ROBUST ELECTRONIC DESIGN
Up-Front Investment
This web site is being maintained by John R. Barnes, who was the President
and Chief Engineer of dBi Corporation from 2002 to September 30, 2013,
when we closed because ObamaCrap made it too expensive for us to remain in
business.
John R. Barnes KS4GL, PE, NCE, NCT, ESDC Eng, ESDC Tech, PSE, Master EMC
Design Engineer, SM IEEE
December 19, 2010
jrbarnes@iglou.com
Robust Electronic Design requires you to take a "cradle-to-grave"
viewpoint of your project, preferably starting from the earliest stages of
development. This requires deep, intimate knowledge of, and access to
information about, a broad range of technical topics:
- Bypassing and decoupling.
- Cabling.
- Components and materials.
- Design of high-speed electronics.
- Electrical design.
- Electronic design.
- Hardware/software integration and test.
- International electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) requirements.
- International electromagnetic immunity (EMI) requirements.
- International electrostatic discharge (ESD) immunity requirements.
- International power requirements.
- International product safety requirements.
- International telecommunication requirements.
- Manufacturing/test/repair processes.
- Mechanical design.
- Power distribution.
- Power supplies.
- Printed circuit board (PCB) layout.
- Publications (user manuals, technical manuals, repair manuals,
webpages).
- Rapid prototyping techniques.
- Signal integrity.
- Software design.
- Thermal design and testing.
- Your company's current design/manufacturing/test/repair capabilities.
- Your company's customers and their needs/desires.
- Your company's Field Service capabilities.
- Other areas unique to your company's product lines.
Because of the breadth and depth of knowledge required, Robust Electronic
Design usually requires a cross-functional team (CFT) to help guide the
development effort. For an electronic product, to be sold or leased to
others, the CFT should include members from (or representing):
- EMC/EMI/ESD.
- Field Service.
- Hardware development.
- Integration/test.
- Manufacturing Engineering.
- Marketing.
- Product Assurance.
- Product Safety.
- Publications.
- Quality.
- Software development.
- Test Engineering.
- Thermal.
- Outside consultants, as needed, to fill in any gaps.
For electronic equipment, to be used inside the company, the CFT should have
members from:
- Hardware development.
- Integration/test.
- Manufacturing/Field Service groups that will be using the equipment.
- Product groups whose products will be developed/ manufactured/ tested/
repaired/ calibrated/ maintained with the equipment.
- Safety department.
- Software development.
dBi Corporation was a
one-man test house (testing laboratory) based in Lexington, Kentucky, testing
a wide variety of commercial electronic products for electromagnetic
compatibility (EMC), electromagnetic interference (EMI), and electrostatic
discharge (ESD) under its ISO 17025 accreditation. dBi was founded in
Winchester, Kentucky in 1995 by Donald R. Bush, shortly after he retired from
30 years service with IBM Lexington's/ Lexmark's EMC Lab. John R. Barnes,
who'd worked with Don at IBM Lexington and Lexmark, bought dBi in 2002
after Don's death, and moved the company to Lexington, Kentucky. John closed
dBi at 11:59pm EDT on September 30, 2013, because ObamaCrap had
increased operating expenses to the point that we could no longer afford to
remain in business.
We'd like to thank all of the clients who chose dBi to test their
products from 1995 to 2013. Below is a brief summary of our accomplishments
during the 18 years we were in business.
From 1995 to 2001, under Don Bush's ownership and operation, dBi:
- Did the official approval testing of 141 products developed by 20
client companies.
- Did the official FCC/ Industry Canada (IC) Verification and Declaration
of Conformity (DoC) testing of 92 products.
- Did the official FCC/IC Certification testing of 15 products.
- Did the official CE Marking testing of 100 products.
From 2002 to 2013, under John Barnes' ownership and operation, dBi:
- Tested 389 products and 2 testers developed by 44 client companies.
- Did the official approval testing of 357 products and 2 testers, getting
all but 5 of them to meet all of the FCC, Industry Canada
(IC), CE Marking, C-Tick, and Regulatory Compliance Mark (RCM) standards
and requirements for their desired market areas.
- Did the official FCC/IC Verification and Declaration of Conformity (DoC)
testing of 296 products.
- Did the official FCC/IC Certification testing of 24 products.
- Did the official CE Marking testing of 271 products and 2 testers.
- Did the official e-Mark testing of 3 products.
- Did the official Australia/New Zealand Verification testing of 170
products.
- Co-sponsored John's writing the
Robust Electronic Design Reference Book,
Volumes I and II.
- Served as an expert witness on electronics in three lawsuits.
Last revised December 19, 2010.
