Although the use of radio waves to render useful consumer services began as far back as before the Second World War with two-way radios, devices that featured a wireless service as core functionality débuted in what could be considered their first mass adoption when NTT introduced the first cellular telecoms service in Japan in 1979.
In today’s world, it is a market enforced de facto trend to enable electronic products with wireless interfaces complementing the core functionality of these products, albeit that in many instances this wireless feature is the main functionality. Technologies such as Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi and 3G are just some of the mature transmission media that are built into a typical modern electronic product.
As more devices incorporate RF, local electronic ODMs, OEMs and electronic equipment integrators who offer products that feature wireless as a core or auxiliary functionality have to thoroughly examine how capable potential component distribution partners are to fully nurse the needs of a successful product throughout its entire lifecycle. Irrespective of how insignificant to an end product a coaxial cable, connector, module, internal or external antenna, transceiver or controller IC might be regarded as, designers should rigorously solicit the following vital information from their component suppliers.
* Is your supplier ISO certified for in-house manufactured goods? Are their suppliers ISO approved? Is your supplier voluntarily open for inspection to verify whether these standard approvals are internalised within the organisation as opposed to being a ‘tick in a compliance box’?
* Are the components type-approved for local regulatory bodies’ needs? Has your supplier previously worked with local network operators for approval of your product in their networks?
* Does your supplier offer you fully specified documentation, or are they giving you a load of ‘specmanship’ as opposed to real useful data? Using an antenna as a case study, are parameters such as polarisation, VSWR, PIM, XPD, XPI and gain specified in unambiguous standard terms? For RF subsystems that are going to be integrated into a larger system, are reference designs freely available?
* Does the supplier have in-house skills to handle the field application support when inevitable discrepancies arise between specifications that a component was promised to meet, versus what is being practically achieved? Is the supplier’s applications integration support able to aid you in the right direction based on previous experience? Needless to say, if your supplier always points to data sheets as a means of answering your questions, without any effort to offer proven past reference applications, you waste a lot of your own time discovering pitfalls.
* Does the supplier have any in-house testing equipment (VNAs, oscilloscopes, field spectrum analysers, GSM/GPS development boards) to demonstrate typical behaviour and to do batch screening of components or acceptance test procedures verified from overseas acquired components?
* Is your supplier able to handle short lead times for moderate quantities and ex-stock samples for advertised products?
These are some of the questions that your component distributor should answer ‘yes’ with no hesitation. It is these objectives and services that Otto Marketing strives to offer its customers by way of its sales engineers focusing on customers’ products.
For more information contact Barry Culligan, Otto Marketing, +27 (0)11 791 1033, [email protected], www.otto.co.za
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