THE ELECTRONIC PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT COURSE

On this page, you'll find all the information you need about this course. You can watch one of the most important modules of the course for free with your email address and get the free Electronics Product Development Checklist as well.

SUMMARY

The course is designed to show you how to achieve maximum performance on the first attempt with your electronics design and avoid common, preventable mistakes—drawing on over 40 years of my experience. Maximizing a circuit’s performance is challenging, while scaling it down for less demanding applications is relatively straightforward. So, if you know how to extract maximum performance, the rest becomes easy.

In this context, performance encompasses EMC, dynamic range, crosstalk, distortion, bandwidth, noise, reliability, and more. This course also aims to reveal the things you don’t know you don’t know—concepts you may not even realize you’re missing. Some of these insights took me 30 years to learn, despite the significant impact they can have.

During the course, you will develop a conceptual schematic of a relatively complex mixed-signal PCB design, complete it, and then turn it into a high-performance layout with minimal impact on performance.

What I aim to show in this course are simple rules to improve your circuit's parameters, with the goal of staying ahead of problems. And if you do run into issues, this course should help you quickly figure out how to fix them. Electronics isn’t that hard once you understand the simple, underlying rules. It just takes a long time to dig up all those rules—but with this course, you can cheat that long process. :-)

Honestly, this is the course I would have absolutely loved to have 30 years ago when I began my professional career. It would have been a game-changer for my knowledge. Unfortunately, the internet hardly existed back then.

COURSE CONTENTS

The course is made up of a number of modules, each addressing a specific field of knowledge essential for completing an electronics product with high performance.

Electromagnetic PCB Design: In this module, we’ll explore how currents and electromagnetic fields behave in a PCB—and how to control them. This is crucial knowledge, as it allows you to extract maximum performance from your PCB design. If you're unaware of these mechanisms, you might end up with a PCB that performs far below expectations. I'm offering this module for free. You can watch it by submitting your email address here. You’ll also receive my Electronic Product Development Checklist. The module covers a significant amount of theory, practical knowledge, and real-world measurements using specially designed demo PCBs. It's best if you just watch it for free here to get an idea. You'll also get a great idea of the whole course which is made in the same style.

Power Supplies and Decoupling: In this module, we'll look at the effects that power supplies can have on the performance of your circuits. We'll look into all the different common supply regulators (linear and switching), their advantages and disadvantages, and what types to choose based on power dissipation and interference. All the important supply parameters are also explained. Next, we'll dive into decoupling and capacitor models, as wrong choices here can lead to resonances in your supplies. We'll also discuss how to do decoupling in the right way. Finally, we'll look at how to place and route supply components to get the best results.

EMC and ESD: In this module, we'll look at EMC and ESD. EMC is something that every electronics engineer is going to run into—especially when products need to be certified. In this module, all the types of interference will be shown and how to reduce them. That will give you the tools to allow you to put options on your PCB to prevent problems, and when they do arise, you'll know what 'buttons to push' to reduce the problem. This module contains all the methods I've found during 40+ years to deal with EMC, and they're actually not hard to use or understand at all.

Passive Components: In this module, we'll look at the unwanted behavior of resistors, capacitors, and inductors. If you're not aware of these unwanted behaviors, the performance of your circuits can be drastically reduced. One nice example is a popular type of SMD capacitor that loses 80% of its value at room temperature—using it within its normal specifications... (that should get your attention!).

Controlled Impedance Lines: When we're working with high-frequency signals for RF or digital, it is crucial to understand transmission line behavior. This module will show you all the basic theory to work with transmission lines: when and why you need them (and when you don't!), what happens at impedance transitions, all the parameters describing a transmission line, and how to make them on a PCB. Crosstalk between transmission lines and how to transition from a PCB to a coaxial or twisted pair cable is also discussed.

Reliability and Temperature Calculations: This module will show you how to make your designs 'indestructible' if that is what you wish. For this, it is vital to understand which components are the most sensitive to aging and how to minimize this process. Temperature has a big impact on the lifespan of components, so we'll go into temperature calculations, heatsinks, and forced air cooling as well. We'll also take a short look at the standard MTBF curve.

PCB Technology, Design Rules, and Producibility: When you're designing an electronic product, it is vital to understand the options you have with PCB technology and the associated costs of that. This allows you to find the best technology for the product you're building. You also want your PCB to be reliable and easy to produce, so we'll look at all factors that influence that.

Design Philosophy: In this module, we look at the right frame of mind to approach your design process to prevent problems before they occur. I call this the 'think 5 steps ahead' philosophy. The right way of looking at a design has a big impact on the outcome. For me, developing this philosophy for myself was a great turning point in getting my designs right with fewer iterations. Using this method, I almost always achieve my key performance parameters in the first spin.

Design for Testing: In this module, we look at how to apply test options to your designs that will assist you during the development process and during production testing. We'll also look at ways we can put different circuit options on a PCB. This is especially helpful for the first prototypes you make of a product.

Drawing Readable Schematics: This is a really important module. In my view, this is one of the most overlooked skills for electronics engineers. The fact is that it is very hard to find errors in a badly drawn schematic. In this module, I’ll show you a very badly drawn schematic and how to clean it up, and you’ll be surprised by the difference between the two. While it is very hard to understand the badly drawn schematic, understanding the readable version is extremely easy. I'll also give you a number of ground rules for drawing readable schematics. These rules are not extremely hard, as each schematic is slightly different and you have to think for yourself how to make it as clear and readable as possible.

