Producing electronic product samples consists of PCB design and PCB assembly and is an important step when launching new products. Based on how far evolved your design is, there is a high danger of expensive errors. I will give some advice about avoiding frequent mistakes and how to reduce time to market and expense when making prototypes.
Once you have finished your product and PCB design, you want to get started building samples before you commit to large production volume. A lot of design software packages including PCB layout design software and industrial design software contain simulation capabilities built in. Doing a simulation allows minimizing the number of design errors before the first prototype is assembled.
One strategy to speed up sample optimization is working with a modular design. A modular design will concentrate core features of your design in particular parts which are exchangeable. Throughout your prototype optimization you can then rebuild separate modules that do not yet meet your performance requirements rather than having to rebuild your whole design. Swapping a single module will be relatively cost effective. Additionally, performance characterization of modules will be faster than characterizing the complete design.
PCB components are often assembled by hand throughout the sample phase although this approach is time consuming. Subcontracting the sample manufacturing provides higher quality. It can also save a lot of time.
You ought to look for a subcontractor which has a small setup expense because this expense is going to dominate the overall expense in case of small-quantity runs. To reduce setup expense of PCB sample assembly, vendors will combine boards from several clients. This will split the setup expense amongst numerous customers. Consequently, you will only have a limited choice of PCB materials and thicknesses.
When looking for a manufacturer, you should however not focus on low setup costs alone. Picking a manufacturer which can also run production quantity runs later on will avoid many problems throughout the production stage because the sample data can easily be reused. Your manufacturer can then very easily reuse your translated design files. This may not be the case if you are changing manufacturers. Also, chances are that your new vendor will read some files in a different way which will risk performance of the final product.
Several PCB manufacturers also offer PCB design services which is a great plus in case you don’t have experience with the design. In addition, these suppliers will be able to aid you in case there are problems with your design files and be capable to discover problems before the manufacturing.
A difficulty with small-quantity assembly runs is purchasing of PCB components. Many components suppliers will charge freight fees and have minimum order quantity constraints for specific components. In addition, dealing with a small quantity of parts is a concern in case of surface mount assembly because components will be mounted from SMT feeders. A number of manufacturers will stock standard SMT parts that you can buy from the vendor. This will save you the time of having to purchase these parts independently. In addition, you don’t have to worry about using up surplus components.
Picking a vendor that is also able to do the finished product assembly reduces time to market by eliminating ship times between various suppliers. In addition, circuit boards that are found to be faulty during the final testing can be repaired a good deal more rapidly. Decent communications with your supplier is essential since it will help avoid costly delays and mistakes during all steps of the PCB assembly and finished product manufacturing.