A selection of electronic design projects across different industries and applications. Each one taken from first schematic through to production.
Dual-Channel Isolated Analog Measurement for SCADA
The Challenge: SCADA data acquisition requiring ±0.1% accuracy on 0-30V and 4-20mA channels, surrounded by VFDs and motor starters generating heavy electrical noise.
The Solution: Dual-channel analog front-end with software-selectable gain stages, galvanic isolation between the analog section and digital/comms side, and TVS-based transient protection rated for IEC 61000-4-5. Gain configuration is firmware-controlled, so the same board covers multiple signal ranges without hardware changes.
Results: Deployed across the client's SCADA system. False alarm rate dropped from several per week to near-zero once the isolation eliminated ground loop issues.
Similar Challenge? If you need precision measurement in industrial environments, let's talk.
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Custom Dual-Transducer Ultrasonic Level Sensor
The Challenge: Standard ultrasonic sensors have a ~50mm blind zone from ringdown after the transmit pulse. This client's medical dispenser needed reliable detection down to 10mm.
The Solution: Separate TX and RX transducers eliminate the shared-element ringdown problem, paired with custom envelope detection firmware. Acoustic crosstalk at close range is managed with a staggered pulse timing scheme.
Results: Reliable detection at 10mm, which let the client shrink their reservoir housing and still detect a full reservoir accurately.
Need Custom Sensors? Sensing challenges like these are a regular part of the work.
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BLE Wearable Sensor: 14 Months on a CR2450 Coin Cell
The Challenge: 12 months of continuous physiological monitoring from a CR2450 coin cell, with BLE connectivity and weeks of onboard data storage.
The Solution: Built around the nRF52832 with a PCB trace antenna (saves cost and board space at the expense of tighter impedance matching and ground plane tuning). Aggressive duty cycling: IMU wakes MCU on motion events, sensor sampling adapts based on activity level, BLE advertising intervals stretch during inactive periods. 64Mbit SPI flash for data logging between sync sessions.
Results: Hit 14 months in accelerated discharge testing. The PCB antenna gets -68dBm at 3m, more than adequate for a wearable-to-phone link.
Building a Wearable? Ultra-low-power design is a core competency.
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Custom CC/CV Boost Converter with Integrated Heatsink
The Challenge: High-power boost converter with CC/CV modes for a tight industrial enclosure. Off-the-shelf modules were either too large or couldn't do the firmware-selectable current/voltage profiles the application needed.
The Solution: Custom switching design with a bent aluminum heatsink that doubles as an EMI shield. The thermal path was the critical constraint; the heatsink geometry keeps junction temps under 85°C at full load in a sealed enclosure. CC/CV crossover handled in firmware with a smooth transition region to avoid oscillation at the mode boundary.
Results: Roughly a third the footprint of the commercial module it replaced. The client controls power profiles through a serial interface instead of external pots and comparators.
Space Constraints? High power density thermal design is a specialty.
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Off-Grid Solar Pump Controller with MPPT and Cellular Reporting
The Challenge: Solar-powered water pump for off-grid agricultural sites. Needs to run through cloudy stretches, handle panel degradation gracefully, and report status over cellular since the nearest technician is hours away.
The Solution: MPPT converter with perturb-and-observe tracking, Li-Ion battery bank for buffer storage, and a priority-based power manager: solar feeds the pump directly when available, battery fills the gaps, and the system curtails pump duty cycle when state-of-charge drops below a configurable threshold rather than deep-discharging the pack.
Results: Cellular reporting cut site visits from monthly to quarterly. Most issues (clogged filter, low panel output from dust) can be diagnosed remotely. One deployment has been running for over two years with only seasonal panel cleaning.
Off-Grid Application? Solar-powered systems with remote monitoring are a regular part of the work.
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Solar-Powered NB-IoT Crop Sensor
The Challenge: Field-deployed crop sensors that run for years on a small solar cell and LiPo, measuring soil moisture, temperature, humidity, and light, reporting over NB-IoT.
