Open Hardware – Amtech

Build, Customize, and Scale Open Hardware

We help venture-backed hardware companies move from first build to full production with the speed, reliability, and transparency your investors expect.

Open Hardware Moves Fast. Manufacturing Has to Keep Up.

Let’s Get it Right Together

⏱️

Open Hardware Moves At Community Pace

Designs iterate in the open. Variants spin up. Custom add-ons appear every week. Your manufacturing partner has to move at that same pace.

🚧

Most CMs Aren’t Built For This

Traditional manufacturers want finished, frozen designs and high volumes. They’re not set up for BeagleBoard variants, custom add-on boards, or small-batch open hardware runs with frequent revisions.

✅

Amtech Is Built Exactly for This

With 30+ years in electronics manufacturing, we partner with the open hardware community and handle BeagleBoard customization exclusively through our partner JK Embedded Consulting.

Amtech Fit: The Goldilocks Zone

Issue	Too Small	Amtech	Too Big
Fit	Designed for small batches — not mature enough to scale with you as you grow	Supports you from first prototype to full production. Agile, no minimum order requirements, and patient enough to grow with your program.	Rigid systems built for volume — large minimum orders and too slow to adapt to startup-pace change
Technology Strategy	No clear roadmap, constant pivots driven by engineering	Aligns tech roadmap with manufacturability + scalability	Roadmap disconnected from execution, slow to adapt
Design for Manufacturing	Minimal DFM → issues show up late in production	Integrated DFM early to prevent downstream issues	DFM is rigid, standardized, not tailored to product needs
Engineering Support	Limited or fragmented engineering support	Embedded engineering collaboration throughout lifecycle	Engineering siloed, requires formal processes to engage
Manufacturing Execution	Inconsistent processes, not production-ready	High-reliability, repeatable production systems	Optimized for scale, not adaptability
ODM / Integration	Not capable of handling system-level ownership	Can act as ODM + manufacturing partner when needed	Too structured for partial ownership or hybrid models
Tech Facilitation	No bridge between design, supply chain, and production	Acts as connector across engineering, sourcing, and manufacturing	Functions operate in silos, limited cross-functional agility
Quote → Order Entry	Slow, manual, error-prone quoting	Streamlined, tech-enabled quoting + onboarding	Bureaucratic quoting, long turnaround times
Launch / NPI	Disorganized launches, high risk of failure	Disciplined NPI with speed to production	Long qualification cycles, slow ramp
Approval Process	Informal or unclear decision-making	Structured approvals with speed and clarity	Overly complex approvals, slows execution
Production	Inconsistent output, quality variability	Stable, high-quality production with flexibility	Optimized for volume, not change
Delivery	Unpredictable lead times and fulfillment	Reliable delivery aligned with customer needs	Rigid schedules, less responsive to changes
Feedback Loop	Little to no structured feedback or learning	Closed-loop feedback → continuous improvement	Feedback cycles are slow and bureaucratic
Continuous Improvement	No formal improvement system	Built-in improvement via tooling, software, automation	Improvements require large-scale initiatives
Tooling / Automation	Minimal investment in scalable systems	Right-sized automation for flexibility + efficiency	Heavy automation → hard to adjust

The Amtech Startup Journey

We always meet you where you are. When the time is right, we go deeper — working with you to strengthen your design, manufacturing, and supply chain so your product is positioned for long-term success.

We always meet you where you are.
When the time is right, we go deeper—working with you to strengthen your design, manufacturing, and supply chain so your product is positioned for long-term success.

Step	Description	What We Do
1	Pre-Production & Design ValidationBefore you spend money building boards, we validate your design is ready to manufacture.	DFM — Design for Manufacturability: Can your design be built efficiently and reliably at scale? DFA — Design for Assembly: Are component placements and orientations optimized for assembly? DFV — Design for Supply Chain Viability: Are your components available, fairly priced, and not single-sourced? We flag tariff exposure and long lead time parts before they become a crisis.
2	Pilot BuildA controlled first production run designed to surface every issue before you commit to volume.	Full build documentation and traceability Real-time communication — you know exactly what’s happening on the floor Honest DFM feedback based on what we actually saw during the build A clear path to production with no surprises
3	Production LaunchQuick-turn production built for hardware startups with tight launch windows.	Fast turnaround without sacrificing quality Flexible volumes — we’re built for the ramp, not just the run Responsive communication — we pick up the phone A manufacturing partner who is as invested in your launch as you are
4	Iteration & ScalingWe grow with you through every revision, ECO, and volume increase.	Engineering change order (ECO) management Component lifecycle and supply chain monitoring via bomsense.com Volume flexibility as you scale from hundreds to thousands of units A long-term manufacturing partner who knows your product as well as you do

Open Hardware Ecosystems We Support

A Case Study

300+

Open Hardware Projects

30+

Years Experience

Exclusive BeagleBoard Partner

Open hardware is a global community of designs you can build, customize, and scale without being locked into a proprietary vendor. Amtech partners with these ecosystems to bring community designs, variants, and customizations to production. Some of the projects and communities we support: real hardware.

Reference list of major open hardware projects and ecosystems:

BeagleBoard.org — ARM-based single-board computers and microcontroller platforms (beagleboard.org). Customization exclusively through JK Embedded Consulting.
Open Compute Project (OCP) — data center hardware: servers, racks, storage, networking (opencompute.org).
Arduino — open-source microcontroller boards for prototyping and education (arduino.cc).
RISC-V — open-source instruction set architecture for processors (riscv.org).
OpenPOWER — open CPU architecture based on IBM POWER (openpowerfoundation.org).
Pine64 — single-board computers, laptops, and phones (pine64.org).
SparkFun — breakout boards and microcontroller development hardware (sparkfun.com).
RepRap / Voron / LulzBot — open-source 3D printer ecosystems.
OpenBCI — open biosensing and EEG hardware.
Telecom Infra Project — open optical broadband and cellular infrastructure.

See the full Wikipedia list of open-source hardware projects for a comprehensive directory. If you’re building a standard project, a variant, or a fully custom board, Amtech can take your design from prototype through volume production.

Other CM #1	Other CM #2	Amtech
30% yield	70% yield	100% — first try

We took their design exactly as it was — no delays, no redesign requests, no excuses. We expedited materials through our global supply chain and delivered 100% yield on the first production run in just 8 weeks from design to shipment.

Once we proved we could deliver, we got to work making things better. In the next iteration we performed a full DFM, DFA, and DFV analysis — reducing complexity, simplifying assembly, eliminating failure modes, and improving supply chain resiliency. The result: a product that’s easier to build, cheaper to produce, and more consistent at scale with every run that follows.