Sergiy Nesterenko: Automating Circuit Board Design

Episode 128I spoke with Sergiy Nesterenko about:* Developing an automated system for designing PCBs* Difficulties in human and automated PCB design* Building a startup at the intersection of different areas of expertiseBy the way — I hit 40 ratings on Apple Podcasts (and am at 66 on Spotify). It’d mean a lot (really, a lot) if you’d consider leaving a rating or a review. I read everything, and it’s very heartening and helpful to hear what you think. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!Sergiy is founder and CEO of Quilter. Sergiy spent 5 years at SpaceX developing radiation-hardened avionics for SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy's second stage rockets, before discovering a big problem: designing printed circuit boards for all the electronics in these rockets was tedious, manual and error prone. So in 2019, he founded Quilter to build the next generation of AI-powered tooling for electrical engineers.I spend a lot of time on this podcast—if you like my work, you can support me on Patreon :)Reach me at editor@thegradient.pub for feedback, ideas, guest suggestions. Subscribe to The Gradient Podcast:  Apple Podcasts  | Spotify | Pocket Casts | RSSFollow The Gradient on TwitterOutline:* (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) OutroLinks:* Quilter homepage* Other pages/features mentioned:* Thin-to-thick traces* Octilinear trace routing* Comment from Tom Fleet Get full access to The Gradient at thegradientpub.substack.com/subscribe