Electronics design is an incredibly complex and often intricate process that goes well beyond simply hitting specs or staying within cost and timeline goals. Every single component on a BOM serves a unique purpose and plays a critical role in the overall design.
Needless to say, engineers and designers don’t make these decisions lightly, but it’s also difficult to consider every possible factor at once when time is of the essence. As with all things, there’s a balance to strike that ensures the parts are ideal from both an engineering and sourcing standpoint.
Join us as we look at five considerations engineers and designers make when choosing the right component for their design.
5 Considerations When Choosing an Electronic Component
From technical specs, to cost, lead times, lifecycle status, and more, there are numerous considerations when choosing a component. Even the most seasoned engineers and designers sometimes need to take a step back and ensure they’re considering every possible angle.
Here are the five considerations that are most important when choosing a component:
1) Utilize Parametric Search
It all starts with a better way of searching. Parametric search on websites like Findchips can help you quickly narrow down your options in a sea of part numbers and datasheets. Using this type of search, you can type in product specifications or browse parts by category as a first level search.
From there, you can begin narrowing the pool of options by filtering using parametric values that most closely match the goals of your design. This approach will quickly get you from thousands of options to a handful that could easily fit for your design.
Once you’ve narrowed the pool, it’s time to see if the part meets your specification and board size requirements.
2) Confirm Technical Specifications and Board Placement
The first step should always be to assess the component in the context of your performance requirements. This includes factors like voltage, current, frequency, and temperature ranges. From there, you should think about how the component will physically fit onto the board.
If the component you’ve selected doesn’t fit these requirements, many of the tools from Supplyframe also allow you to quickly identify functional alternates that fit into your performance needs.
Now that you’ve ensured your component meets performance and space requirements, the next step is to confirm that the inventory, lead times, and pricing all match your needs.
3) Confirm Stock and Pricing
The perfect part could be undermined by a lack of availability, pricing issues, or end-of-life status (EOL). It’s important to understand the sourcing risk involved with the part, but most engineers don’t have access to their information, which leads to redesigns later when the risks surrounding a part become apparent.
Findchips allows you to avoid this by providing real-time pricing and inventory data for parts. You can even filter your results based on quantity, in-stock status, exact matches, or even by specific manufacturers and distributors.
A free Findchips account also lets you set up email notifications for specific part numbers, which will also give you a heads-up if the part you chose for your design may become an issue. If that’s the case, you’ll be able to browse alternate options to choose something that works better for the entirety of the product’s lifecycle.
4) Utilize Design Assets (Footprints, Symbols, 3D Models)
A great way to bridge the gap between the real and virtual world is to leverage design assets to better understand how your chosen components will integrate into your design and onto your board.
ECAD tools are common across industries, but the real magic happens when you introduce design assets like footprints, symbols, and 3D models for individual components. You can find these types of assets for free on Component Search Engine, and they seamlessly integrate with your ECAD tool in just a few clicks.
While datasheets are important, it’s these assets that engineers use on a daily basis to decide if a component is the best fit for their design. Not to mention, it also cuts down drastically on the time needed to properly vet components.
5) Test and Prototype to Confirm
To avoid potential redesigns, today’s engineers and designers leverage all manner of testing and prototyping tools to make sure the design functions as intended with the component they’ve chosen.
One such technology that’s making waves is the Digital Twin. This technology enables nearly perfect 1:1 virtual models of real world designs. The Digital Twin functions identically to its real-world counterpart, allowing teams to test all manner of different scenarios that would be far more difficult to achieve in the real world.
This technology also enables simulations across larger spans of time, which ensures that the design will hold up over the course of its lifespan. Siemens is a pioneer in this space, and as a Siemens company, Supplyframe is also integrated our unique intelligence into various solutions across the Siemens Xcelerator open digital business platform.
A perfect example is how Siemens introduced our real-time intelligence to Xpedition, allowing users of the software to to access real-time visibility into global component availability, demand, cost, and other associated parametric data.
Access to this data at the point of design is crucial as it allows engineers and designers to make more informed decisions that account for the ever shifting supply chain and market landscape, adding further resilience the product’s design during the design, testing, and prototyping phases.
Over to You
Engineers need access to the latest tools, intelligence, and component data to make the best decisions. Every part on a board plays a unique role, and each one of them relies on a unique supply chain to source it.
Trust Findchips and Supplyframe for the latest real-time data on the components across your product BOM. Visit Findchips.com today to see our intelligence in action.