Audio Design
From award-winning HiFi equipment to alarm systems, and phones, we have the expertise to integrate audio into your next project.
Our Custom Electronics Design and Engineering Experts
Your product’s success hinges on seamlessly integrating electronics, firmware, and mechanical elements. Our in-house electronics team collaborates with designers and software engineers throughout development, eliminating the disconnects and delays that typically occur when electronics engineering is outsourced or siloed.
Video: Meet our electronics design team (1:45min)
Our hardware team designs electronics and custom circuit boards for your new design.
Our fully integrated software and hardware team creates high-quality electronics to operate the device, selecting alternatives for each electronic function and we use off-the-shelf components where possible.
Electronics Engineering That Delivers Market-Ready Products
Our approach ensures your custom-designed electronics work to specification. Avoid costly redesigns and certification delays through:
- Circuit design and simulation for first-pass success
- Concurrent engineering to avoid PCB–enclosure conflicts
- Weekly reviews to catch integration issues early
- Early component selection with procurement input
- Early thermal and EMC tests to avoid certification failures
- Manufacturing input during PCB layout to accelerate readiness
Electronics Design Services and Specializations
Our fully integrated software and hardware design teams create innovative user experiences, custom apps, and we integrate advanced sensors, enabling real-time data analysis and control at the edge.
Embedded System Design
Meeting all your embedded systems design needs, we can:
- Architect I/O,MCU,DSP,FPGA system elements
- Source components for cost/size/power constraints
- Analog interface circuitry
- ADC/DAC mixed-signal design
- Battery power management systems
- JTAG, UART debug/test interfaces
- Memory SDRAM, Flash, EEPROM elements
- Electrical Circuit protection and EMC elements
PC Board & Wireless Design
Providing you with a full range of PC board design services, we can:
- Analog, digital, optical, and RF design
- Wireless interfaces, including Wi-Fi/WLAN (802.11), Bluetooth®, GPS, Cellular, RFID, LoRa, ZigBee®
- Electronic system architecture, detailed circuit design and schematic capture
- PCB layout, including mixed signal/high speed/ flex circuit (Allegro®, Altium®, PADS®)
- Design for manufacturability/testability (DFM/DFT)
- Design for standards compliance (Safety, EMC/EMI)
Electronic Component - Code Design
Fulfilling all your software design requirements, we can:
- Design robust real-time architecture for microcontrollers (STM32, ESP32, NRF52/53, NXP, ARM Cortex) and Linux/RTOS platforms
- Develop low-level drivers, firmware, and middleware for wired/wireless protocols: Bluetooth 5.x, Wi-Fi 6, Matter, LoRa, Zigbee, Ethernet, USB 3.x, CAN, Modbus
- Optimize resource-constrained environments using C/C++, Python, and bare-metal RTOS implementations
- Build secure IoT ecosystems with seamless cloud integration (AWS IoT, Azure, MQTT, CoAP)
- Enable edge-to-cloud intelligence with embedded AI/ML (TensorFlow Lite, OpenCV, sensor MLC)
- Machine learning core optimization for low-power anomaly detection and predictive analytics
- Sensor Fusion & Edge Intelligence with integration sensor types (IMU, LiDAR, biometrics, UWB, environmental)
Battery and Power Mangement
We help you maximize efficiency in battery-powered connected devices, including:
- Advanced battery charging and management systems with intelligent protection
- Custom AC/DC and DC/DC BUCK/BOOST power supplies for optimal efficiency
- Low power microcontroller solutions
- Energy-efficient ultra-low power IoT sensor networks
- Smart power management for extended battery life
- Power over Ethernet (PoE) implementation for cable-consolidated installations
- Sustainable energy harvesting solutions (solar, vibrational, thermal)
- Wireless power transfer systems
End-to-End Product Engineering Expertise to Drive Your Connected Devices
Our electronics team works from concept to manufacturing, ensuring all technical requirements are integrated seamlessly into your product. From concept idea to schematic capture to tested circuit boards, our integrated development teams address design challenges and supply constraints early and eliminate the surprises that typically delay market entry by 4-6 months, keeping your product launch on schedule and within budget.
