ELEC/TELE/PTHN3117Electrical Engineering DesignLecture 1 - Introduction

Course Aims• Expose students to practical and technical challenges of serious electrical engineering design.

• Develop teamwork and project management skills.

• Provide practical context for learning in other courses, so as to cement practical skills in electronic circuit design and reinforce importance of disciplines such as control, signal processing, embedded systems, etc.

• Impart appreciation for broader aspects of design: consumer needs, marketing, product economics, manufacturing, standards, intellectual property and systems thinking.

• Further develop written/oral technical communication skills.

Overview of ELEC3117• Electrical product design

– initial concept → manufacture & marketing

• Topics covered– Design project management– Design methodology– Technical aspects of design– Engineering drawing & communication– Report writing & oral presentations– Costing and business planning– Standards, quality, intellectual property, etc.

Overview of ELEC3117• Subject goals

– Experience in design is a key graduate attribute– Engineers require broader skills than just technical

expertise• Skills developed

– ‘Hands on’ prototype development• time management and organisational skills

– Appreciation of broader concepts in EE• project management, PCB design, drawing, etc.

– Report writing and oral presentation• Assumed prior knowledge

– Basic analogue/digital electronics

– User Needs– Requirements Analysis– System Design– Detail Design– Prototyping– Manufacture– Marketing– Sustainability

Directly experience

Consider

The Design Process

The Design Process

– Requirements Analysis– System Design– Managing The Design Process– Detailed Design– Testing and Verification– Manufacturing and Production Support– Sustainability

Components of the Course• Design project

– Most important single component• Core lectures (required for the project)

– Costing, project management, PCB design, prototyping, marketing, technical writing, etc.

• Other lectures– Design Considerations

• Electrical components, EMC, safety, quality, etc.

– Broader Issues• Intellectual property (patents), standards, systems, etc.

Staff and ConsultationCourse coordinator and lecturer-in-charge:

– Dr. Alex von Brasch (room EE338, a.vonbrasch@unsw.edu.au)

– Consultation times:• By appointment via email

Laboratory Coordinator– Luke Dolan (l.dolan@unsw.edu.au)

Lecture material

– Lecture overheads posted after each lecture

– Lecture notes on course website

Recommended Texts

First choice– K.T. Ulrich and S.D. Eppinger, Product Design and

Development, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2000 (2nd edition)

Second choice– J.E. Salt and R Rothery, Design For Electrical and

Computer Engineers: John Wiley & Sons 2002.

Also, very useful here and in later life:– P. Horowitz and W. Hill, The Art of Electronics,

Cambridge: CUP, 1989 (2nd edn)• A bit old, but still extremely useful

Assessment

Final examination (3 hours): 30%Project development proposal: 15%Project seminar and demonstration: 25%Final project report: 25%Lab attendance for project work: 5%

Note: must pass exam in order to pass this course

Laboratory

• Occupational Health and Safety (OHS)• What to bring to the lab

– Lab notebook– Prototyping board, tools– questions for the demonstrators!

• Attendance• Etiquette (lab equipment, demonstrators)

Project Teams

• Two people in each project team• Team members must have same lab session

– no exceptions under any circumstances– may need to change lab sessions

• Nominate partners and project– by Friday, Week 3!

Advisory Boards• Each student on 2 boards• 3 board meetings over session

– one prior to Week 5– two prior to Week 12

• Organized by you– can have web-based meetings

• email, chat groups, …

• Must write minutes of meeting– for inclusion in final report

• Board members have vested interest in projects they advise

Lecture Program

Laboratory Component

• Project selection form• Moodle discussion forum• Lab demonstrators• Project requirements• Software vs. Hardware• Arduino Kits & Jaycar Kits• Attendance

Lab Program

Lab Program (cont.)

FRAMEWORK/SCENARIO:

You are an Engineer in an electronics manufacturing company. Need to propose and develop new product concepts for management.

These must fulfill user requirements and must be competitive, in terms of price and technical functionality with comparable products.

Management are looking for product concepts that differentiate their company's products from other manufacturers.

They are looking for novel ideas, with intellectual property that can be protected, and give company a competitive advantage.

They are also looking for products which reinforce their existing strengths and command of certain market segments.

For this reason, you would do well to identify a realistic market segment in which the fictitious company will be active.

Project Topics for 2015

• A list of ideas is on Moodle• We encourage you to think up you own idea• However, you’ll need to run it past us• Discuss with the demonstrators in the labs

• First couple of lab sessions – finding a partner, and deciding on your project• Project Selection due by Friday Week 3• Confirmed by Monday of Week 4

What is Design?

� Definition from “Design of devices and systems,” Middendorf & Englemann:

“An iterative decision-making process where

scientific and technological information is used to produce a device, system, or process which is different in some way from what has been done before and which is intended to meet user needs at an acceptable cost.”

Design Should• Fulfil user requirements

– You need a market for your products!

• Solve problems– Engineering improves life

• Be original/ Innovative– In some way

• Produce products at an acceptable cost• Be an iterative process

– Can’t know the right answer: test and refine

• Improve the quality of life

Why Study Design?• Good design is necessary for product:• Success

– minimize cost and development time, ease of manufacture, functionality, usability, desirability etc

• Safety – compliance with standards, other non-electrical

considerations

• Reliability– both of the final product and the design process

• Quality– what defines the engineering quality of a design?

