Makel Engineering, Inc. is a research and development company specializing in the development of industrial, automotive, military, and space grade intelligent sensors and chemical conversion systems. MEI facilities are located in Chico, CA, with field offices in Cleveland, OH, Las Vegas, NV, and Austin, TX. The facility includes high bay fabrication areas, precision assembly rooms, and gas handling test bay. This facility is used for fabrication of sensors, control systems, product development testing, system checkout, calibration, inspection, and shipping. Quality assurance is maintained through equipment calibration, regular inspections, traceability, and documentation. Production is scheduled in an environmentally controlled and ESD compliant assembly area equipped to process parts all the way from receiving, inspection, cleaning, wire bonding, device programming, PWB assembly, cable and harnessing, to final assembly, test and acceptance, and finally shipping.

As an R&D company, MEI’s expertise begins in the conceptual phase, Assisting in defining customer needs, extracting system constraints, defining system requirements, proposing possible solutions, evaluating their advantages/disadvantages, and developing diagrams and documentation to convey design approaches. Upon selection of a design concept, Makel Engineering engineers and designers complete the electrical, mechanical, and software analyses and designs, fully documenting the results. Extensive knowledge of components and materials proven to work well together accelerates design progress and reduces risk. MEI utilizes engineering workstations running simulation tools and CAD tools (such as AutoCAD, P-CAD 2001 Suite, P-SPICE, EWB, Compilers, Assemblers, COSMOS Design Star Finite Element, etc.) to rapidly complete designs and check the results.

Makel Engineering regularly designs miniature electronics with surface mount components, many layers with multiple ground and power planes, in custom enclosures. By enforcing design standards through in-house review processes and thoroughly checking the results, MEI is able to assure designs are of high quality and meet the project requirements. Project managers are assigned to each project to assure project goals are met in a timely fashion and all activities remain on track. MEI conducts engineering reviews to address quality, reproducibility, reliability, serviceability, standards, requirements traceability, and good engineering practice. After the final engineering design review, prototypes are created to validate the design, perform system integration, assure all system requirements are met, and provide for acceptance testing. MEI’s R&D test area contains full test and debug instrumentation (oscilloscopes, Fourier Analyses, static and dynamic parameter measurements, communications interfaces, in circuit programming, programmable environmental chambers, etc.) Once prototypes are accepted, designs are ready for production.

MEI has substantial experience with all aspects of sensor design: sensor element chemistry/physics, element interfaces, sensor and environmental control, intelligent data processing/filtering, output requirements, communication protocols, electronics engineering, mechanical packaging, firmware development, component/material selection, PCB design/fabrication/assembly, FCC interference issues, safety, power and thermal design, vibration analyses, reliability and maintainability, quality assurance, configuration control, production engineering, production test capability, documentation, industrial and military specifications, etc.