The Gradient: Automating Circuit Board Design

Sergiy joins Daniel Bashir on the Gradient, a podcast about AI and technology, to discuss automating PCB design with reinforcement learning, difficulties in PCB design automation, and dealing with skepticism.

Check it out below:

The Gradient

Articles, interviews, and news coverage about AI brought to you by a team of AI researchers and builders. Click to read The Gradient, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

Substackdaniel bashir

Outline:

• (00:00) Intro
• (00:45) Quilter origins and difficulties in designing PCBs
• (04:12) PCBs and schematic implementations
• (06:40) Iteration cycles and simulations
• (08:35) Octilinear traces and first-principles design for PCBs
• (12:38) The design space of PCBs
• (15:27) Benchmarks for PCB design
• (20:05) RL and PCB design
• (22:48) PCB details, track widths
• (25:09) Board functionality and aesthetics
• (27:53) PCB designers and automation
• (30:24) Quilter as a compiler
• (33:56) Gluing social worlds and bringing together expertise
• (36:00) Process knowledge vs. first-principles thinking
• (42:05) Example boards
• (44:45) Auto-routers for PCBs
• (48:43) Difficulties for scaling to larger boards
• (50:42) Customers and skepticism
• (53:42) On experiencing negative feedback
• (56:42) Maintaining stamina while building Quilter
• (1:00:00) Endgame for Quilter and future directions
• (1:03:24) Outro