Engineers AustraliaStage 1 CompetenciesPE1 - Knowledge Base

– PE1.1 – Knowledge of science and engineering fundamentals– PE1.2 – In-depth technical competence in at least one engineering discipline– PE1.3 – Techniques and resources– PE1.4 – General knowledge

PE2 – Engineering Ability– PE2.1 – Ability to undertake problem identification, formulation, and solution– PE2.2 – Understanding of social, cultural, global, and environmental responsibilities; and the need

to apply the principles of sustainable development– PE2.3 – Ability to utilise a systems approach to complex problems and to design and operational

performance– PE2.4 – Proficiency in engineering design– PE2.5 – Ability to conduct an engineering project– PE2.6 – understanding of the business environment

PE3 – Professional Attributes– PE3.1 – Ability to communicate effectively with the engineering team and the community at large– PE3.2 – Ability to manage information and documentation– PE3.3 – Capacity for creativity and innovation– PE3.4 – Understanding of professional and ethical responsibilities, and commitment to them– PE3.5 – Ability to function effectively as an individual and in multidisciplinary and multicultural

teams, as a team leader or manager as well as an effective team member– PE3.6 – Capacity for life long learning and professional development– PE3.7 – Professional attitudes

Analysis vs. Synthesis• Could analyze all possible systems

– pick one which optimizes objectives– clearly impractical

• Design is about narrowing the options• Design synthesis requires:

– ability to recognize sub-problems– ability to classify sub-problems as

• already solved, routine, challenging, infeasible– ability to transform problems into easier domains

• e.g. understand sampling in the frequency domain

Design as Optimization

Optimization Challenges

• Hard to define objectives precisely– e.g. “It must be easy to use.”

• Prioritizing conflicting objectives– e.g. “battery life” and “processing speed”

• Non-linear optimization problems– generally can’t find true global optimum

• Discontinuous optimization– choice of design concept, circuit config., etc.

• Need to deal with component tolerances

Typical Design Phases

Customer needs solution to a problem

What features/performance are required?

What approaches could we take?

Block diagram

Technical specifications

What is the design problem?

Needs assessment

Requirements analysis

Problem statement

Concept generation

System design

Specifications analysis

Components, circuits, code, etc. Detailed design

Does the design meet the requirements? Prototyping and testing

Iteration and Narrowing

• Design is an iterative process– Seldom is the first design attempted the final solution– Must be prepared to re-iterate/re-consider

• Design is a narrowing process– Narrowing of design choices– Narrowing of requirements– Narrowing of feature set– Narrowing of remaining time / budget

• Start broad, but you must make choices– Converge on a solution

Design is more than phases• Design Phases

– useful guide to organize and order design activities

• Design Tools– methods & processes used to carry out one or more

design phases

• Technical Knowledge– the focus of many of your university courses– not everyone can take the tools & follow the phases

• Design Business Strategy– standards: respecting, monitoring, manipulating– patents: owning, licensing, avoiding

• Communications– written and oral

Some Important Design Tools

• Marketing tools• Project management tools• Costing and economic analysis tools• Quality management and process tools• System engineering tools • Simulation tools• Prototyping tools and methods• Computer automated design (CAD) tools• Mechanical drawing

Important Areas of Design Knowledge

• Electronic components (properties, ratings, …)• Circuits and circuit theory (core EE discipline)• Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)• Feedback and control (core EE discipline)• Signal processing (core EE discipline)• Physical communications (core EE discipline)• Programming languages (very important!)• Hardware description languages (pick up as needed)• Manufacturing processes• Safety and ethical design practices

Good Design?

Good Design?

Key Questions• Who are you designing this for?• What do they need?• Why do they need it?• What are the limitations of existing

products/solutions?• What features do they need?

Needs Assessment

Role of Requirements• Framing the engineering solution

– what does the system need to do, fundamentally, to satisfy perceived user needs

– But how it should do it

• Many objectives, but– what are the “really important” ones?

• Need to establish requirements early– before designing the product!– before system level conceptualization

• Form the focus of marketing– consumers buy product because it meets their needs

Deriving Requirements• Need to determine what the ideal engineering solution is (without hindsight)• Some approaches:

– Consumer surveys: not highly reliable– Focus groups:

• interactive, paid, facilitated, more time

– Observe similar products in use• could use prototypes or “mock-ups”.

– Analyze existing products• features of existing products may become

indispensable requirements for future products, even if not strictly essential

Requirements vs. Features• Often difficult to separate “true requirements” from attractive features• Unnecessary features

– add cost, add complexity– e.g. ASIC development costs grow

exponentially with addition of new features• Be wary of exceeding requirements

– esp. military, medical, professional products• But, features may be Unique Selling Points

– e.g. exposure controls on digital cameras– most relevant to consumer products

Requirements vs. Constraints

• Might not be possible to satisfy all requirements simultaneously

– often place competing pressures on design• Some requirements softer than others

– e.g., “small size” and “long battery life”– not all requirements are hard constraints

• Need to revisit requirements analysis– design is a narrowing process– start with a few broad requirements

Common Design Constraints

• Safety regulations• Other regulatory standards• Inter-operability standards• In-house design guidelines• Patent infringement• Legal liability• Time to market

Example

Touch-screen Keyboard– QUERTY

– Dvorak