Finishing a Conceptual Schematic: This module contains your first student assignment: to finish a conceptual schematic. Datasheets are heavily used to get the best application for each sub-circuit of a 14-bit arbitrary waveform generator. After I show you an example of how to apply the trickiest sub-circuit of the board, you can finish the rest of the schematic yourself. After that, you can watch all the considerations I would put on all the sub-blocks of the schematic. I use KiCad for all the designs in this course.

Schematic Checks: This is a list of checks that I always do on schematics just to prevent common errors.

Component Placement: This module looks at component placement. That is done on two levels: sub-circuit level and overall level. I'll show you the order in which to do component placement to achieve the maximum performance from each device. I'll demonstrate those rules on a complicated RF chip, and then you can do the component placement for the sub-blocks of the 14-bit arbitrary waveform generator yourself. When you're done, you can look at how I would do that placement. The next step is placing those blocks on the PCB. Your assignment is to place them in such a way that maximum performance is achieved. You'll have the freedom to do whatever you want—like introducing extra shielding, for instance. When you're done, you can look at two different ways I came up with to do the placement.

PCB Layout: In this module, I'll first demonstrate to you how to lay out the complicated RF chip from the previous module so you understand how to do that process. Then you'll have the opportunity to finish the layout of the 14-bit arbitrary waveform generator yourself. After you're done, you can watch my layout and the considerations I would take into account.

PCB and Library Checks: This is a standard set of checks that I always do on a PCB to make sure it can be produced and used in an easy manner. This also contains checks for all the library parts to make sure they are correct.

Possible Future Modules and modifications: I plan to add modules in the future. When I do, I will increase the price of the course. If you already bought the course, you will get free access to this new material. These are the ideas that I'm playing with in my head (no guarantees):

Subtitles: One of the first things I want to do is add subtitles. This is going to be somewhat of a monumental task as the course has around 9 hours of video material. I think it is useful though and the Kajabi platform video player supports this.

Future Module 1: Advanced ESD Design — How to design your circuits in such a way that they keep operating normally even when blasted with 15kV ESD discharges continuously.

Future Module 2: FPGA Module Design — The 14-bit arbitrary waveform generator motherboard uses a custom FPGA board that I designed for my high-end audio DAC. This FPGA board is designed to have very low interference. I plan to improve this even further using a 6-layer PCB, and I'll add the whole design process as an extra student assignment.

Future Module 3: Common Analog Precautions — There are a number of standard situations in analog circuits that can cause problems. I plan to make a short module showing you how you can be ahead of those.

Future Module 4: Basic Understanding of Digital Busses — This module will contain what the title suggests. I want to go into timing a bit as well, since you should know about it if you ever have to design a high-speed digital bus.

Future Module 5: Layout details of a high end audio amplifier. I plan to do this design on YouTube, but want to put the detailed layout insights into the course as an extra course module. 

General course FAQs and information

Lifetime Access: I plan to give lifetime access to the material. There’s a lot packed into this course, and it’s unlikely you’ll remember everything right away. With lifetime access, you can revisit the lessons whenever you need to. This is a huge benefit comparing with general course providers. Usually the access is limited to a few months.

So who is this course for? This course is for anyone involved in the process of going from a conceptual schematic to a finished board. I feel like every electronics engineer will encounter this at some point, since you can’t make a product or measure any electronic part without a PCB or real-world components. This puts you at risk of all the troublesome mechanisms this course is teaching you to avoid.

What basic knowledge should you have to attend this course? To get the most out of this course, you should have a basic understanding of electronics and be able to design your own basic circuits.  While many electronics courses are focused on complex math, this course only requires basic high school math. (The reality is that I never needed any complex math like I got during my education throughout my entire career!!) I think complex math is highly overrated in electronics. If you're just starting out and don't yet have basic electronics knowledge, you can still benefit a lot from the course. Just be prepared for a steeper learning curve, as you’ll have to study basic electronics along the way.

Course duration: The course contains around 8.5 to 9 hours of video material. The time you spent on the assignments is up to you. You can do it very thoroughly and spend a lot of time on that, or you can just watch my solutions to the assignments.

Cad software: The assignments use KiCad as a cad-tool. I know that KiCad files can easily be imported by Altium designer, but I have no experience with that tool. If you are experienced with Altium, you may easily be able to import the KiCad design files for the assignments.

High Information Density: The course also has a high information density, so you can quickly refresh your knowledge while working on a project. To make that even easier, the material is well-indexed, so you can quickly find exactly what you need for any specific challenge. I once bought a course with 100+ hours of video material. I only watched 3 or 4 hours, since the information was totally repetitive. This course will be the total opposite of that—it’s exactly what I would want if I were taking the course myself.

Online forum for students: Students will get access to a forum where they can post questions about the course material. I will regularly check in there to answer these questions. I'll also use the questions posted here for possible updates of the course material. If I find multiple students get stuck at the same subject, it signals to me that I have to update something. 

Course Updates: As I just mentioned I also plan to update the course whenever I find that students are having trouble understanding certain parts. I’ll add or adjust material as needed, and I’ll continue to add valuable content over time.

The Course Platform: The course material is available on the Kajabi platform. This is an expensive platform specifically designed for hosting course materials, which ensures that the content is always available. You will not be able to download the course materials to your own computer, for the obvious reason of preventing illegal copying and sharing. When the course is purchased, it is intended for one student. If you have two employees who want to take the course, you’ll need to buy two licenses.

Some reactions on my YouTube channel