Dave's Desk

Electronics Engineering Trends and Outlook for 2024 and Beyond

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DE Design Works is committed to outstanding product design and prototyping services for durable industrial, medical, and military electronics. Our 20 years of experience distinguish us as a reliable partner in health, power, and custom process controls due to our dedication to high-quality, rapid prototyping and testing. We uphold our values of Results, Relationships, Continuous Improvement, Creativity, and Kindness within our organization, with our partners, and in our interactions with customers. 

Key Takeaways

  • Electronics engineering has evolved from discrete PCB design to integrated firmware, IoT connectivity, and AI-enabled embedded systems.
  • Microcontrollers became the dominant design paradigm in the 2000s, reshaping how industrial and commercial products are conceived and built.
  • A multidisciplinary engineering team with deep specialization in hardware, firmware, and wireless delivers better product outcomes than generalist firms.
  • Investment in modern lab equipment — including PCBA design and prototyping tools — directly reduces time-to-prototype and iteration cost.
  • Demand for connected, intelligent, and energy-efficient electronics continues to grow across industrial, medical, and defense sectors.

DE has experienced a lot during our first twenty years in business. 

During my childhood, I had the unique opportunity to grow up with a power electronics lab in my basement, thanks to my father's background as an engineer. This gave me exposure into electronics design from a young age which I carried into my career. Then, working at NASA space flight operations in the late ‘90s taught me the importance of quality and process. 

The 2000s marked a significant shift with the rise of microcontrollers. During this period, DE was established, focusing on PCB design, firmware, and prototyping to address business challenges and develop innovative electronic products. By creating reusable circuits, possessing extensive firmware expertise, and implementing robust prototype to production processes, our DE Design Works team continues to offer valuable tools that serve as catalysts for our customers' growth. 

Along the way, we have helped a wide range of customers in many ways: 

  • Helping a Fortune 500 company EV charging prototype, taking it across the finish line into mass production, and a UL listing 
  • Enabling a vascular medical startup to prove a new clot removal theory and commercialize a new stroke surgical device from a napkin sketch to 50 units in clinical trials and FDA clearance 
  • Helping design and produce 150 military-grade environmental controls in 4 weeks for emergency deployment by the CDC at the leading edge of the Ebola outbreak  
  • Partnering with an inventive Fireman with his own IP to disrupt the firefighting world, eventually being acquired by a global manufacturer of cutting-edge fire service technology  

Through longevity and experience, we have assembled a highly skilled team of over 20 engineers, each with their own areas of expertise that empower our customers with the comprehensive support they require to pursue development initiatives that would otherwise be out of reach. 

We are thrilled about our future, as we continue to attract a steady flow of new customers seeking our engineering expertise. Our growth is consistent, our capabilities are continuously expanding, and our customer experiences are broadening. This leads to investment in a few key areas. 

DE Design Works is pleased to announce new state-of-the-art PCB/PCBA equipment recently added to our hardware design lab. This investment in cutting-edge technology is intended to significantly improve our prototyping capabilities, ensuring more efficient and effective service for our clients. This new surface-mount technology (SMT) line and vapor phase oven is comparable to the sophistication of equipment used to produce iPhones. Our goal is to provide the fastest high-quality prototyping design services in the Midwest for our design customers by targeting prototype boards ready for testing the next day. 

Our new state-of-the-art PCB/PCBA equipment not only enhances our prototyping capabilities but also addresses a significant gap in the traditional contract manufacturing paradigm: the challenge of serving low-volume production customers. Traditional contract manufacturers often prioritize high-volume orders, leaving small and medium-sized enterprises struggling to find reliable production partners for low-quantity needs. Our new equipment bridges this gap by offering efficient and cost-effective solutions for low-volume production, ensuring that these customers receive the same level of service and quality as large-volume clients. 

We are continuously improving by investing in our team and offerings.  

  • Our testing services offer customers the opportunity to rent testing and compliance engineers as needed. Our 12,000 square foot lab is full of equipment for pre-compliance testing that reduces compliance schedules. 
  • We build production test fixtures in-house for validation and as low-volume testers depending on our customer’s production needs. 
  • Our new software director was brought on board to provide additional experienced oversight and act as a software architect, overseeing, communicating, and ensuring the success of your most important software initiatives. When working with our team, remarkable things are accomplished through collaboration, inspiring and challenging the engineers within our customers, leading to their growth and success.  
  • We are constantly looking for talented engineers. Firmware is a type of software, but not all software is firmware. Real-time programming presents unique challenges. Skilled engineers enjoy working at DE and collaborating with others. Elite engineers are drawn to our company because of the diverse, fast-paced projects and the associated challenges. Our engineers desire to learn, witness progress, and contribute to the success of your company. If you're facing challenges in hiring an engineering team or if your internal team lacks bandwidth, engage DE. Our engineers focus on delivering your projects within budget and on schedule.  
  • We carefully select our clientele and partners. We offer budget estimates containing well-defined project tasks and deliverables, aiming to propel your project through the product development process. 

Over 20 years ago, we began with a simple vision. Today, we offer an extensive range of services, providing your team with the resources to scale and innovate. Our commitment to continuous reinvestment ensures we deliver the highest quality, rapid turnaround in design and prototyping. Together, let's drive your company into the future.  

How to Begin Your Journey with Us 

Frequently Asked Questions

How has electronics engineering evolved over the past 20 years?

Electronics engineering has transformed from discrete PCB design — routing analog signals between through-hole components — to integrated systems design spanning embedded firmware, IoT connectivity, AI inference, and production manufacturing. The microcontroller revolution in the 2000s enabled intelligent devices in previously analog-only products. Today, virtually every new electronic product requires hardware, firmware, wireless, and cloud engineering working together.

What does a modern electronics engineering team need to deliver a competitive product?

A competitive electronics product requires a multidisciplinary team with depth in: PCB design (schematic, layout, signal integrity), embedded firmware (RTOS or bare metal, peripheral drivers, application logic), wireless protocols (BLE, Wi-Fi, LoRa, cellular, or industrial fieldbus), mechanical integration (enclosure, thermal, connector selection), and compliance testing (FCC, CE, UL, FDA, IEC). Firms that can deliver all five disciplines in-house dramatically reduce integration risk.

Why does in-house lab equipment matter for electronics engineering quality?

Modern lab equipment — including PCBA prototype stations, spectrum analyzers, oscilloscopes with protocol decode, environmental chambers, and RF test equipment — enables engineering teams to catch design issues before committing to production tooling. A firm with full in-house capabilities can validate, iterate, and retest within days rather than weeks. This directly reduces time-to-prototype and the cost of design iterations.

Which market verticals are driving the most electronics engineering innovation?

Industrial automation, medical devices, and defense/military applications are driving the most engineering innovation in 2024 and beyond. These markets require the highest levels of reliability, certification rigor, and long-term component support — creating engineering challenges that push the state of the practice. Technologies developed for these demanding verticals typically filter into commercial IoT and consumer products over the following 5–10 years.

How has the demand for connected and AI-enabled electronics changed product development requirements?

Connectivity and AI are no longer differentiators — they are baseline expectations in most industrial and commercial product categories. This raises the minimum viable product bar significantly: a new industrial sensor that cannot report data wirelessly and cannot perform local anomaly detection is already behind the market. Engineering teams must now design for connectivity and intelligence from the first architecture decision, not as features added later.