The Solution: STM32L433 in Stop2 mode draws under 2µA between readings. The solar MPPT charges a 400mAh LiPo that sustains the system through winter weeks with minimal sunlight. The cellular modem dominates the power budget, so the firmware batches readings and transmits in short bursts rather than maintaining a persistent connection.
Results: Deployed fleet has been running reliably across multiple growing seasons.
Need Ultra-Low Power? Energy harvesting IoT is a core part of the practice.
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PoE Indoor Asset Tracker with BLE Tag Scanning
The Challenge: Real-time indoor asset tracking across a large facility. The client wanted to use existing Ethernet infrastructure: no new power runs, no battery-powered units to maintain.
The Solution: PoE-powered monitor that scans for BLE asset tags and reports positions to the building management system. The onboard MCU filters and deduplicates tag advertisements locally, so only meaningful location updates hit the network. The PoE PD controller negotiates adequate power without exceeding the switch's per-port budget.
Results: Installed on existing Ethernet drops, no electrician needed. Staff who previously spent the first 20 minutes of a shift hunting for portable equipment now pull up a floor map on their tablet.
Building Automation Project? PoE-powered systems integrate into existing infrastructure with zero rewiring.
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Cascaded H-Bridge Inverter: Stackable Modules to 2kV
The Challenge: Generate clean sinusoidal waveforms up to 2kV from a low-voltage DC bus, with variable frequency. The previous linear amplifier approach was massive and ran hot.
The Solution: Cascaded H-bridge inverter where each stage adds its output voltage in series, reaching 2kV with lower-voltage MOSFETs per module. Identical PCBs stack mechanically and electrically. Staggered switching instants push harmonic content to higher frequencies where it's easier to filter. Inter-stage isolation at 2kV requires isolated gate drivers and strict creepage management.
Results: The client now offers 500V, 1kV, and 2kV variants of their instrument using 1, 2, or 4 stacked modules from the same PCB design.
High-Voltage Challenge? High-voltage power electronics are part of the regular workload.
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Flex-PCB Battery Heater for -40°C Arctic Deployment
The Challenge: Keep Li-Ion batteries above -20°C inside an environmental monitoring enclosure rated for -40°C. The heater has to wrap around an irregular battery compartment.
The Solution: Flex PCB with resistive heating traces on one layer and a copper heat spreader on the other. Serpentine pattern sized to deliver uniform W/cm² across the battery surface. Thermal simulation guided the trace density to eliminate hot spots. The heater activates when battery temperature drops below -10°C and shuts off at 0°C to conserve energy.
Results: Temperature variation across the battery surface stays within ±3°C, compared to ±15°C with the wire heater it replaced. No mechanical fasteners needed; the flex conforms directly to the compartment.
Extreme Environment Application? Custom thermal solutions for harsh environments are part of the practice.
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RTK GNSS/IMU Tracker with Dual-MCU Architecture
The Challenge: Centimeter-level positioning for a mobile application, with dead reckoning through GNSS dropouts (tunnels, dense foliage) and wireless data backhaul.
The Solution: u-blox NEO-M8P for RTK corrections, BNO055 IMU for inertial fill-in, Taoglas active antenna with LNA. Processing split across two MCUs: ATSAM handles real-time sensor fusion and position computation, ESP32-S3 manages Wi-Fi/BLE networking. This separation was deliberate: putting networking and GNSS processing on the same core caused timing jitter in the position solution during Wi-Fi traffic bursts.
Results: Consistently under 3cm CEP in open sky RTK mode. The IMU dead reckoning holds under 1m drift for about 30 seconds of GNSS outage, covering most short tunnel transits.
Precision Positioning Project? GNSS, sensor fusion, and multi-MCU architectures are a regular part of the work.
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3-Channel TEC Controller with Independent PID Loops
The Challenge: Three independent TEC zones in a lab instrument, each needing bidirectional drive (heat and cool) with tight temperature regulation.
The Solution: Each channel gets its own synchronous buck converter in H-bridge configuration for bidirectional current. Synchronous topology minimizes heat in the driver board itself. Independent PID loops per channel with precision RTD feedback. TEC thermal response is slow and nonlinear, but the tuning achieves fast setpoint transitions with no overshoot.
