CIRCUIT DESIGN

Calpak USA's engineering team uses industry-standard EDA platforms including Altium Designer, Cadence OrCAD Capture, Mentor PADS, and Zuken CR-8000 for schematic capture and circuit design. Tool selection is driven by program requirements and client preferences — many of our aerospace and defense customers require deliverables in Cadence or Mentor formats for compatibility with their internal design flows. Calpak USA also maintains SPICE simulation environments for analog and mixed-signal verification prior to layout. All schematic databases are managed under formal revision control within our AS9100 Rev. D and ISO 9001 quality management system at our Hawthorne, California facility. This ensures full traceability from initial capture through every engineering change order, which is critical for programs requiring configuration-managed documentation packages.

Yes, Calpak USA is registered with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls and maintains full ITAR compliance for controlled defense programs alongside commercial product development. Our Hawthorne, California facility operates under AS9100 Rev. D and ISO 9001 certified quality systems with the physical security, access controls, and data handling procedures required for ITAR-restricted technical data. Calpak USA's engineering team has over 40 years of experience designing circuits for military avionics, missile guidance systems, satellite communications, and radar subsystems that must meet MIL-STD reliability and environmental screening requirements. We also support commercial aerospace, medical device, and industrial customers where regulatory compliance such as DO-254 or IEC 62304 applies. Our dual-use capability means you work with one qualified design partner regardless of program classification.

Calpak USA delivers a complete, production-ready documentation package with every schematic design. This includes fully annotated multi-sheet schematics with hierarchical block diagrams, a qualified bill of materials with manufacturer part numbers and approved alternates, net-lists in industry-standard formats, component derating analysis where applicable, and a formal design specification document. All deliverables are revision-controlled and traceable per AS9100 Rev. D requirements. For defense programs, Calpak USA provides documentation formatted to MIL-STD-31000 technical data package standards. Our BOMs include lifecycle status, lead times, and DMSMS risk flags so procurement teams can evaluate supply chain exposure before committing to production. Every documentation package is reviewed by a senior engineer before release to ensure accuracy and completeness across all design artifacts.

Calpak USA manages circuit design, PCB layout, firmware development, and production assembly under one roof in Hawthorne, California, which eliminates the handoff errors that plague multi-vendor workflows. Our circuit designers work directly with PCB layout engineers from the earliest schematic stages, pre-allocating board real estate for critical signal paths, power distribution networks, and thermal management features. Pin assignments, connector pinouts, and FPGA I/O mapping are coordinated with the firmware team in parallel so that hardware and embedded software development proceed on aligned schedules. Design reviews are held at schematic completion, post-placement, and post-route to verify cross-domain integration. This concurrent engineering approach typically reduces total development time by 15 to 25 percent compared to sequential design flows where schematic, layout, and firmware are handled by separate organizations.

Calpak USA typically completes a custom circuit design from requirements capture through released schematic in 4 to 12 weeks, depending on complexity and regulatory requirements. A straightforward single-board commercial design with well-defined requirements can reach schematic release in 4 to 6 weeks. Multi-board systems, high-speed digital architectures exceeding 5 Gbps, or designs requiring MIL-STD environmental qualification generally require 8 to 12 weeks through schematic release. ITAR-controlled programs may add 1 to 2 weeks for documentation compliance and security review cycles. Calpak USA provides a detailed project schedule with milestones at kickoff, including formal design review gates at the conceptual, preliminary, and critical design review stages. Our AS9100 Rev. D quality system requires documented schedule commitments, so timeline estimates are engineering-driven rather than aspirational.

Calpak USA conducts structured design reviews at multiple stages before any schematic is released for PCB layout. Our process follows a gate-review methodology aligned with AS9100 Rev. D requirements: a conceptual design review validates the architecture against requirements, a preliminary design review examines component selection and critical circuit performance, and a critical design review confirms the complete schematic is ready for layout release. Calpak USA runs SPICE-based simulation on analog circuits, power supply stability analysis, and timing verification on high-speed digital interfaces before layout begins. Worst-case analysis and Monte Carlo tolerance studies are performed on mission-critical circuits for aerospace and defense programs. These pre-layout verification steps significantly reduce the risk of board respins, which typically cost $15,000 to $50,000 per iteration and add 4 to 8 weeks to program schedules.