Reviews: The Key to Right-First-Time Designs
Frustrated by endless design iterations, costly reworks, and damaged reputation? Discover the power of professional design reviews. Outside experts can help you identify and address potential issues early on, ensuring a smooth development process and successful product launch. Here is the why and the how.
Why Your Hardware Design Needs a Third Eye: A Case for Professional Design Reviews
In the intricate world of embedded systems, even the most experienced hardware engineers can fall victim to design errors that lead to costly rework and delays. The complexity of modern designs, coupled with human factors like time pressure and cognitive biases, can create blind spots that even the most skilled professionals may miss. That’s why an external design review can be the difference between first-pass success and expensive respins.
The Hidden Risks in Hardware Design
While experience and expertise are critical, they don’t eliminate the risk of design errors. Here are common pitfalls that can affect even the most seasoned engineers:
- Overwhelming Complexity: Modern hardware designs involve thousands of components, interfaces, protocols and regulatory constraints. It’s easy to overlook small details that can have big consequences.
- Human Error: Stress, fatigue, and tight deadlines increase the likelihood of mistakes, especially in high-pressure development cycles.
- Blind Spots: Engineers deeply involved in a project can miss obvious errors that a fresh, outside perspective would catch.
- Superficial Internal Reviews: Internal design reviews often lack depth, either because of time constraints or concerns about exposing potential issues.
- Cross-Disciplinary Challenges: Errors can arise from the interaction of hardware with software, mechanics, thermal, or other systems, which are not always considered during hardware-focused design reviews.
- Changing Requirements and Component Obsolescence: As projects evolve, last-minute changes or component updates can introduce new risks that may go unnoticed without a thorough review.
Why Invest in a Professional Design Review?
A professional design review is an essential step in minimizing these risks. When you engage an external reviewer, you benefit from:
- Deep Expertise: Our team of seasoned hardware engineers brings decades of experience across industries, ensuring expert-level scrutiny of your design.
- Objective Perspective: As independent reviewers, we provide unbiased feedback, free from internal dynamics or project pressures.
- Comprehensive Scrutiny: Our methodical approach ensures that every aspect of your design is thoroughly examined, from schematics to documentation.
- Early Detection of Issues: Identifying problems early in the design cycle can prevent costly rework, delays, and disruptions down the line.
- Holistic Analysis: We examine how hardware interacts with other components, such as software and mechanical systems, to ensure a well-integrated design.
- Risk Mitigation: We identify potential risks and provide actionable strategies to address them, preventing issues before they become critical.
Embedded Expertise's Proven Design Review Process
Our process covers a wide range of critical aspects that are often the source of design challenges. Whether you need a full review or help on any subset of these items, we tailor our services to your specific needs.
✅ Documentation review
We scrutinize the documentation related to your project, ensuring that the requirements are clearly defined and that the implementation aligns with those requirements. We also review justification and calculation documents to ensure that design decisions are well-supported and validated.
✅ Software integration
We check the seamless integration of all the hardware components into the execution environment—for example, verifying the availability of reliable drivers for the considered operating system.
✅ Circuit Analysis
We meticulously inspect your schematic for inconsistencies, missing components, or potential design flaws that could compromise the system.
We also evaluate the suitability of chosen components to ensure they meet performance, reliability, and environmental criteria.
✅ Verification Tools Compliance
We ensure that all necessary verification tools (such as Design Rule Checks (DRC), Electrical Rule Checks (ERC), and other automated checks) have been fully utilized. All errors must be cleared, warnings thoroughly reviewed, and any waivers properly justified and documented.
✅ Power Integrity
We examine power supply design to identify potential issues like noise, ripple, and voltage drops that could affect overall system performance.
✅ Signal Integrity
We assess signal quality to ensure that data transmission remains robust, especially in high-speed or sensitive applications.
✅ Design for Manufacturability
From PCB stackup, feature sizing, component placement, routing strategies and manufacturability to electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and thermal management, we check if your design is optimized for production and performance before it goes to the EMS.
