Hardware design has been largely commoditised with low-cost common off the shelf (COTS) components being available for new applications. For the majority of applications the ability to load a program onto a commercial embedded controller or computing platform will suffice.
The exceptions to this are the need for bespoke interface hardware and user interfaces, being able to integrate electronics into constrained form factors such as portable instruments or specific designs, or to provide safety critical design.
Our engineers have been involved with developing a wide range of electronic hardware including:
- Instrumentation with Touch Screen Graphical Displays
- Radio and Fixed Link Communication Systems
- Non linear Feedback Control Systems
- Low Power Sensors and RF Links
- Internet Enabled Control Systems (through wireless or fixed link)
- Industrial Systems using LIN/Canbus
- Low Frequency Signal Processing
- Data Aquisition Systems
- PWM Controllers
- USB Peripherals
- Multiprocessor and Safety Critical Hardware
We have detailed experience with using several processor architectures, with on site development tools:
| Processing Architecture |
| Altera FPGA (upto and including Cyclone IV) |
| Arm M3 Cortex |
| Arm7tdmi |
| Motorola DSP56K Core |
| Microchip PIC16/18/24 |
| Microchip PIC32 (MIPS4000) and dsPIC30 |
| Intel 8051, i386 & 80960 |
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Our Lab has ventilated surface mount soldering and desoldering facilities which we use to develop and debug prototype hardware.
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An LPKF PCB milling tool can rapidly manufacture printed circuit boards, usually for small projects or for building interfaces to commercial development systems during prototyping. We licence the PCB tooling from one of several CAD providers on a per programme basis, depending on the requirements and length of the programme. Alternatively we can recommend local subcontractors for this task, and for small/medium volume manufacture |  |
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Quality test equipment and tooling is pivotal for reliable delivery. We have instruments capable of:
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