A System of Systems Design Approach

The traditional PCB-centric design process is being replaced by a system-centric process. The system can be defined as the final product (e.g., camera) or one of the many components that comprise a product (e.g., 1 of 80 electronic control units in a car). Product complexity is driving this profound shift away from a focus on detailed design toward a systems engineering approach.

We see the system-centric design process requiring a convergence of detailed design disciplines towards 3D (e.g., PCB, mechanical, electrical) while expanding the process to include Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and hardware architecture design. Design complexity is driving the formalization of requirements capture, use cases and design structure. The model then moves to system- or product-level architecture optimization. The need for improved productivity is driving the need to converge detailed design disciplines into a 3D co-design environment.

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