Engineering Design Review

Is your engineering team wrestling with a technology problem?

Instead of being frustrated or hiring more senior staff, there’s a better way.

Our team of senior engineering consultants can guide you through an Engineering Design Review of your device development project or manufactured product. We’ll help you take a step back, perform a Root Cause Analysis from all angles, and draw from our experience on hundreds of projects. Whether it’s mechanical hardware, electrical circuit boards, embedded firmware, transitioning from R&D to Manufacturing, Prototyping success, or all of the above, we’ve struggled through the process ourselves and learned countless lessons as a result.

Part design, material selection

Electrical Part Selection & PCB Design

Embedded Firmware

Design for Manufacturing

All of our design reviews have been well thought out, in depth, using the latest analyzing equipment to indicate weak points in the current iterations. When it comes to modifications to existing products, the Root3 Labs team gets to work fast! They understand that when something in the field isn’t working right, waiting to fix it just isn’t an option for the end customer.

Dan Connor

Technical Director, FLAVORx

What is the process?

2-Hour Call – We’ll start the Engineering Design Review with a 2-hour call (or meeting if you’re local), including a team of experienced senior engineers, for a review of where things stand and we’ll start asking questions. The first step is to define the problem and what a successful outcome should look like.
Collaborative Assessment – We’ll assess what’s not working and what you may have already tried. If it helps to be in front of your hardware, you can ship it to us or we can come to you. We love digging into the nerdy details. Travel beyond central Maryland will likely incur additional costs.
Independent Research – Following the meeting, we’ll perform our own research. This may include time reviewing your CAD models, code, or circuit schematics, or perhaps it’s research into alternative off-the-shelf components.
Outcomes – Every problem is different, but we defined a “successful outcome” on our first call. The most likely outcome is a detailed list of actionable recommendations that you can implement. You can take it from there, or we can discuss how we can continue to be involved.
Guaranteed Results – It’s simple. If it turns out we can’t help or we don’t provide actionable recommendations, we’ll refund your money. Guaranteed.

Assessing Potential, Reducing the Risk<br />
Pairing experience and expertise to make confident decisions

A Case Study

Our customer came to us with a sensing problem. The pre-packaged sensor they were using to characterize bloodflow was providing noisy raw data and their signals analysis couldn’t support a conclusion whether their concept worked or failed. We reviewed the anatomical requirements with our customer and the sensor’s datasheet to identify the performance limitations. We spent a couple of days researching alternative sensors and found an unpackaged sensor component with 100x the sensitivity and frequency performance. Because it was “unpackaged”, it wasn’t designed around a specific application, so it needed additional circuitry and firmware drivers to be developed before it could start producing usable data.

Outcome of the Case Study Audit

We recommended changing to the new sensor because of the performance gains. We provided the needed part numbers and a “blueprint” to integrate with their current data collection system. This was outside their wheelhouse, so we followed up the Design Review with an additional phase of work to design and fabricate a prototype circuit board along with the firmware drivers to fully integrate it into their software so they could continue their work. We included a real-time viewer to quickly assess sensor placement and support demonstrations. The new PCB and clean sensor data allowed them to quickly build an appropriate signals analysis algorithm, collect patient data, and prove the concept.

Why include us in your Design Review?

Cold-body review

Quite a few problems need a fresh perspective to identify where something went wrong. We call this the “cold-body review” because that person/team is coming in cold and unfamiliar. You’ve been staring at datasheets until you’re cross-eyed, so we’ll help you walk through the issue as we test assumptions and eliminate potential root causes. We use this technique within our own teams…

Problem-Solving Expertise

Easier said than done, the process of problem-solving is to eliminate one variable at a time until you’ve identified the root cause. Some variables are harder to eliminate and may require a lot of exploratory prototyping only to find out it wasn’t the problem. Are there creative shortcuts to eliminate that variable before getting out the grinder? Take advantage of our hard-earned experience.

Instant Senior Engineering Team

We bring a wide array of expertise to your problem. As engineering design consultants, we have worked on literally hundreds of projects over the years, but it’s not just a mile wide and an inch deep. We also ramp-up quickly as we dig into a new technology giving us deep expertise on many topics. Benefit from our experience on a limited engagement without resorting to permanent hires. Plus, we’re introverts, so you don’t even have to invite us to the holiday party.

Intellectual Property Rights

IP Rights can be a complicated issue, but not with us. If we come up with any ideas worth patenting while being paid for our services, they’re yours to patent. You’ll probably want to include our names on your patent filings, but we’ll sign your Combined Declaration & Assignment document transferring all rights and interest.

Is this right for you?

Leadtime & Price