At a large electronics company, there is a CAD department you can go to when you need to set up a library or evaluate a layout. At a small development team, there isn't one.
Sebastian Tengvall is an application engineer at Lotus Microsystems and develops evaluation boards for the company's customers. He doesn't have an internal department to turn to. Instead, he has direct access to ours.
In brief
The challenge
A small team without its own CAD department—and evaluation boards where there’s no room for error, because the board is the customer’s first encounter with the product.
The solution
An OrCAD package tailored to Lotus’s specific needs, combined with a hotline to specialists and training courses, provides the team with the level of expertise that an in-house department would otherwise provide.
The result
The team works on par with much larger development departments—and delivers on time.
The challenge
The evaluation card also serves as sales material
Sebastian’s cards must meet two requirements at once. They must meet Lotus’s own internal quality standards, and they must hold up to a customer’s scrutiny—because the card is often the first tangible encounter with the product.
It’s precision work with a tight deadline. And a small team doesn’t have the same leeway as a large development department: there’s no colleague sitting next to you who’s done this before, and no in-house specialist to ask when a decision needs to be made quickly.
Every hour spent looking for an answer is an hour taken away from development.
The solution
A package that fits—and a phone that gets picked up
Lotus pays for what it uses. OrCAD can be customized as needed, which meant that Lotus could get the functionality required for its work without breaking the budget of a small company.
The other half is access. When Sebastian calls the Nordcad hotline, he speaks with someone who works in OrCAD every day and is familiar with the setup at Lotus. No Level 1 support, no ticket that needs to be escalated, no generic response with a link to a forum.
In practice, that's the role an in-house CAD department would have played—only without Lotus having to hire the staff.
“OrCAD’s flexibility caters to companies of all sizes and offers customized package solutions to meet a variety of needs. Lotus benefits from a solution like this, which meets our requirements without exceeding any budgetary constraints. The inclusion of Nordcad’s support is invaluable and provides prompt assistance, eliminating the time-consuming process of seeking help through conventional channels.”
Sebastian, Tengvall, Lotus Microsystems
The Courses
OrCAD Capture and PCB Editor offer a wide range of capabilities, and that depth is the reason to choose them. The courses at Nordcad are designed to make this functionality accessible: Lotus’ engineers have gone through the entire workflow, from schematic design to the finished PCB layout, including the underlying systems.
The benefit is twofold. The team handles even the minor issues on their own. And when they do call, they can describe the problem accurately the first time—which shortens the support process for both parties.
The result
A licensing model tailored to the company’s size and budget Responses within hours rather than days, from someone familiar with the setup A team that has become more self-sufficient in its day-to-day operations Development that keeps pace, even when deadlines are tight.
About Lotus Microsystems
Lotus Microsystems develops power converters for space-constrained electronics. Their converter measures 2.2 mm in length and 1.2 mm in height and is built on a silicon substrate instead of traditional laminate substrates such as FR4.
It offers up to 72% smaller size than comparable products on the market and up to 60% better thermal performance—in addition to faster time-to-market.
