Electrical Engineering & PCB Design
FUEL Innovation is a Calgary product engineering firm with an in-house electrical engineering team. We design custom electronics, including circuit boards, embedded hardware, and the industrial control systems that run them, and we carry each design from a blank schematic through layout to a tested, production-ready board. Whether it is a high-sensitivity analog sensor board for a scientific instrument, a control cabinet for a plant-floor automation line, or a full device-to-cloud IoT system, the electronics are engineered alongside the mechanical, firmware, and manufacturing work they depend on, all under one roof.
What we design
Custom circuit boards
We design printed circuit boards from a blank schematic to a complete manufacturing package, rigid and flex, in Altium Designer. Our particular strength is high-sensitivity, low-noise analog: the precision front-ends where the noise floor decides whether an instrument works at all. We deliver the build package to the contract manufacturers who build the boards, then bring the first articles back to our own lab for bring-up and functional testing, so the board that ships is one we have verified on the bench.
- Schematic capture and multilayer plus flex PCB layout and routing
- High-sensitivity, low-noise analog and precision measurement front-ends
- Power supply and power-management design, switch-mode and linear
- USB-C with Power Delivery, wired and wireless networking, and embedded displays
- Component selection and design for manufacturing, built in from the first decision
- In-house first-article bring-up, debug, and functional test
Industrial automation & controls
We build the control systems that run machines and plants. That covers the control cabinet build and wiring plus PLC, VFD, and HMI programming, so the same team that designs the electronics also commissions the system that operates them.
- Control cabinet and panel build and wiring
- PLC, VFD, and HMI programming
- Single machines through to plant-scale lines
- Built to Canadian and international standards for industrial and hazardous-location sites
Connected products: IoT, device to cloud
We build complete IoT systems end to end, and because we own the whole stack, the hardware and the cloud are designed for each other instead of bolted together. This is where our electrical work meets our software and firmware capability.
- Full stack: edge device, firmware, connectivity, cloud, and dashboard
- Radios: BLE, Wi-Fi, cellular, and LoRa
- Cloud: AWS IoT, Azure IoT, or a custom backend
- Over-the-air updates and fleet management
Tools, standards & methods
Altium Designer is our PCB tool end to end: schematic capture, multilayer and flexible board layout and routing, and circuit simulation for the analog designs. We design to IPC standards throughout, including IPC-2221 for layout, IPC-A-610 Class 3 (high-reliability) for assembly acceptability, and J-STD-001 for soldering.
Compliance is designed in from the start, not bolted on at the end. We have an in-house certification specialist who guides each product through the standards its market demands, so the path to approval is planned from the first schematic. We design and build to:
- Product safety: IEC 61010-1 for measurement, control, and laboratory equipment, with CSA and UL listing
- EMC and radio: FCC and ISED emissions and immunity limits, and FCC and ISED certification for wireless devices
- Industrial and hazardous-location: the Canadian Electrical Code (CSA C22.1), IEC 60204-1, and hazardous-area certification for Class I Div 1 and Div 2 and ATEX
- Medical electrical: IEC 60601-1 with its EMC and device-specific parts, developed under a quality management system pursuing dual ISO 9001 / ISO 13485 certification, currently at the pre-audit stage
- Environmental and materials: IP-rated sealing, environmental testing to IEC 60068 and MIL-STD-810, and RoHS and REACH
Where it fits in our process
Electronics rarely ship on their own. At FUEL the electrical team works in the same building as mechanical, firmware and software, and manufacturing, so a board is designed around its enclosure, its firmware, and how it will actually be built. See how we work for the full path from concept to production.
Frequently asked questions
Do you design circuit boards from scratch?
Yes. We do full schematic capture and PCB layout in Altium Designer, rigid and flex, through to a complete manufacturing package: schematic, bill of materials, and fabrication and assembly files.
Can you handle high-sensitivity or precision analog designs?
Yes. Low-noise analog front-ends and precision measurement circuits are a specialty. We simulate them before layout and verify them on first-article hardware in our own lab.
Do you manufacture the boards too?
We design the complete manufacturing package and partner with contract manufacturers to build the boards, then bring the first articles back in-house for bring-up and functional testing. FUEL also offers assembly, quality testing, and fulfillment as a broader service.
Do you do industrial automation and control panels?
Yes. We do control cabinet build and wiring plus PLC, VFD, and HMI programming, from a single machine to plant-scale lines, built to CSA C22.1 and IEC 60204-1, including hazardous-location work where the site requires it.
Can you connect a product to the cloud?
Yes. We build the full IoT stack, device to cloud, across BLE, Wi-Fi, cellular, and LoRa, on AWS IoT, Azure IoT, or a custom backend, including over-the-air updates and fleet management.
Can you get our product certified?
Compliance is part of how we design. With an in-house certification specialist, we design and build to the safety, EMC, radio, hazardous-location, and medical standards your market requires, so certification is planned for from the first schematic instead of discovered at the end.