IP Design
StarGate can provide engineering services for developing
intellectual property (IP) and/or complete FPGA/ASIC's
for consumer and industrial products. These tasks include architect, design,
coding, simulating, synthesis, and test vector generation.
Complete Product Design
StarGate can provide turn-key development of motherboard
electronics to drive complete products. We can work with customers to design
products from the ground up or provide expertise in cost reducing an existing
one.
Board Level Designs
StarGate can provide engineering services for developing
board level designs including HDL and/or Schematic capture, PCB Design, and
delivering complete prototypes.
Product Expertise
Our expertise lie in stand-alone products such as Printers, Digital Cameras,
Wireless Devices, Internet Appliances, Industrial Control and many other devices
yet to be created. When designing, our goals are to reduce component count
and design for manufacturability. Our expertise allows us to make careful
tradeoffs between product packaging, hardware, software and power supply design.
Integration Methods
We use PAL, FPGA, and ASIC technologies to build board level products. Reducing
part count using these methods yields numerous benefits including reduced
product cost and power consumption, and increased product reliability. This
trend has been true for more than 35 years and has been the reason for the
ever increasing complexity of manufacturing a product.
Reducing Part Count
Product planners confront many issues when forecasting how many parts to stock
and are needed to ramp up/down production. Reducing part count can ease this
task by reducing the number of parts vendors. Frequently there are problems
created by the need to qualify multiple vendors to supply multi-sourced parts.
Often components are discontinued which forces a company to do lifetime buys
for parts that are sole sourced, requiring an accurate calculation of product
sales and retirement plans many years into the future.
Power Consumption and Heat
Product Integration helps decrease power consumption, reducing the cost
and size of power supplies and increasing battery life of portable equipment.
Excess power consumption creates heat which is a key causal factor in component
failure. Vented enclosures battle this problem but must rely on optimal ambient
temperatures. As a result, many products that are deployed in wire-closets
or industrial or other harsh environments often suffer from compromised product
life.
FCC Compliance
Reducing the number of components also helps decrease RF (Radio Frequencies)
problems allowing easier compliance with FCC Part 15 A/B. More components
generally require larger PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards) and more signal layers
which increase cost. Because the PCB is physically bigger, it creates more
radiation because of the longer signal traces. Numerous product schedules
have slipped because of FCC compliance issues. Vent holes designed in enclosures
must also be designed carefully or they will leak RF energy. Frequently, plastic
enclosures need to be shielded to battle RF emissions emitted by the PCB,
resulting in major cost overruns and schedule slips.
Customers
Our customers are companies manufacturing high-tech products such as Laser
Printers, Internet Appliances, Industrial Controllers, Portable, and Wireless
devices. To find out more on how StarGate can
help cost reduce or create your next product, please contact
