Are we experiencing a rebirth of Silicon Valley hardware manufacturing? High volume manufacturing of hardware is not something commonly done in Silicon Valley, with much of that work finding its way to places around the globe. But a large amount of new product development, prototyping and low volume production seems to be firmly positioned in the Valley.

For its part, Apple is choosing to do a portion of hardware work in-house. Thanks to the development of 3D printing devices, Apple is able to create the raw materials for prototypes and build them locally. If needed, they can send the unfinished collective components to local manufacturing partners where the assembling can be completed.

 

Prototype Production

Similarly, much of the hardware produced in the Silicon Valley is of the prototype variety with not many manufacturing plants capable of producing millions of units. However, circuit board prototyping production can now be done in-house at Silicon Valley locations and manufacturing partners with both ease and cost-effectiveness.

Building a hardware startup is getting easier with access to crowd funding sites like Crowd Supply, and the ability to crowd source manufacturing knowledge, skill and the DIY spirit with open access workshops like Techshop. And, it is often the unique, smaller startups that take advantage of new technology and local services allowing them to avoid overseas shipping and manufacturing costs to create a prototype production or proof of concept.

We, at Bay Area Circuits, are proud to be a prototype manufacturing partner to small startups, large technology giants and everything in between. Our manufacturing facility is located in the city of Fremont, CA which is also the home of the new Fremont Innovation District.

“The Fremont Innovation District (FID) highlights the existing concentration of large innovative businesses such as Tesla Motors, Lam Research, Delta Products, Seagate, Western Digital, ThermoFisher, Boston Scientific as well as a number of startups in clean technologies, life sciences, and advanced manufacturing in the area.”

How exciting, to be in the middle of all that innovation!

With new opportunities for hardware companies, we’re excited for the next big thing. Using local manufacturing partners like Bay Area Circuits provides both a cost and time-effective option for getting new projects off the ground and we’re looking forward to the future!

 

 

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