Quilter Physics-Driven AI PCB Layout

Quilter is a Los Angeles company founded by CEO Sergiy Nesterenko that applies physics-driven AI to printed circuit board (PCB) design. It targets the manual placement and routing stage, which can take hardware teams weeks per board revision.

Engineers prepare the schematic, board outline, fixed components, stackup constraints and circuit intent in their usual ECAD tool and upload them. A reinforcement learning system trained on electromagnetic and thermal principles generates several placement and routing candidates, each shown with the physics checks it passed. Engineers review, adjust and resubmit, typically for two to five cycles, before taking fabrication-ready layouts back into Altium Designer, Cadence Allegro/OrCAD, Siemens Xpedition or KiCad. Users include aerospace, defence, automotive and consumer electronics companies.

• Autonomous placement and routing: generates multiple PCB layout candidates from uploaded design files.
• Physics-driven AI: reinforcement learning trained on electromagnetic and thermal behaviour.
• Physics checks: each candidate is reported with the checks it ran and passed.
• ECAD integration: works with Altium Designer, Cadence Allegro/OrCAD, Siemens Xpedition and KiCad.
• Iterative review: engineers adjust constraints and resubmit, typically in two to five cycles.
• Secure deployment: SOC 2 Type II, AES-256 encryption and a self-hosted option.

A Vietnamese IoT device maker can generate several board layouts for a new sensor product and compare them before prototyping. An EMS company can offer customers faster layout turnaround for test and evaluation boards. A university hardware lab can shorten the time from schematic to fabricated board.

Layout work that usually takes weeks can be reduced to minutes per candidate, according to the company. Several layout options with physics checks let engineers compare trade-offs instead of committing to one manual layout. Teams keep their existing ECAD tools. Data is encrypted, not used for training, SOC 2 Type II audited and can run self-hosted for sensitive programmes.

Electronics companies face shorter product cycles and a shortage of experienced PCB layout engineers. AI is moving from component search into layout automation itself. Vietnam is a major electronics manufacturing base and local design houses and EMS providers increasingly handle board design, creating demand for tools that speed up layout iterations.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, California; founder and CEO Sergiy Nesterenko. Raised a USD 25 million Series B in October 2025 led by Index Ventures with Benchmark, Coatue, Root Ventures and Lip-Bu Tan, bringing total funding to USD 40 million. Offers a free tier and a startup programme.