An electronics startup is developing AI-driven design software that lessens manual intervention.

The role of artificial intelligence in PCB design is a growing topic of debate throughout the industry, with discussions ranging from the previous inadequacies of autorouting, the best methods for training it, and its potential to replace human designers.

We spoke in June with Sergiy Nesterenko, founder and CEO of a new software company called Quilter, whose goal is to accelerate hardware development by fully automating circuit board design. The former SpaceX engineer discussed why he thinks the margins designers build in are excessive and how Quilter’s AI-driven, physics-based platform can resolve and even violate some “human” rules while still generating superior printed circuit boards.

The annual snapshot of the industry finds the PCB design workforce is – at last – skewing younger.

Is the PCB design workforce finally getting younger? After years of consternation from the PCB industry – and the country as a whole – about the daunting task of replacing retired or soon-to-be retired workers, those worries may be coming to a head as the workforce begins to skew younger.

That’s the suggestion of the annual PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY Designers Salary Survey.

After last year’s survey found the most respondents in the 61-70 age group, this year’s found the largest number of respondents from the 26-30 age range at 19% (Figure 1), edging out the 61-70-year-old group by two percentage points. Moreover, the overall response of designers and design engineers ages 40 and under was a tick higher than those ages 41-60. Balance is coming.

The East Coast trade show brings news of a steady industry, while puncturing myths about AI.

Members of the electronics community gathered in the Boston suburb of Boxborough in early June for the return of PCB East, PCEA's annual event featuring four days of technical sessions and a one-day exhibition.

This year's exhibition featured more than 65 companies running the gamut of the PCB industry, from fabrication, design, and assembly to test and inspection, and most of those companies reported steady growth thus far, with small gains over 2023.

Searching for components and automating schematic capture are just two of the ways AI will be implemented in PCB design.

During the past 10 years, artificial intelligence (AI) has progressed from a visionary concept to a mainstream reality in many large companies. AI is becoming a crucial lever for improving operational productivity and user expertise.

AI is a set of computational technologies that enable a machine to reason and infer without any human intervention. These technologies are developed using cross-disciplinary approaches based on mathematics, computer science, statistics, and psychology. AI based solutions can analyze high volumes of data to identify trends and patterns which can then be used to improve existing processes and make recommendations to assist users in making better decisions.