Celus will bring automation to electronic design

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Celus, a provider of AI-powered automation software for electronics engineering, seeks to improve the tools that help design printed circuit boards. The company also launched an electronic parts search engine that is transforming the way engineers select electronic components in the multi-trillion dollar electronics industry.

Electronics designers typically compare target specs through a manual process of searching through digital product catalogs filled with part spec tables. Celus' approach uses a digital twin representing design choices to automatically identify the appropriate options and then design the circuits around the component. A more automated approach could have as transformative an impact on how engineers find products as Google's introduction of new search ranking techniques has on changing how consumers find knowledge.

Another important innovation the company is working on includes tools to automate the layout of individual components on a circuit board. Celus plans to combine machine learning and classic optimizers to improve layout, reduce size and cost, or achieve other design goals.

Engineers can essentially recompile the design to take advantage of newer alternatives or if a component is out of stock due to a shortage of chips.

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"It's like a library upgrade in software design," Celus CEO Markus Pohl told VentureBeat.

Engineers like Markus Klausner, CTO at Viessmann Climate Solutions, a Celsus customer, spent countless hours matching design specifications with parts to design the control systems for heat pumps, refrigerators and heaters. air conditioners. He said that while electronic catalogs are getting better at organizing information, he still spends a lot of time matching new design requirements with part specifications.

"Celus automates this process by connecting to the distributor, so you don't have to do the work manually," Klausner told VentureBeat.

Since Celus also automates the design process, Klausner finds that his tools can currently create a design at the same level as an inexperienced engineer, but even still, it saves time. Celus' tools, he noted, are also improving all the time, and he expects them to catch up with senior designers in the future.

Erick Brethenoux, a prominent Gartner VP analyst, told VentureBeat that new PCB design automation techniques like this are an example of recent advances in how generative AI is helping to design PCBs. chips, buildings, security systems and other types of products and systems. It involves a combination of artificial intelligence and traditional engineering techniques to optimize different aspects of the design process.

"Generative AI is a collaborative process between humans and machines to come up with better designs," Brethenoux said. E...