Keith Riordan is currently PATCA’s Secretary and Vice President of Engineering at Sector Technology, a product development firm.
Sector Technology’s major focus is on developing medical devices for startup companies. Most lately have included wireless capability, usually Bluetooth but also Wi-Fi and RFID. Challenges arise when multiple wireless devices must function on the same board without interference. This forces designs with unconventional layouts, bending many rules of good PCB design. Powering off one wireless module when another is operating is helpful. Tuning techniques need to be developed that allow antennae to coexist with other large conductive components like speakers, batteries, etc.
One of the largest complaints by users of IoT devices is the battery life. Riordan’s early experience was in watch and sport watch design where small size is critical and a 1-year battery life is expected. Keeping the voltage low and the oscillator frequency as low as possible works. Another technique that extends battery life is to pulse the button cell, and then give it a rest period. If rechargeable low cost batteries are required, the widest varieties are come from China. In-house testing is critical as many of these batteries do not perform to published specs. Much of the past year was spent testing batteries under simulated pulse load scenarios analyzing performance, seal integrity (no leakage allowed) and charging temperatures.
Few of these rechargeables have UL or similar safety certifications and the significant test costs and time delays will be need to be borne by the client before release if a certification such as CE Mark is required for the product. For this reason Riordan advises medical device clients to always use Certified Body approved batteries where possible that reduces the choices drastically.
If the customer’s device is not sensitive to battery size, Riordan will select a larger battery. Where battery size and life really counts, Riordan will simulate the real-life performance by modeling the average number of button pushes per day, the Bluetooth activation time, LED activation and audio outputs to give a reliable estimate of battery performance in that particular application

PATCA Experience
Riordan was initially attracted to PATCA because of the Post-a-Project referral service. Soon after joining he recognized PATCA as a strong organization with exceptionally talented consultants available for joint product development and a valuable resource for accessing technical insights and other business matters.