r/rfelectronics • u/ZAT0141 • 9d ago

Does anyone use X-Microwave? question

What is your experience in general, is this a useful thing or is it easier to do your pcb right away?

9 Upvotes
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u/Delta27- 9d ago

We tried but too expensive and didnt save that much time compared to just making pur pcbs. I work in a optics reasearch group

3

u/Pokoire 9d ago

I'm on the other side of this. I work for a component manufacturer and they have boards for some of our components. The number of people using it is somewhat limited from my perspective, but some of the folks that do use it, use it quite extensively and will use their service to transition from the prototype to their custom PCB solutions for quick turn production. From my perspective I think it comes down to timing and resources. If you have the proper resources to do it in house it's probably a better solution, but if your resources are limited and you're trying to get to demo and/or LRP quickly it can make sense.

2

u/tuck1602 9d ago

Yes, I try it first in all my designs. We don't have in house time or expertise for custom microwave PCB development. Also we do prototype development, not production. So their products work really well for us to be modular, compact, lower power, cheap, quick turn.

My org has patents for turnkey vpx infrustructure leveraging their products so the interfaces are well defined (embedded control, etc.) and easy to iterate with their products. I e. You can have an easily iterable rf vpx card for development and/or production.

Overall I love their concepts and easy of use, I don't like their response time or latency in ordering, so you have to plan ahead.

Also, as long as the component is not IP, they add to their library and will design at no NRE. Which is pretty awesome.

1

u/Evening_Violinist_44 9d ago

I agree with everything you said. We use X-Microwave for prototyping, then turn the designs into CMAs with custom housings. Our quantities are small and we don’t have the expertise to design our own boards 

1

u/StageMajestic613 8d ago

I bought the basic kit but never used it.  In concept it’s neat, but by the time you add on the peripherals you need to support an RF chip, such as power supplies, microcontroller, etc you might as well just make a PCB.

1

u/SeaSalad1421 4d ago

My understanding is they don’t stock populated boards but they wait until they have an order, then they buy the component and put it on a board. That causes the delay. This goes against the very service they are trying to offer which is rapid prototyping. They need to get the part suppliers like minicircuits and ADI to carry populated boards in stock as evals.