HW Engineers, Need to Add New Features Even with a Tight Schedule
Need a solution to integrate, search and track parts data


There is no place without electronics anymore.

Smartphones have become an essential part of human life, with new models being released almost every day, and with the advancement of IoT technology, advanced sensor-equipped detection devices are now being installed in places where electronic products did not exist in the past.

The Apple Watch, a leading wearable device, shipped more than all Swiss watch brands combined last year. The European Union (EU) is encouraging the production of electric vehicles in order to eliminate internal combustion engine vehicles from the market around 2040.

As demand for electronic products increases, so does the supply. Manufacturers are trying to add features to their electronic products that differentiate them from their competitors in order to gain an advantage in the market.

The need to bring electronic products powered by more complex algorithms to market faster than competitors puts pressure on hardware engineers who develop such products.

We met with Director Sunghoon Kim of EDNC, a provider of semiconductor design, analysis, and verification automation solutions, and asked him about the challenges hardware engineers face and the skills and tools they need to overcome them.


Q. What do you think are the challenges hardware engineers are facing today?
A. Electronic products are used in all fields these days. Every year, numerous manufacturers announce new products at exhibitions and other events, trying to appeal to consumers with as many features as possible. Therefore, engineers face the challenge of implementing new features despite the limited development schedule.


Q. So what do you think is the most necessary skill for hardware engineers today?
A. In a company, many people in each field carry out development. Therefore, I think that flexibility is necessary and not being obsessed with one's own field. I think that even electronic engineers should be able to understand simple mechanical drawings, and even engineers who can only draw circuit diagrams should be able to edit PCBs.


Q. What kind of program is 'PADS Professional' from Mentor and Siemens Business among the PCB design programs provided by E&C?
A. Previously, choosing a PCB design program was a continuous compromise between performance and price. An ECAD program that could satisfy both schedule and performance was expensive. In addition, engineers had to implement the functions that were lacking manually. PADS Professional was created based on Xpedition technology from Mentor, a Siemens business, and has performance that satisfies engineers at large companies, engineers who have to do various tasks alone, and students who dream of becoming hardware engineers.


Q. What are the unique features of PADS Professional?
A. You can see it as data integration and automation. PADS Professional is an advanced system that consistently integrates parts and BOM data and enables search and tracking. I think that people design, but programs create data. Data created manually through programs are bound to have human errors. Designs created through the automation function of high-performance programs do not have such mistakes.


Q. Due to the tight development schedule, collaboration between mechanical and electronic engineers is bound to increase. Is it possible for engineers from different job functions to collaborate with each other using PADS Professional?
A. Mentor, Siemens Business provides 'ECAD/MCAD Collaboration' as a solution for collaboration between MCAD engineers and ECAD engineers. This solution provides an environment where mechanical engineers and electronic engineers can simultaneously develop in a single data environment.


Q. I am curious about the support measures that Mentor, Siemens Business, and EDN provide to engineers in relation to PADS Professional.
A. Mentor, Siemens Business is supporting PADS Professional for students for free for one year and is also operating an online on-demand training course. Considering the recent COVID-19 situation, the related education market has shrunk, so we are providing an online on-demand training course for one month free of charge. We are also preparing regular training and Korean-language textbooks to help engineers better utilize PADS Professional.


Q. Besides PADS Professional, if there are any mentor solutions that can be helpful to hardware engineers, please introduce them.
A. I have seen many cases where the perfection of PCB design does not lead to product performance. It is difficult to conduct hardware verification every time, and it is difficult to guarantee that problems will be found. Therefore, using HyperLynx, an analysis and verification solution from Mentor, a Siemens business, and PADS Professional together, you can achieve PCB design that achieves satisfactory performance through digital prototyping verification.