EEWebPULSE_2012_i0070.pdf

EE Web PULSE INTERVIEW

PULSE

Issue 70

October 30, 2012

Andrew Yaung

President and CEO

Schmartboard

Electrical Engineering Community

Visit www.eeweb.com

EE Web PULSE TABLE OF CONTENTS

Andrew Yaung

SCHMARTBOARD

Interview with Andrew Yaung - President, CEO and Co-Founder

Featured Products

E-CAD Meets M-CAD

BY FRANK KRÄMER WITH ALTIUM

How advancements made in EDA tools means it is becoming easier to simulate a product’s

form, fit and function before they are manufactured

Inside the TL431 Architecture: Choosing

The Fast or Slow Path

BY CHRISTOPHE BASSO WITH ON SEMICONDUCTOR

Experts

How, unlike a classical op amp-based configuration, the way you wire the TL431 gives birth to two

control lanes: a fast and a slow one.

Exchanging

RTZ - Return to Zero Comic

Ideas

Every Day.

VISIT DIGIKEY.COM / TECHXCHANGE TODAY!

Visit www.eeweb.com

EE Web PULSE INTERVIEW

Schmartboard ’s mantra is “Electronics

for Everyone,” meaning they provide

one of the easiest circuit prototyp-

ing systems on the market. We

spoke with Andrew Yaung , the

CEO and co-founder, about his

inspiration in starting the company,

the patented “EZ” technology, and

what it means to design the “Schmart

Way.”

Andrew

Yaung

SCHMARTBOARD

EE Web | Electrical Engineering Community

Visit www.eeweb.com

EE Web PULSE INTERVIEW

What was your work

experience before co-

founding SchmartBoard?

the right position to get things done

effectively, how to kick off strategic

products and align sales channels

with a very small core team, and

more importantly how to control the

cost.

to spending lots of engineering

dollars?”

which is a showcase for the most

promising new technologies. At

that show we were given an INNY

award by The Tech Museum in San

Jose CA for having one of the most

innovative technologies at that show.

our technology for the betterment

of the prototyping community,

and this business continues to

grow organically. Additionally,

SchmartBoard has partnered with

other companies such as Parallax,

Texas Instruments, and Microchip to

add value to their products using our

technology. SchmartBoard will soon

release a board to support Cypress

Semiconductor’s PSOC family of

microcontrollers and the first real

usable family of surface mount

prototyping shields for Arduino

users. Our products are available

on our website and at distribution

partners such as Fry’s Electronics,

Jameco, Mouser Electronics and

Radio Shack.

microcontrollers. A customer can

purchase our board without it being

populated with microcontrollers and

choose to populate it with whichever

one they need. That flexibility allows

us to market a product to any user

This hypothesis led us to invent the

first SchmartBoard in 2003.

My family always stressed on

education and academic excellence

during my upbringing. I have always

been good with Mathematics and

Science as a kid, and this naturally

took me to the path of Electrical

Engineering in college full-time

while working for Hewlett-Packard

(HP) part-time.

What kind of products and

services does SchmartBoard

provide?

After several years of cross

functional leadership experiences

along with my high volume hardware

product development background, I

founded and ran Shark Multimedia

from 1995 - 2001; a company that

designed,

SchmartBoard’s patented “EZ”

technology allows one to easily

hand solder small or tight pitched

surface mount IC’s without any

prior soldering skills. DIP parts are

“SchmartBoard’s

patented ‘EZ’

technology allows one

to easily hand solder

small or tight pitched

surface mount IC’s

without any prior

soldering skills.“

After introducing the first generation

of SchmartBoard’s, we very quickly

manufactured,

and

I worked at HP as a product

assembler and technician while

attending San Jose State University

for my engineering degree. After

graduation, I started to work at HP

as an engineer. There, I discovered

that I got very bored with doing the

same thing day in and day out. I

changed several jobs during my

engineering career at HP. One job

that I really enjoyed doing was New

Product Introduction Engineer. The

job required working with folks

from various disciplines such as

marketing, sales, operations, finance,

suppliers, and even understanding

whether a product with its current

defined specification would meet

customers’ requirements. I found

myself spending quite some time

in that position since I have always

been interested in creating things

and making things work better.

marketed various PC audio and

“We then asked

ourselves ‘wouldn’t it

be better and definitely

cheaper if one can try

out to ensure the target

circuits work the

way it intends prior

to spending lots of

engineering dollars?’”

Do you provide full

development boards for the

companies you work with or

do you integrate some of their

components into an existing

prototyping board?

for a relatively inexpensive price.

It also allows the user to create a

custom board with a variety of ICs

depending on their specific needs,

which creates a unique product. It’s

a win-win situation for everybody.

Both. For example, we are developing

a special development board for

Cypress using our cost-effective

technology. There are times when

an IC company will approach us to

see if they can use our prototyping

board technology internally to save

time and money when testing a new

IC. However, they want to make

sure it is a collaborative effort and

that both of our imprints are on the

new prototype, so in that sense, it is

a partnership.

What is the process of

designing a circuit the

“Schmart” way?

