Future Tech with Flight Circuits and Altium: A Case Study

Flight Circuits, founded by Adam Gerken, is a company that designs complex, futuristic devices for its clients. The company is based in Rochester, New York, and its creations include battery-powered medical pump controllers, wearable asthma monitoring systems, palm-sized single-board computers, and a small, sleek ring that replaces keys, credit cards, and passwords with personalized security. Flight Circuits also develops compact wireless receivers for use in machine learning and continuous monitoring devices. The company prides itself on its ability to keep up to date on the latest technologies and methods, and it uses Altium Designer as its tool of choice for PCB design.

Adam Gerken, the founder and president of Flight Circuits, has been designing complex, futuristic devices for his clients from his studio in Rochester, New York. His creations range from battery-powered medical pump controllers to wearable asthma monitoring systems, palm-sized single-board computers, and a small, sleek ring that replaces keys, credit cards, and passwords with personalized security. He has also begun to develop compact wireless receivers for use in machine learning and continuous monitoring devices. However, Adam's peers often struggle with legacy systems and complex programs that hamper the development process. Adam needed a reliable, efficient, and advanced tool to design simple and complex PCBs for his various projects.

Adam has been using Altium Designer since 2007, starting first in college and then at a job he had working for a manufacturing company. He continued to use Altium at Flight Circuits, where it is the tool of choice for PCB design. Altium Designer has given Adam a winning edge over other service bureaus. He’s become so adept with the program, he’s even helped clients migrate over to Altium from other PCB design software tools. Regular product updates to Altium Designer help Adam continually push the boundaries of what’s possible for his clients. By keeping his license current, he’s also been able to take full advantage of product upgrades biannually. Adam adopted Altium 365’s three-dimensional viewer tool early on, using it with his customers to share design progress. Customers can easily review designs, make comments and even share links to their manufacturing partners from the Altium 365 cloud platform.

• The use of Altium Designer has allowed Flight Circuits to stay steps ahead of its competitors. The software's brand recognition has helped build confidence and trust with prospective customers. The ability to send clients 3D visuals of the boards in progress, instead of pages of schematics, has helped the Flight Circuits team instill confidence during the design process and develop lasting client relationships. With Altium Designer, customers can see 3D views of their boards, rotate and explore every angle, and see exactly where all of the components are located, no matter what stage of the design process their boards are in. The adoption of Altium 365’s three-dimensional viewer tool has allowed Flight Circuits to offer its customers a comprehensive view of their projects using a simple cloud-based interface.