News and New Products

Japanese engineers focus on original designs and customization

Japanese engineers generally like custom-oriented design, though they may compare their work with reference work.

By Takatsuna Mamoto, Editor in Chief, EDN Japan -- EDN, 11/8/2007

Japanese engineers tend not to use reference designs. EDN Japan asked an engineer who is involved in circuit design for printers about using reference designs. The engineer replied, "It is our policy not to use reference designs. To get an advantage against competing products in performance, function, and production cost, we have to work out circuit designs with original ideas."

In another case, an engineer involved in digital still cameras said, "To win from a business perspective, we have to fully optimize our design. For instance, we must fine-tune the PCB [printed-circuit-board] design, minimizing the number of layers used in the design and maximizing the performance characteristics of the product. We simply can’t use a reference design in such projects."

On the other hand, an engineer who is involved in module design in power-supply manufacturing said, "It is most exciting for us to carefully select suitable electronic components one by one and develop the final products using them to realize overall characteristics."

Taking a broad look at electronic manufacturers in Japan, you can see a gradual movement to potentially use reference designs. Today, however, Japanese engineers generally like custom-oriented design, though they may compare their work with reference work. So, the Japanese market shows slower acceptance than the global marketplace in the practical use of reference designs.