Connected consumer and professional products
Unit cost, certification and industrial design all constrain the same board at once — and the antenna is where those three collide.
Evidence
What we can substantiate
Everything below is work we have actually done, described at a level that respects the client’s confidentiality. If you need detail, ask under NDA.
- Module or chip-down decided on your volume, not by habit A pre-certified module removes radio certification, antenna tuning and a large slice of schedule risk, at several euros a unit. Chip-down is cheaper per unit and costs tens of thousands in NRE and certification. The crossover is arithmetic, and sometimes the honest answer is to buy the module — we will say so.
- Antenna keep-out agreed with mechanical before layout The most expensive radio problem is an antenna placed where the industrial design left room rather than where it can work. Keep-out in copper on every layer, in the enclosure, and clear of the battery and any screw — agreed as a constraint on both disciplines at the same time.
- Certification scope established at the start RED for Europe, FCC and ISED for North America, and EN 18031 now on top for anything with a radio. Which markets, which standards and which lab, decided before the design is frozen — because the answer changes the schedule far more than it changes the board.
- Cost engineered without losing the second source BOM reduction that keeps an alternative for every critical part. A cost-down that creates a single-source dependency has moved risk rather than removed cost.
- Board and enclosure resolved as one problem Outline, connector positions, button and display alignment, and the thermal path all belong to both disciplines. Resolved together, or resolved twice.
- Designed for the assembler you will actually use Panelisation, fiducials, test access and component choices matched to the line that will build it, agreed with them rather than assumed.
Common questions
Straight answers
Should I use a pre-certified radio module or design the chip in?
It is a volume question with a crossover point. A module costs several euros more per unit but removes radio certification, antenna tuning and a large slice of engineering risk. Chip-down is cheaper per unit and costs tens of thousands in NRE and certification, plus schedule. Below a few thousand units a year the module almost always wins; above ten thousand the arithmetic usually flips. Our calculator will tell you which side of the line you are on with your own numbers — including when the answer is "buy the module".
Does a pre-certified module mean I do not need to certify?
It means you do not need to repeat the radio testing, provided you meet the module's certification conditions — the approved antenna type and gain, the placement, and often a ground plane minimum. Step outside those and the modular approval no longer carries. You still need EMC testing on the finished product, and safety, and now EN 18031 for the cybersecurity requirements under RED. The module removes one large item from the list, not the list.
How early do you need the industrial design?
Before layout, at least in outline. The antenna position, the board outline, connector and button locations, and the thermal path are all shared constraints, and discovering them after routing means re-routing. A rough model with the keep-outs marked is enough to start; a finished CAD model is better.
Got a board to design — or one that won’t boot?
You talk to the engineer who would do the work. Reply within one business day, and we’ll sign your NDA before you go into detail.