The global PCB market is a big business, which is expected to grow from $60billion in 2020 to $75billion in 2027. Celus, which is headquartered in Germany, wants to use this field to create an automated platform that spans the entire circuit board design process from conception to printed circuit board.
In order to accelerate its mission of “electronic design automation”, celus announced today that it has raised 25million euros ($25.6 million) in the round a financing. To design a PCB from scratch, engineers must propose the concept of initial circuit diagram according to the components required for the final product, whether transistors, resistors, capacitors, fuses, sensors, batteries, diodes and all other components.
The problem is that there may be millions of different components to choose from, which come in different sizes and specifications from thousands of manufacturers. Therefore, choosing the right components for the job, at the right price and availability, can be an incredibly labor-intensive manual process involving multiple disciplines working together throughout the company, browsing thousands of data sheets and determining the right components.
Only then did engineers begin to draw actual circuit diagrams, put all components together, and finally put them on the final PCB. But if you think this is the end of the whole process, you may be wrong. If some components (such as chips) become difficult to purchase, companies often have to redesign their circuit boards. This is a particularly common problem in the supply chain after the covid-19 pandemic, which may mean that engineers must return to a certain place where they designed, near the starting point.
Celus said that it is theoretically possible to replace components that cannot be obtained with similar components, but this leads to time-consuming and expensive redesign of electronic circuits and PCBs. With celus automation platform, this redesign process can be handled in a few minutes.
Celus has established a platform to provide engineers with component data from electronic manufacturers, while adding its own special automation content. In fact, celus automates many manual processes involved in circuit board design, including generating schematic diagrams, conceptual diagrams of how parts are connected, and creating a PCB plan to show where each part should be placed on the circuit board. Engineers save a lot of time through this, which means they can experiment, try different things, and be creative.