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Analog Circuit and System Design, Development, and Prototyping for New Product Development

Most new products have at least some analog circuitry in them. While it is true that many new products are using more and more digital technologies, both to reduce size and cost, and increase battery life, some analog design is still needed. While analog design is very similar to RF design and microwave circuit design, it is not quite as complicated and does not require the same sophistication in software tools and test equipment. Often,  a simple Spice simulator and an oscilloscope are all that is needed, along with power supplies and low frequency signal generators.

 

While there is probably no official definition of where analog design ends and RF circuit design begins, for purposes of this discussion, we will consider RF design to begin at about 100 MHz. Thus, analog design can be considered to include things like active filters, high power transmitters and receivers, oscillators, and amplifiers ranging from audio amplifiers for earphones and speakers up to high power amplifiers for communications purposes up to thousands of watts and up to 100 MHz.

 

Analog circuit design also includes the design of power supplies and switching power supplies. These are used in virtually all new product designs and improper design and layout can lead to many different problems, mostly related to oscillations and spurious signals.

 

Analog design is often involved in the design and development of IF (intermediate frequency) stages in the design of a transmitter circuit or a receiver circuit. Often, the final IF stage is somewhere in the 10.7 to 70 MHz range. The actual frequency is often determined by the availability of standard filters, including SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave), crystal, BAW (Bulk Acoustic Wave), and ceramic filters. LC filter design is also a critical part of analog circuit design, development, and prototype development.

 

If if you need something like a Bluetooth circuit design for your new invention design, for example, that system will almost certainly need some analog circuit design, including power supply design, speaker or ear-bud amplifier design, or various LC filter circuit designs.

 

Aerospace Consulting has several Spice simulators, or Spice-like simulators

 

Intusoft IntuSpice

 

Keysight (formerly Agilent) Cayenne (part of Genesys suite)

 

Spice simulator built into Altium Designer circuit board layout and FPGA

       development suite

 

For active filter design, and linear and non-linear simulation, the following

       are also useful:

 

Keysight (formerly Agilent) Genesys for linear and Harbec for non-linear

 

Keysight (formerly Agilent) Genesys S/FILTER for filter synthesis and

      simulation

 

Keysight (formerly Agilent) Genesys AFILTER for active filter design and

      simulation

 

Aerospace Consulting also has arbitrary waveform generators for generating any waveforms needed for a design, as well a high power attenuators, that will handle up to 1000 watts, for amplifier and transmitter design, development, and troubleshooting.

 

Aerospace Consulting has been involved in the design of some very unusual, high power amplifiers and signal generators for various products and markets including medical, avionics, and military.