Electronic Design
The process of electronic design covers a broad range of systems from power generators for a city all the way down to the small embedded solutions in very small devices. For simple circuits the design process can be done by an individual without a need for planning or structuring design process, but for more complex designs, a team of designers usually works on a single project. As circuit design is the process of constructing a physical electronic circuit by individual components.
This will normally take the form of blueprints describing the size, shape, connectors, and artwork file for manufacturing a PCB or IC.
Formal circuit design usually involves the following stages:

  • Specifying the requirements in accordance with customer needs.
  • Preparing a proposal to meet the requirements
  • Preparing an abstract schematic circuit on paper or CAD software
  • Putting  an estimate bill of material together for both prototyping and manufacturing purposes
  • Performing simulations to verify that the design is correct and will work properly
  • Building a prototype version of the design and testing against specification
  • Altering the circuit to achieve compliance and required standards
  • Choosing a method of construction as well as all the parts and materials to be used
  • Presenting component and layout information to draughtspersons, and layout and mechanical engineers, for prototype production
  • Testing the prototype thoroughly for any possible flaws before manufacturing
  • Signing and approving the final manufacturing drawings

Specification
The process of electronic design begins with specifying the requirements, which states the functionality that the finished design must provide, but does not indicate how it is to be achieved. The initial specification is basically a technical description of what the customer wants and can include a variety of electrical requirements, such as input signals, output signals, power consumption and etc. The specification can also set some of the physical parameters that the design must meet, such as size, weight, moisture resistance, temperature range, thermal output, vibration tolerance and acceleration tolerance.
As the design process progresses, the designer will frequently return to the specification and alter it to take account of the progress of the design. This can involve narrowing down the specifications that the customer has supplied, and adding tests that the circuit must pass in order to be accepted or pass certain standards. These additional specifications will often be used in the verification of a design. Changes that conflict with or modify the customer's original specifications will have to be approved by the customer before they can be acted upon.

Design
The design process involves moving from the specification at the start, to a plan that contains all the information needed to be physically constructed at the end, this normally takes multiple stages to be completed, although in very simple circuit it may be done in a single step. The process normally begins with constructing the block diagram of the various functions that the circuit must perform, at this stage the contents of each block are not considered; only an abstract view of what each block must do, this is referred to as a "black box" design. This approach allows the possibly very complicated task to be broken into smaller tasks which may either by tackled in sequence or divided amongst members of a design team.
Each block is then considered in more detail, but with a lot more focus on the details of the electrical functions to be provided. At this or later stages it is common to require a large amount of research or mathematical modeling into what is and is not feasible to achieve. The results of this research may be fed back into earlier stages of the design process. At this point it is also common to start considering both how to demonstrate that the design does meet the specifications, and how to test them.
Finally the individual circuit components are chosen to implement each function is the overall block diagram, it is at this stage which the physical layout and electrical connections of each component are also decided, this layout usually takes the form of artwork for the production of a PCB. This stage is extremely time consuming because of the vast array of choices available. A practical constraint on the electronic design at this stage is that of standardization, while a certain value of component may be calculated for use in some location in a circuit, if that value cannot be purchased from a supplier, then the problem has still not been solved.

Manufacturing
Finally with the success of designing and implementing the prototypes and doing proper testing for malfunction and satisfying the appropriate standards, the design can be send for first revision manufacturing. Every effort must be made to ensure that the first revision is the final revision of the product. Altering original specifications or adding more functions to the end product can ask for other revision but that’s a different story.
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