Results: Holds ±0.05°C at setpoint once settled. The three zones don't interact thermally, which simplified tuning considerably.
Thermal Control Application? Precision temperature control with PID tuning is part of the regular work.
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Miniature LiPo Module with USB-C Charging and Protection
The Challenge: Fit a complete battery system (cell, charger IC, protection, and USB-C port) into a wearable form factor where every millimeter counts.
The Solution: Designed around a 20×30mm LiPo cell with a single-chip charge controller that integrates protection (OVP, UVP, OCP) to minimize component count. USB-C connector for charging and power output, no proprietary dock. The layout packs the USB-C with its configuration resistors, charge controller, protection FETs, and cell connections into the remaining board area.
Results: The module plugs directly into the client's wearable mainboard via USB-C and reports battery discharge status and parameters to the host, so the wearable can manage its own power budget.
Wearable Power Challenge? Compact battery systems with integrated protection are a regular design task.
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nRF52 Multi-Sensor Board: Six Sensors + BLE in 18×22mm
The Challenge: Pack accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer, temperature, and humidity sensing with BLE into the smallest possible board.
The Solution: nRF52832 SoC handles BLE and sensor polling over I²C/SPI. All sensors on the top side, RF section kept clear on the bottom with a ground plane cutout under the PCB antenna. USB-C for both charging and firmware programming. The matching network accounts for the proximity of multiple sensor ICs to the RF section.
Results: The client uses it as a drop-in module across three different product lines.
Need Miniaturized Sensing? High-density sensor integration with BLE is a core competency.
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Custom i.MX Industrial SBC, 10-Layer DDR Design
The Challenge: The client's SCADA application needed a custom SBC with a specific I/O mix (Ethernet, RS-485, CAN, USB) that commercial industrial boards didn't offer at a reasonable cost.
The Solution: Custom SBC around the NXP i.MX with DDR, Gigabit Ethernet, USB, and expansion headers for application-specific I/O. Power input accepts 9-36VDC with transient protection to IEC 61000-4-5. The 10-layer stackup handles DDR with length-matched differential pairs and controlled impedance. The i.MX was selected partly for NXP's 15-year longevity commitment, which matters for industrial products.
Results: Running a custom Yocto Linux build with the client's SCADA HMI. Certified for hazardous location (HazLoc) deployment.
Industrial Computing Project? Custom SBCs with DDR, industrial I/O, and embedded Linux are part of the regular workload.
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Motion-Activated BLE Remote (CC2640, Wake-on-Movement)
The Challenge: Wireless remote that wakes instantly when picked up, no button press to turn it on. Had to fit a specific curved enclosure shape.
The Solution: TI CC2640 BLE SoC with an LIS2DH accelerometer configured for motion interrupt wake. The accelerometer draws ~2µA in low-power mode and wakes the CC2640 from shutdown on any movement. Custom-shaped PCB follows the enclosure contour to maximize battery volume. PCB trace antenna with a u.FL test port for antenna characterization in the actual enclosure.
Results: Users just pick it up and it's connected within 200ms. Battery lasts several months because the device spends most of its life in shutdown at ~1µA.
Custom Remote Design? Low-power wireless with custom form factors is a regular design task.
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Multi-Chip Bio-Signal Module: AFE + Wireless
The Challenge: Multi-channel bio-signal acquisition with wireless transmission in a module small enough for a medical wearable. Signal integrity is critical because the analog front-end is measuring µV-level bio-potentials right next to a 2.4GHz radio.
The Solution: Three QFN ICs on a 4-layer board: wireless SoC, dedicated analog front-end (AFE), and a signal processor. A split ground plane with a single-point bridge isolates the AFE's sensitive analog inputs from digital and RF noise. Ferrite bead filtering on all AFE power rails, and antenna placement as far from the analog section as the board outline allows. u.FL connector for external antenna options.
Results: Clean signal acquisition with noise floor low enough for the target bio-signal application. The module is compact enough for wearable integration.
