Altium Designer helps Huntkey power product design

"Altium Designer is at the core of all our software applications, integrating all of our design needs into one user-friendly electronics design tool."

Duan Weiyin
Doctor of Engineering, Vice President
Shenzhen Huntkey Chiyuan Electric Co., Ltd.

Overview

Huntkey was founded in 1995 and is China's largest professional power service provider integrating development, design, manufacturing and sales of power supplies and power systems. After more than a decade of development, Huntkey has won a good reputation for quality and cost advantages through its large vertical corporate structure. Its products cover various power supplies and power systems from 1W to 250KW, involving PC power supplies, communication power supplies, power supplies, adapters/chargers, UPS, DC/DC and other products.

challenge

As power supply design is very complex and needs to follow strict rules and conditions (such as Energy Star certification), data management is the most critical issue in the design process for Huntkey. Three major systems, including ERP, PDM and PCB tools, need to be connected together. The ERP system handles all materials and manufacturing materials, and the PDM system manages all design processes, where all documents are stored. When it is necessary to meet customer needs, designers can find them within the specified time. PCB tools are closely related to the first-hand information generated by schematics and PCB layouts. For example, when a design is about to be put into production, a large number of files in various formats need to be provided to various departments in the production chain, including PCB files, bills of materials, component data, FPGA and software source and target files, design process reports, etc. Generating these reports and documents is very time-consuming, and if errors or changes are not recorded in time during the process, it will cost a lot in time and money. For Huntkey, it is very important to have a design tool that can connect all tools together to minimize the time to market.

Another major challenge faced by Huntkey was the limitations of the mechanical housing. Huntkey needed to perform a lot of simulation to create the circuit layout of the power supply in order to generate the optimal layout of the mechanical housing.

Solution

Altium Designer provides Huntkey with excellent data management capabilities. Altium Designer can track and archive the information required to generate the aforementioned documents in its electronic design environment. Designers can manufacture products, compile documents, package, and publish various design data based on the final design information. Through output management, Altium Designer can centralize the definition and generation of output files, thereby greatly streamlining complex processes.

Altium Designer的ECAD MCAD协作技术也有助于精简设计流程。通过Altium Designer的三维可视化引擎将机械STEP文件直接导入PCB设计空间，电子设计师可以在机械外壳中以实时、三维的方式观看并修改电子器件。这一开拓性的功能使得电子设计师可以高效地与机械工程师分享数据并携手合作。同时，考虑到航嘉的电源产品需要牢固和定制的外壳，该功能可以显著减少MCAD ECAD过程中发生的设计迭代。

result

During the design process, the 3D function of Altium Design allows designers to easily adjust PCB layout, component placement and even package analysis options. At the same time, 3D simulation through the 3D visualization function of Altium Designer can measure and match circuit parameters, realize synchronous design of electronics and mechanics, and ensure that the company finds the best solution in a very short design cycle.

Although there are many softwares available for architecture design and PCB layout, the company needed a software tool that could integrate all design rules and requirements. "Altium Designer can record the parameters and design rules that need to be matched in the design process of various types of products, helping Huntkey improve product development efficiency," said Dr. Duan Weiyin. "It is not just a design tool, it truly connects all our data management systems. It is the center of everything."