The Story Behind the Founding and Enduring Success of SN&N Electronics, Inc.

I founded SN&N Electronics, Inc. in 1994 to provide high-end product design services to industry and academia. I have been uniquely situated at the crossroads of academia and industry as a research scientist and a design engineer. Early in my career, I recognized the different needs of “design-for-research” and “design-for-industry” and so I ventured off to start my own engineering company.

The complex nature of modern products requires an interdisciplinary approach wherein electronics, photonics, embedded controllers, smart code, connectivity, packaging, rigid and flex circuit board designs, batteries and efficient power electronics need to come together to make it work. Good industrial design and aesthetics above and beyond pure functionality is now an absolute requirement. Technology is advancing fast and relentlessly, and concept-to-delivery timelines are incredibly tight.

The requirements of design for research institutes are markedly different than those for industry. Scientists need electronics and software for high precision experiments that require a deep understanding of noise from electrical pick-up, thermal processes, vibration and the environment like temperature fluctuations, blackbody radiation etc. The ability to distinguish between fundamental noise and technical noise is crucial to the design of precision instrumentation. Advanced quantum techniques like squeezing can mitigate to some extent the effect of quantum noise.

However, technical noise can be measured, and proper suppression techniques can be employed to minimize their impact on the precision measurement.  Aesthetics are not supremely important to scientists; however, they want “knobs” to have easy and maximal control of experimental settings. Large amounts of experimental data must be collected and saved properly for later analysis and fault isolation.

The SN&N team understands these unique requirements and design accordingly.  As a CEO, I often think of our design team as an orchestra wherein every design is like a different symphony with its unique melody, instrument setup and organization, musicians who follow the conductor and improvise along the way, and of course the audience. The role of the conductor cannot be underestimated.

So, it is at SN&N Electronics. I am like a conductor and every design is carefully “orchestrated” and the “melody of the composition” is synthesized with appropriate sets of instruments and associated engineers and scientists. The baton moves and it all comes together and resonates, flows smoothly and efficiently to create a “world-class” product.  Finally, the product is nurtured as it progresses towards legacy, just like the last delightful strains of the orchestra that leaves the audience wanting an encore!