Compact Wireless Design? Mixed-signal layout with RF is a core competency.
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Sub-GHz Multi-Sensor Gateway for Air Quality and Occupancy
The Challenge: Single enclosure that monitors air quality (NOx, particulate matter), occupancy (PIR), temperature, humidity, and communicates over sub-GHz for building-wide coverage.
The Solution: Stacked PCB design: the sensor board sits above the radio/MCU board inside a vented enclosure. The PIR lens pokes through the housing, and the particulate matter sensor has its own airflow channel. A helical antenna provides compact, omnidirectional coverage for wall and ceiling mounting at any orientation. Gas sensor warm-up is staggered to avoid boot current spikes.
Results: Building managers get a combined occupancy + air quality view from one device per zone. The sub-GHz link reaches across entire floors through walls, the primary advantage over Wi-Fi or BLE.
Smart Building Project? Multi-sensor integration with long-range wireless is a regular design task.
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Analog RGB LED Driver for Optical Diagnostics (No-PWM)
The Challenge: RGB LED driver for an optical diagnostic instrument. Color accuracy has to be repeatable across units and temperature because the diagnostic algorithm depends on consistent illumination wavelengths.
The Solution: Pure analog current regulation, no PWM. PWM would cause flicker artifacts in the optical measurement. Each RGB channel has its own precision current source with temperature-compensated feedback. The linear current sources are fed by a switching pre-regulator that tracks just above the LED forward voltage, keeping power dissipation low while maintaining clean, ripple-free drive.
Results: Channel-to-channel current matching within 0.5%. The client calibrates each unit once at the factory and the readings hold across the operating temperature range.
Precision Lighting Application? Analog LED drive with precision current control is part of the practice.
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Custom-Shape Motor Driver with DRV8833, Direct Motor Mount
The Challenge: Motor driver for a handheld medical actuator where the board has to follow the enclosure contour and the motor mounts directly to the PCB assembly. No room for a separate driver module.
The Solution: Custom-shaped PCB built around the DRV8833 dual H-bridge. A magnetic Hall sensor on the board provides closed-loop speed feedback from the motor shaft. Board outline matches the enclosure geometry so it drops into the housing and the motor shaft aligns with the mechanical assembly.
Results: The Hall feedback loop maintains consistent actuation speed across varying load conditions and battery voltage. Smooth, repeatable motion with no stalling.
Compact Actuator Design? Custom motor drivers with closed-loop control are a regular design task.
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TEC Liquid Cooler Driver with WiFi PID Control
The Challenge: Drive a large TEC module in a liquid cooling loop that needs to both cool and heat, with tight temperature regulation and remote access for monitoring.
The Solution: Full H-bridge with high-side and low-side current sensing for accurate bidirectional power measurement. The WiFi-enabled MCU runs a PID loop and serves a simple web interface for setpoint control and temperature logging. The power stage uses 2oz copper with wide traces to keep resistive losses and thermal rise under control at the current levels this TEC draws.
Results: Regulates to ±0.1°C at steady state. The web interface lets lab technicians monitor and adjust coolant temperature remotely.
Precision Cooling Application? TEC drivers with PID control and remote monitoring are part of the regular work.
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Sub-GHz Wireless Relay Controller (868MHz, Through-Wall)
The Challenge: Wireless relay controller for long-range remote switching over distances up to several kilometers.
The Solution: Sub-GHz wireless (868MHz) for long-range penetration. Helical antenna keeps the footprint compact while maintaining good omnidirectional coverage. An alarm relay provides local fault indication, and X2 capacitors are used for AC-coupled water level sensing. Screw terminals for field connections.
Results: Reliable long-range switching deployed across multiple sites with centralized scheduling through the gateway.
Remote Control Application? Long-range sub-GHz wireless control is part of the regular work.
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Stretchable PCB with Serpentine Traces, 30% Elongation
The Challenge: Standard flex PCBs bend but don't stretch. This wearable application needed electronics that can elongate with body movement without cracking traces.