Our company’s mantra is

“Electronics for Everyone,” and

we mean it. Our hope is to allow

anyone to be able to design and put

together an electronic circuit of his/

her dream using SchmartBoard|ez

based circuit boards and circuit

modules. We call this designing

a circuit the “Schmart” way!

Introducing a “game-changing

technology” and letting people

know about our unique technology

has been and will continue to be

the most challenging aspects of the

business. We are not resting on our

laurels though. We have many plans

communication products. I exited

the company after the company

grew from infancy to $8 million in

sales in less than 3 years. I then co-

founded an engineering design and

service company called Intellect

Lab in 2001. There we noticed

that companies were paying us

to design PCB’s then redesigning

them over and over again to correct

minor design errors or mistakes.

We then asked ourselves “wouldn’t

it be better and definitely cheaper if

one can try out to ensure the target

circuits work the way it intends prior

discovered that most people aren’t

able to hand solder miniature surface

mount ICs and components. We

immediately jumped at the chance

to try to solve this real life problem

that engineers and hobbyists are

facing. This led to the invention of

SchmartBoard|ez technology. We

spun SchmartBoard off as a separate

corporation from Intellect Lab in

2005. SchmartBoard’s technology

immediately gained the notice

of the engineering community.

SchmartBoard|ez was launched

at the DEMOfall 2005 conference,

going away and outside of using

expensive sockets, we are the only

real game in town. SchmartBoard

supports most types and sizes of

SOIC, QFP, and QFN packages.

SchmartBoard is the only company

in the world to offer a true patented

solution for soldering surface mount

electronic parts and is used by

engineers, students, and hobbyists.

Through that job I recognized that

I wanted to start a company some

day. I then decided that it was

important for me to be in a much

smaller environment than HP to

further experience and gain “real

business operation” experiences.

In 1991, I left HP after receiving my

graduate degree from Santa Clara

University and went to a start-up.

There after I joined another start-up,

and those two start-up’s gave me

an eye opening, real life experience

and what it means to wear multiple

hats, how to select the right folks for

Can you explain the Microchip

and TI board technology?

Cypress PSOC is a particular

board where you can mount either

a PSOCs 3 or PSOCs 5—whichever

board you choose to use. Our

technology supports multiple

footprints—4 or 6 different chips as

of now. In the case of Microchip,

our board supports 115 different

Where will this technology be

implemented?

We have successfully marketed

EE Web | Electrical Engineering Community

Visit www.eeweb.com

EE Web PULSE INTERVIEW

What is the most valuable

thing you have learned from

your experience?

a step-by-step approach to achieve

final success.

“Society tends to admire instant

success, but I think the most

important thing is to make sure

that you are providing long lasting

value, and endure the process by

taking a step-by-step approach

to achieve final success.”

Is there anything that you

have not accomplished yet,

that you have your sights on

accomplishing in the near

future?

In my 21+ years involved with

various start-ups, I’ve learned

many things. Of that, I believe

continued innovation in making

great things that offer real values,

should be combined with hard

work, persistence, and most

importantly long-term thinking. The

start-up world, and our society in

general, has an instant-gratification

thing. Society tends to admire

instant success, but I think the most

important thing is to make sure that

you are providing long lasting value,

and endure the process by taking

I have 2 beautiful children.

Alexander is 17 and Amanda is 12.

My vision of the future revolves

around them, and I have in mind 2

important things to accomplish in

the near future. One has to do with

practical science and engineering/

technology education beyond

just a textbook based teaching for

children in this country. The other

has to do with physical well being

of individuals since I fundamentally

believe that a healthy body is a

healthy mind and a healthy mind is

a happy soul, and one can take on

extraordinary tasks only when all

three are there.

to continue innovating and growing

SchmartBoard in many other ways.

have interest in the technology.

We are actively pursuing

relationships with entities that

have the need and resources

to utilize this technology to

resolve the serious problems

which plague the circuit

board assembly community.

These issues have become

more pronounced with the

miniaturization of parts and

the advent of RoHS standards.

Once we prove this concept

and successfully implement

our technology as a solution,

significant financial and

unnecessary waste of labor

resources can be eliminated

What are some new

technologies we can expect

to see from SchmartBoard in

the near future?

An example of another market

segment that we will also be

introducing products for is the

IC “Socket” market, based on

SchmartBoard|ez. This “Socket”

product line will allow an engineer

to use EZ technology to functional

use/test expensive IC’s with

relatively low cost. Today, due to the

highly mechanical and customized

properties of IC sockets, the cost

can be prohibitive to many who

need a solution. We will offer a

much lower cost alternative for

packages such as BGA, QFN, DFN,

and less ICs.

For more information about Schmartboard, visit

their website at:

www.schmartboard.com

How many employees

does SchmartBoard

have?

Today, Schmartboard is a

less than 10 person small

company with a very nimble,

get the job done culture. I

started it, and I was there

at the beginning in the

development of the products

and company. It will be some

time before I am phased out.

We also believe our “EZ” technology

can be further fine-tuned to

implement in volume manufacturing

operations to improve manufacturing

reliability and yield concerns. We

have identified several companies

and institutions that we think may

EE Web | Electrical Engineering Community

Visit www.eeweb.com

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: