Altium Case Studies Nuvation Engineering: Accelerating Design Services with Altium Designer

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	Nuvation Engineering: Accelerating Design Services with Altium Designer Altium

Nuvation Engineering: Accelerating Design Services with Altium Designer

Altium

Technology Category	Networks & Connectivity - RF Transceivers Sensors - RF Meters
Applicable Industries	Aerospace Equipment & Machinery
Applicable Functions	Product Research & Development
Use Cases	Time Sensitive Networking Virtual Prototyping & Product Testing
Services	Hardware Design & Engineering Services System Integration
Challenge	Nuvation Engineering, one of the largest independent electronic design services companies in North America, offers a wide range of design services to a diverse customer base. The company's engineering process must be predictable and repeatable to meet customers' requirements within agreed timeframes. The company has developed a set of 'best-of-breed' processes and methodologies to achieve consistently short design times. However, to enable the 'right first time' design ethos, Nuvation has in place a strong peer design review process. This process requires the company to have the best designers, tools, and methodologies that allow them to control and predict the process. The challenge was to improve its hardware development cycles and find a tool that was quick to learn, easy to use, efficient, and had IP core design re-use. Read More
About Customer	Nuvation Engineering is one of the largest independent electronic design services companies in North America. The company offers hardware design, software development, FPGA core design, integration and testing services from its operations in San Jose, California and design centre in Ontario, Canada. Its broad customer base ranges from Fortune 50 and military aerospace companies to venture-backed start-ups in North America, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, and other locations. Nuvation Engineering offers what it calls accelerated design services to a wide range of customers, who typically demand fast design turnaround of products with challenging design specifications. Read More
Solution	After a six-month study in benchmarking across various standards, Nuvation chose Altium Designer to improve its hardware development cycles. Altium Designer is now Nuvation’s default tool for schematic and board layout. The integrated schematic and layout capability of Altium Designer has improved Nuvation’s design workflow. If there is an iteration in the schematic because of a part’s availability, or an iteration in the layout to fit a certain circuit, Nuvation designers can make changes very quickly and ripple that back and forth seamlessly between the schematic, the BOM and the layout. Using Altium Designer, Nuvation engineers have built up an extensive library of schematic symbols, layout footprints and design blocks that they re-use in different designs. Altium Designer’s ability to export and import designs and library data to and from other tools has allowed a seamless integration into Nuvation’s design process. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Networks & Connectivity - RF Transceivers

Sensors - RF Meters

Applicable Industries

Aerospace

Equipment & Machinery

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Use Cases

Time Sensitive Networking

Virtual Prototyping & Product Testing

Services

Hardware Design & Engineering Services

System Integration

Challenge

Nuvation Engineering, one of the largest independent electronic design services companies in North America, offers a wide range of design services to a diverse customer base. The company's engineering process must be predictable and repeatable to meet customers' requirements within agreed timeframes. The company has developed a set of 'best-of-breed' processes and methodologies to achieve consistently short design times. However, to enable the 'right first time' design ethos, Nuvation has in place a strong peer design review process. This process requires the company to have the best designers, tools, and methodologies that allow them to control and predict the process. The challenge was to improve its hardware development cycles and find a tool that was quick to learn, easy to use, efficient, and had IP core design re-use.

About Customer

Nuvation Engineering is one of the largest independent electronic design services companies in North America. The company offers hardware design, software development, FPGA core design, integration and testing services from its operations in San Jose, California and design centre in Ontario, Canada. Its broad customer base ranges from Fortune 50 and military aerospace companies to venture-backed start-ups in North America, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, and other locations. Nuvation Engineering offers what it calls accelerated design services to a wide range of customers, who typically demand fast design turnaround of products with challenging design specifications.

Solution

After a six-month study in benchmarking across various standards, Nuvation chose Altium Designer to improve its hardware development cycles. Altium Designer is now Nuvation’s default tool for schematic and board layout. The integrated schematic and layout capability of Altium Designer has improved Nuvation’s design workflow. If there is an iteration in the schematic because of a part’s availability, or an iteration in the layout to fit a certain circuit, Nuvation designers can make changes very quickly and ripple that back and forth seamlessly between the schematic, the BOM and the layout. Using Altium Designer, Nuvation engineers have built up an extensive library of schematic symbols, layout footprints and design blocks that they re-use in different designs. Altium Designer’s ability to export and import designs and library data to and from other tools has allowed a seamless integration into Nuvation’s design process.

Impact #1	The use of Altium Designer has given Nuvation an additional competitive advantage in a demanding marketplace. The tool has improved design workflow efficiencies, faster throughput, and reduced design times and budgets for demanding customers. Nuvation engineers can be confident in the integrity of their designs, and develop ‘right first time’ products consistently. The 3D capabilities of Altium Designer allow Nuvation engineers to view mechanical layouts and fit boards into housings, providing a realistic and rendered view of a PCB and allowing real-time clearance checking. This feature is particularly useful when they are trying to integrate the design into a housing or they have 3D key pad areas.

Impact #1

The use of Altium Designer has given Nuvation an additional competitive advantage in a demanding marketplace. The tool has improved design workflow efficiencies, faster throughput, and reduced design times and budgets for demanding customers. Nuvation engineers can be confident in the integrity of their designs, and develop ‘right first time’ products consistently. The 3D capabilities of Altium Designer allow Nuvation engineers to view mechanical layouts and fit boards into housings, providing a realistic and rendered view of a PCB and allowing real-time clearance checking. This feature is particularly useful when they are trying to integrate the design into a housing or they have 3D key pad areas.

Benefit #1	Nuvation now completes designs much faster for customers
Benefit #2	Design schedules are shortened
Benefit #3	Customers’ budgets are reduced

Benefit #1

Nuvation now completes designs much faster for customers

Benefit #2

Design schedules are shortened

Benefit #3

Customers’ budgets are reduced

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Overview

Nuvation Engineering: Accelerating Design Services with Altium Designer

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit