Intelligent, Automated, and Rapid Circuit Board Design using Circuit-Tree.com

14 October, 2019

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What if your PCB can be designed in just a few minutes, with you providing only the specifications and selecting the major components to be used? Circuit-Tree.com is making it a reality with their Intelligent Rapid Circuit Board Design Platform.

Creating Schematics and PCBs, is one of the major tasks associated with the design of any electronics product. For entreprenuers / innovators, it can be very costly, while for Hardware designers and engineers, it is a task they are familiar with but wish it takes less time to complete. This scenario describes the problem being solved by the Rapid Circuit Board Design platform recently announced by Circuit Tree. Through the Platform, designers can design Schematics, create the printed Circuit Board, and prototype using several Processor /Controller, network port, sensors and other hardware features they want in minutes.

The Circuit Tree platform uses the components selected and requirements specified (including Board size, PCB fabrication and add placement rules) by the user to generate an instant schematic and PCB with the smallest possible board size (or the specified board size), using a proprietary intelligent auto-placement algorithm.

During the design process, users have the luxury of selecting from a constantly updated library of 900+ SOCs and other components from diverse manufacturers like STMicroelectronics, Texas Instrument, NXP, and Microchip to mention a few, to ensure you have what is needed by your project and provide diverse design options The platform also comes with various peripherals blocks which allows the addition of your own components along with features that allow users compare alternatives to a particular component in terms of features and costs.

For PCB Design, the platform allows iteration with layer counts, component placement changes and much more when the layout is generated. It also intelligently handles popular PCB topics/issues like the fanout of BGAs, differential traces and length matching for high-speed signals.

Asides providing a platform that handles design of Boards, Circuit-Tree also handles board manufacturing and designers are not only able to go straight from design to order in 10 minutes, they can also get the physical, manufactured board in their hands in just 14 days (including shipping time).

All of these makes Circuit Tree an interesting solution designed with an understanding of the challenges of Hardware development. According to the Founder – Makarand Kapoor, the platform was developed to decrease-time-to-market and allow engineers and enthusiast focus on creativity. In his words, Makarand said,

” Engineers typically spend a lot of time in Component selection, Creation of schematic, placement of components, layout generation stages which need multiple iterations. Enthusiasts and engineers should continue to tap into powerful solution like these to decrease time-to-market and reduce engineering pain they go through. “

Circuit Tree has been used in the development of several development boards and two of those boards; The ESP32 gateway Board and the ESP32 Click board were recently released on Circuit Tree’s Store. The ESP32 gateway board is a palm-sized Ethernet enabled board based on the ESP32 module. It incorporates an Ethernet port and Connectors designed to be compatible with the Click form factor which opens the board to the use of 500+ different types of click boards. While also based on the ESP32 module, the “ESP32 Click Board”, on the other hand, was designed to serve as an end node as it comprises of a Click Board connector and is designed with features to support it as a battery powered board.

Both boards are available on Circuit Trees Online Store with the ESP32 gateway being sold for $35 while the ESP32 Click Module is sold $25.

As we move closer to a world with computers becoming ubiquitous and smarter with AI, I personally find the platform very interesting as it could one day (*putting on my futurist cap*) be the platform through which we issue voice commands to a computer and it creates the PCB we need.

More info on the platform can be found on Circuit Tree’s website.

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