Project 423 was a moderately complex electronics design. The conceptual design included block diagram, preliminary schematics, and a Bill of Materials. This work was completed in just 2.2 days with our internally developed design toolset, AI assistance and our deep electronics expertise.
Advanced Circuit Design and Component Selection
Modern connected devices demand sophisticated electronics that balance performance, cost, and reliability. In today’s volatile supply landscape, strategic component selection has become mission-critical.
Our electronics team develops resilient circuit designs with multiple sourcing options for critical components. We create detailed power budgets during concept phase, addressing battery capacity and thermal management before mechanical constraints—keeping your product manufacturable despite market fluctuations.
Video: Swabbot Client Case study
Power Management and Wireless Integration
Effective power management is essential for battery-operated devices, while proper wireless integration determines connectivity performance and certification success.
We optimize circuit designs to achieve 30-50% longer battery life than industry averages for comparable devices. Our wireless product designs are optimized for RF performance, ensuring operational specifications are met or exceeded in your intended applications.
Systems Testing and Compliance
Getting a product to market requires navigating complex certification requirements while ensuring real-world reliability.
We conduct pre-compliance EMC/EMI testing during prototyping to identify interference issues before certification.
Our comprehensive thermal imaging and systematic load testing protocols verify real-world performance under diverse environmental conditions, preventing costly field failures and future warranty claims.
Video: VP Electronics Explains Designing Electronics for Manufacturing
PCB Design and Manufacturing Support
The transition from prototype to production demands PCB layouts that balance electrical performance with manufacturing requirements.
Our designs incorporate essential Design for Test elements, programming access, and data capture features supporting both development and high-volume manufacturing. We deliver comprehensive documentation—pick-and-place files, AOI specifications, and test protocols—reducing production startup time by weeks or months.
Our Hardware Electronics Design Process
Our process for designing a printed circuit board (PCB) from an initial idea to a fully assembled PCBA (Printed Circuit Board Assembly) involves several iterative stages. We use Altium electronic design automation (EDA) software to meet functional, electrical, mechanical, and manufacturing requirements. Here are the key steps in our electronics design process.
Definition and Architecture
- Idea and Requirements Gathering: Starting with initial product concepts, define user needs and requirements.
- Collaborate with Electronics team: to identify hardware dependencies, processor requirements, sensor types, display resolution…
- System Architecture Design: Outline system, software partitioning, high-level modules, interfaces to custom circuits.
- Software Requirements Specification: Detail requirements, constraints, features, performance metrics, and safety considerations.
Design and Qualify
- User Interface (UI) Design: Design device’s UI – keys, connections, graphical display, LEDs, voice/gesture/motion interactions…
- Capture UI Features and States: Wireframe layout, user flows, peripherals compatibility (touchscreens, keys…).
- State Tables and Modeling: Create state diagrams, tables, finite state machines (FSMs), model device modes (idle, active, error…).
- Map Transitions: Capture transitions triggered by user inputs (keys/switches, sensors) based on states and modes.
- Function Definition: Break down software into functions and modules.
- Detailed Design: Define APIs, data structures, and embedded code for peripherals (drivers for displays, interrupts for switches).
Implementation, Validation And Deployment
- Hardware Prototyping: Assemble prototype PCBA, verify functions, test design assumptions, validate chosen platforms/algorithms.
- Implementation and Coding: Write the software code, including embedded firmware (for microcontrollers…), over air updates etc.
- Application/Custom Code: When required, develop app specific control schemes, algorithms and intelligence (PID loops, ML, etc).
- Integration and Testing: Integrate evolving software into hardware, perform system integration/validation testing to debug code.
- Deployment, Iteration, and Maintenance: Finalize production-ready software, flash it onto devices, and release.
- Maintain Strict Release Control: for software updates – working closely with electronics hardware revision releases.
Fully Certified and Award-Winning
Our company and staff are professional engineers with multiple industry certifications.
The Measures Taken To Ensure Your Products With Electronics Succeed
Design 1st integrates our knowledge and expertise with yours to bring your product idea to life.
Related technology expertise
Robotics and Mechanisms
Simple to robust mechanisms, and fully autonomous robotic devices, our integrated design and engineering team can meet your requirements.
Body Worn Devices
Deep wearable expertise for human-worn devices with connectivity, and comfortable ergonomic fits that the needs of your product.