Connected devices, engineered from radio to release build
A connected product fails in three places: the radio, the battery and the update path. Our engineers design all three, and the Shenzhen factory tests the radio on every unit before it ships. Engineered in San Francisco. Prototype builds, DFM and mass production in our own factory in Shenzhen.
What does IoT engineering cover here?
Radio and antenna design, low-power design, firmware and production RF test. Our engineers pick the radio and the module, lay out the RF path, place the antenna away from the battery and metal, and write the firmware. The factory then tests transmit power and receiver sensitivity on each unit.
Core engineering work
RF and wireless design. Our engineers choose the circuit topology and the parts, match impedance and design filters, then simulate the RF path in ADS and HFSS before the first board is built.
Antenna placement and tuning. We design PCB trace antennas or place off-the-shelf ones, then tune them on a vector network analyzer. The goal is good TRP and TIS inside the real enclosure, not on an open bench.
Low-power design. For battery products, sleep current decides the product's life. We select low-leakage parts, design the power tree, and set sleep modes in firmware so the battery target holds in the field.
Pre-compliance testing. We measure TRP and TIS before the formal lab, so a failure costs a board revision, not a certification round. Over-the-air tests run in the factory's own anechoic chamber, and DVT includes EMC and RF pre-scans.
Firmware. We write firmware for Nordic, Espressif and STMicroelectronics parts, among others: bootloader, drivers, radio stack and power management. Board and firmware are brought up together. OTA updates are designed to verify each image and fall back to the last good one. See firmware development.
Security. Secure boot, encrypted updates and hardware key storage are designed in from the start. Production units ship with debug ports locked.
What connected products do you build?
Industrial IoT sensors that run for years on a battery over LoRa or LTE-M. Smart home devices on Wi-Fi or Matter, with mains design and easy pairing. Personal AI devices with microphones, an edge AI chip and heat control in a small case. Wearables such as smart rings and wristbands, built around BLE and a tiny battery.
Which wireless protocols do you work with?
| Protocol | Versions | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Wi-Fi | 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax (Wi-Fi 6 and 6E) | Video and local network control |
| Bluetooth and BLE | Classic, BLE 4.x to 5.2 (LE Audio) | Wearables, peripherals, location |
| Zigbee, Thread, Matter | Zigbee 3.0, Thread, Matter | Low-power mesh for homes and buildings |
| Z-Wave | 700 and 800 series | Home control |
| LoRaWAN | 1.0.x, 1.1 | Long-range, low-power sensing |
| Cellular IoT | LTE Cat-M1, NB-IoT, 5G RedCap | Mobile assets outside Wi-Fi range |
| UWB | IEEE 802.15.4z | Precise indoor location |
| Multi-protocol | BLE plus Thread and others | One SoC, several radios |
The use case picks the protocol: range, data rate, power and network shape.
Certification path
A wireless product needs a radio approval in each market it ships to: FCC Part 15 or 18 in the USA, CE RED in Europe, IC RSS in Canada, MIC (TELEC) in Japan, RCM in Australia and New Zealand, SRRC in China, KC in South Korea and ANATEL in Brazil. We plan design margin from the first layout, build DVT units for the lab and supply the documents it asks for. Your team or your lab files the submission. When the lab finds a problem, our engineers fix the design.
When should certification planning start?
Before layout. The radio module, the antenna and the enclosure material decide whether a product passes, and all three are fixed early. Choosing a pre-certified module can shorten the path; a custom radio needs more lab time. DVT delivers the units and the validation report the formal lab tests need.
The list of markets goes into the plan at project initiation. Each added market can add a lab test, a label and a document set, so it changes cost and schedule. An engineer states which tests your product needs, and the official quote prices the work.
What you receive on an IoT project
Schematics, PCB layout and enclosure CAD at each stage gate; the RF and pre-compliance test results; the firmware release with its toolchain version, build steps and programming procedure; and, when the order includes it, the firmware source. In production, each unit's RF and functional test results.
From design to production
RF-aware DFM review. The DFM review checks RF routing, shielding and part placement, and confirms that the enclosure does not detune the antenna. Read about DFM services.
Production RF test. Production lines use RF test fixtures built for your product. Each unit is tested for transmit power and receiver sensitivity, and the result is kept against its serial number.
Start with a design, or order the parts for a demo build: schematic design, firmware development and Standard PCB & PCBA. See also product design and IoT and connected devices.
Questions about IoT engineering
Can you help choose between Wi-Fi, BLE, LoRa and cellular?
Yes. We start from range, data rate, battery life and where the device lives, then compare modules and certification cost. Project initiation records the choice before the schematic is drawn, so the antenna and the battery are planned around the radio rather than added after it.
Do you test every unit's radio?
Yes. Production RF fixtures check transmit power and receiver sensitivity on each unit. A unit that fails is pulled before packing, and repeated failures go to an engineer before the next batch runs.
Can you take over an IoT design that already works on a dev kit?
Yes. We move the design from the dev kit to a custom board, keep the firmware that works and rewrite what does not fit the new hardware. Read the IoT device manufacturing guide for the usual steps.
Tell us about your connected product
Send the radio, the battery target and the market list. An engineer replies with what to build first.