Novosound develops ultrasonic sensing technology used across commercial, industrial and medical sectors. Their core innovation lies in flexible ultrasound sensors that enable non-invasive inspection and monitoring.
As a lean team working across multiple client engagements, they've chosen to engage with a trusted external partner to help deliver complex product development projects.
Product imagery / video courtesy of FLOWBIO
Our team has worked with Novosound under a retainer agreement to support the development of electronics and software across multiple of their sensing platforms. These have covered an array of requirements for Novosound’s clients, ranging from wearables to developing ATEX-compliant systems for hazardous environments. The goal has always been to deliver reliable, manufacturable hardware that can be adapted across use cases and deployed quickly.
i4PD provided electronics design and software development for two of Novosound’s core platforms: Pulsar 4:32 and Pulsar 16:16. The Pulsar 4:32 was developed as a multi-purpose board, capable of serving both industrial and wearable applications. It featured a compact layout, high-speed signal handling, and low-noise receiver circuitry to improve data quality. The 16:16 variant followed, designed for Novosound's client that focused on pipe seal integrity. It was built on this architecture of the 4:32 with improved timing control between transmit and receive modes.
For each board, our electronics and software teams worked closely with Novosound to understand system-level constraints and select appropriate components. We added debug features to aid development and increase speed, and tailored the PCB design to be optimised with manufacturer capabilities.
A third project, Ceilidh, is currently undergoing a complex board layout phase to meet ATEX compliance and operate on low-power battery systems. This project was initially supported with electronics design and a high-level software roadmap, however our software team are returning to tackle the rest of the project.
The projects often ran in parallel, requiring an agile approach from our project management team. They work between our engineers and clients to uphold rapid communication through shared Teams channels and weekly meetings. This project structure allowed quick solutions for component availability issues, which were communicated and resolved through redesign, and signal integrity challenges which were addressed through careful layout and timing adjustments. Our structure allowed Novosound to move forward and stay informed without needing to expand their internal team.
i4PD have delivered (and are continuing to deliver) electronics and software solutions that have enabled Novosound to support multiple client applications from a shared hardware base.
The Pulsar boards gained significant improvements in receiver performance and signal clarity and the Ceilidh platform electronics and software is being redesigned for ATEX standards and operate efficiently in low-power conditions. i4PD have also been a part of augmenting mechanical design aspects of another of Novosound's medical projects.
These outcomes helped Novosound meet demanding client requirements while maintaining speed and flexibility in their own development process.
