizations have since merged and offer combined products that are less expensive and feature greater levels of integration., as Additionally, now that most suites have evaluation versions that provide a reasonable time frame to evaluate the tool, there is a lower risk to trying these products.

Automated Design & Optimization Features Are Getting Better

Most newer versions of EDA and CAD software feature automated design algorithms and packages that help perform the time-consuming and repetitive tasks that normally take up a significant portion of the design time. While certain critical routing features, such as precision RF and high-speed digital, will likely still need to be done entirely by hand, or at least tweaked, many modern EDA suites can do relatively sophisticated routing automatically. Since newer tools and features like this have not always been reliable in the past, some designers shy away from them. However, it is now often worth the time to experiment with these features, as they can dramatically shorten the development cycle of circuits.

Software optimization is another critical area to focus on in the face of increasing design complexity. Computation capability has significantly advanced, including using GPUs as computational accelerators. With much more computation resources at hand, like memory and storage, it is possible to do more complex multi-variable optimizations that would previously have only been available when using a supercomputer or high-performance computing cloud services. Now, optimizations can be done on many different variables simultaneously, shaving off significant development time spent on iterative design and tweaking the simulator tool.

Multiphysics Simulation Domain Capability Is More Common and Affordable

Many EDA and CAD suites now offer capabilities for multiple physic regime simulation or multi-domain simulation. These features are generally a bit of an upsell, but the cost of the combined software tool can be much less than buying separate tools, not to mention the time and effort it takes to harmonize the results of different simulation tools. Having RF, power, analog, digital, thermal, and mechanical simulation in a single tool can reveal device behavior that would otherwise be impossible to discover outside of rigorous real-world testing, which is often much more time-consuming and expensive. Given the cost of real-world testing facilities, taking the time to master and use multiphysics or multi-domain simulation technologies can be a significant game-changer for time-to-market as well as the competitive performance of a product.

Modules & Modular Design Based on Building Blocks Is Key

A continually growing library of modules and modular component offerings are now readily integrated into designs. Many of these drop-in modules are compatible with a whole family or line of similar products, such as MCUs, DSPs, FPGAs, and more. Hence, a designer could familiarize themselves with an MCU family and make a diverse range of products based on similar modular circuits with different drop-in modules. Test sockets allow for even higher pin counts and ball grid array (BGA)-style chips to be temporarily mounted, allowing for much more rapid testing of candidate chipsets. There are also complete system-on-chips (SoCs) available that significantly cut down the bill-of-materials (BOM) for a circuit and can save time with routing. It might be worth looking at the latest MCUs, DSPs, CPUs, GPPs, and FPGAs to see what SoCs and chipsets are available with integrated features that save the time and effort of using additional components for these features.

EMI Analysis and EMC Pre-Compliance Is a Must

Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and electromagnetic interference (EMI) issues are increasingly common. This is inevitable as the world becomes much more electrically complex, which includes emissions and proximity to a vast number of electrical and electronic devices. Despite this, many design firms consider EMI analysis and EMC an afterthought. This can be a costly mistake in terms of time and money. Failure during EMC compliance testing or a regulatory agency discovering an EMI issue with a product—either immunity or emissions—can lead to recall and redesign costs that can be catastrophic. It is often advisable to have EMI analysis in-house with EMC pre-compliance gear available. When designers perform analysis and testing during development, instead of scrambling at the final stages of development before production, electronics can avoid the increasing potential for EMC and EMI issues and ensure they are able to qualify a product.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the solution for many design engineers is to find and master whatever tools are available that can automate or remove some of the iterative work in the design process. With less time available to design, many design groups are licensing intellectual property (IP) for more and more significant portions of an IC or PCB design. The process of licensing IP and accessing the IP for a design is now far more streamlined than before, which aids in getting products to market faster, but at the cost of including "black boxes" in a design. As always, complexity ensues, but software solutions endure.