The Solution: Rigid component islands connected by serpentine copper traces on a stretchable substrate. The serpentine geometry acts like a spring: as the substrate stretches, the traces unfold rather than strain. FEA modeling optimizes the balance between stretchability and overall size. Component islands are stiffened with FR4 backing to protect solder joints from flex stress.
Results: Survives 30% elongation over thousands of stretch cycles with no trace failures.
Stretchable Electronics Need? Stretchable PCB design with FEA validation is part of the practice.
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Custom Addressable LED Strips for Enclosure Integration
The Challenge: Off-the-shelf LED strips were the wrong width, wrong pitch, and lacked mounting holes for the enclosure. Custom dimensions and individually addressable pixels required.
The Solution: Custom PCB strips with dual rows of WS2812B-compatible addressable LEDs. White solder mask for maximum light reflection off the board surface. The mounting hole pattern matches the enclosure exactly, so the strips drop in without adapter brackets. A buffer IC maintains data signal integrity along the strip.
Results: Clean installation: the strips fit the enclosure exactly because they were designed for it.
Custom Lighting Project? Application-specific LED boards are a straightforward design task.
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Custom ESP32 Module with Application-Specific Pinout
The Challenge: The application needed a specific pinout and form factor that required a custom ESP32 module design.
The Solution: Bare ESP32 chip with external flash, PCB trace antenna, and JST connectors for battery and peripherals. Only the GPIOs and peripherals the application needs are broken out, keeping the board compact. The antenna is tuned for the specific enclosure material (ABS), accounting for the dielectric effect on the match.
Results: Runs standard ESP-IDF firmware. The antenna tuning and compact layout are optimized for the final product enclosure.
Custom WiFi Integration? Application-specific wireless modules are a regular design task.
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Isolated Analog Interface with Linear Optocouplers
The Challenge: Transmit precision analog signals across a high-voltage isolation barrier. Digital isolation (ADC to isolator to DAC) added quantization noise the client couldn't tolerate. Transformer coupling doesn't pass DC.
The Solution: Linear optocouplers with servo feedback: the feedback photodiode on the transmit side tracks the LED's output and corrects for nonlinearity and aging in real time. Each channel is an independent isolated path. Matched photodiode gains keep channel-to-channel variation tight.
Results: Better than 0.1% linearity from DC through several kHz, with full galvanic isolation. No quantization artifacts, no step transitions, just a clean analog copy on the other side of the barrier.
Isolated Analog Requirement? Precision analog isolation is part of the regular workload.
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NFC Conveyor Belt Sensor: Battery-Free, Flex Polyimide
The Challenge: Detect conveyor belt damage before catastrophic failure. Sensors are embedded in the belt itself with no batteries (impossible to maintain), must survive continuous flexing and impact from ore loading.
The Solution: Flexible polyimide PCB with an NFC antenna coil that harvests power from reader stations along the conveyor frame. When the sensor passes a reader, it powers up, takes a strain measurement, and transmits back over the same NFC link, all in the fraction of a second it takes to pass by. The flex PCB is thin and compliant enough to bond into the belt rubber without creating a stress concentration.
Results: Early detection lets the mine schedule repairs during planned downtime. The battery-free design is install-and-forget. Some sensors have been through millions of flex cycles without failure.
Industrial Sensing Challenge? Embedded wireless sensors for harsh environments are part of the practice.
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Orientation Tracking BLE Sensor (Pre-Certified Rigado BMD-300)
The Challenge: BLE connectivity and 9-axis orientation tracking for a medical device where size is the primary constraint.
The Solution: Minimal carrier board for the Rigado BMD-300 pre-certified module (nRF52-based). The carrier adds only what the application needs: decoupling, a 9-axis IMU, and a power connection. By using a pre-certified module, the client avoids the full intentional radiator testing process; they just need to show the module is used within its certified conditions. The carrier is as small as the module's own pad footprint allows.
Results: BLE 5.0 with pre-certified RF and onboard 9-axis orientation tracking, ready for integration into the medical device.
Size-Critical Wireless? Pre-certified modules with custom carriers are an efficient path to market.
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