✅ Obsolescence Survey
We analyze the long-term availability of your components, reducing the risk of future supply chain disruptions.
✅ Risk Assessment
We identify potential design risks and help develop plans to mitigate them before they become critical issues.
The Cost of Design Reviews: A Smart Investment
One of the biggest concerns we hear from clients is about the cost of a design review. The reality is, the cost of a professional review is marginal compared to the cost of a design respin. The expense of reworking a design late in the development process—or worse, after production has started—can be enormous, factoring in root cause analysis, redesign, manufacturing delays, component resourcing, software adjustments, testing, and qualification.
Think of a design review as paying for insurance on your project. Just like you wouldn’t skimp on insuring a valuable asset, investing in a thorough review protects your project from costly and time-consuming setbacks. The upfront cost is minor compared to the potential delays, missed revenue opportunities, and reputational damage that can result from a flawed design making its way to production.
Addressing Concerns About Delays
While design reviews may introduce a slight delay, the potential benefits in terms of improved quality, reduced risks, and avoided respins far outweigh the costs. Here’s why:
- Parallel Processing: Design reviews can be conducted in parallel with other development activities, minimizing disruptions to your project timeline.
- Minimal Schedule Impact: Changes identified in a design review can often be implemented late in the development cycle through engineering change orders (ECOs), with little to no impact on the overall project schedule.
- Cost-Benefit Analysis: The cost of delaying a review to expedite the development process may outweigh the potential benefits. A thorough review can help identify and address critical issues early on, saving time and money in the long run.
Why a Casual Review Can Backfire
Taking a design review lightly or skipping it altogether may seem like a way to save time, but the risks of not reviewing thoroughly far outweigh the perceived benefits. A missed issue can lead to costly respins, impacting both your project timeline and budget.
Here’s why:
- Late Discovery of Issues: Problems identified late in development or during production can lead to significant delays and aftersales costs, damaging your reputation and market position.
- Rework and Respins: If flaws are found, the entire design may need to be revised and remanufactured, resulting in increased costs and longer lead times.
- Component Resourcing: A design respin may require sourcing new components, which could lead to further delays and supply chain disruptions.
- Testing and Validation: A revised design must be thoroughly retested and validated, extending the overall project timeline.
- Missed Revenue Opportunities: Delays caused by design errors can mean missing deadlines, leading to lost revenue or even contract penalties.
In contrast, a professional design review can be conducted with minimal disruption. By identifying and correcting issues early, the review process can prevent much larger problems later in development.
Case Study: Turning a Troubled Design Around
One client approached us after struggling with recurring issues in their design (PCB Rev. G – Ouch!). Upon review, without powering a board or even stepping into the lab, we identified critical errors including:
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An unintentional power path killing an interface chip every now and then;
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PCB layout problems causing signal integrity issues on a PCI-Express link;
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Random errors on a good old I2C bus caused by a violation of the maximum bus capacitance rule;
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Decoupling capacitors with improper voltage rating. This was due to a copy-paste from another design that was “working perfectly”. See the blind spot?
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One critical ASIC used out of its temperature rating.
By catching these problems during a comprehensive review, we helped the client put the project back on track. Had we been involved earlier in the design cycle, these errors would likely have been detected in the same way, but without the additional delays, costs, and reputational damages. Lesson learned.
Why Choose Embedded Expertise?
Proven Track Record
We have consistently achieved first-pass success for our own products and helped clients excel, avoiding costly errors and delays.
Industry Expertise
Our team and partners bring in-depth knowledge across a wide range of hardware technologies and design methodologies, with access to an extended network of experts for specialized areas.
Independent, Unbiased Reviews
As external reviewers, we offer objective feedback without the internal biases often associated with project history and politics.
Customer-Centric Approach
We are committed to delivering high-value, high-quality reviews that align with your project goals and timelines.
Take Action Now: Secure Your Design’s Future
Don’t leave your project’s success to chance. A professional design review is a critical step in ensuring a smooth development process and avoiding costly errors. Contact us today to learn more about how our services can help you achieve a successful first-pass design and keep your project on schedule.
