Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
What if the biggest bottleneck in hardware design isn't your engineer's skill — it's the sheer volume of manual work standing between a great idea and a working schematic? And once you decide to embrace AI-assisted design, how do you make sure the output is actually trustworthy enough to build from?
In this episode of the Printed Circuit Podcast, host Steph Chavez welcomes back Antonio Becerra Esteban, VP of Customer Success at CELUS — a physicist-turned-engineer with experience at Infineon and Altium who now leads the team ensuring customers extract real value from the platform.
The conversation tackles the fragmented, manual journey from requirements to schematic that burdens small hardware teams. Antonio explains how CELUS's functional block-level design approach lets engineers define system architectures, navigate component trade-offs with an AI assistant, and output fully-interconnected schematics — illustrating the point with a Linux-based HMI example where the right abstraction layer turns a complex MPU build into a simple SOM selection.
On the trust question, Antonio is direct: the engineer must own every decision. CELUS backs this up with manufacturer-validated design blocks, transparent sourcing, and a human-in-the-loop process — putting engineers in the driving seat rather than asking them to ship whatever the model produces.
What you’ll learn…
(00:12) Why fragmented workflows hit SMB hardware teams hardest
(02:39) The real cost of going from requirements to prototype without specialist support
(07:33) How functional block-level design changes early decisions — including when a SOM beats building from scratch
(12:04) Why system-level abstraction catches wrong-path decisions before they reach the schematic
(14:39) The "rubber duck debugging" effect: how AI clarifies requirements before they become costly mistakes
(17:54) The biggest AI misconception in hardware design — and why the engineer must own every decision
(20:30) How CELUS's NXP collaboration delivers manufacturer-validated, human-in-the-loop solutions
(25:05) Why abstraction-first tools help SMBs take on projects that would otherwise be out of reach
(28:19) The CELUS Success Program: high-touch onboarding for SMBs on the Siemens instance
Connect with Steph Chavez:
LinkedIn- https://sie.ag/5mNVi4
Connect with Antonio Becerra Esteban:
LinkedIn- https://sie.ag/oTFRS
▶️ Listen and subscribe:
» Spotify: https://sie.ag/2EYmrF
» Apple: https://sie.ag/6L3up9
» iHeart: Printed Circuit | iHeart
» Stitcher: https://sie.ag/4fWihE
» Siemens Podcast Network: https://sie.ag/5GGr9d
▶️ Connect with us:
LinkedIn: https://sie.ag/5Zuz35
» PCB Systems Design Discussion Board: https://sie.ag/2pCrWz
» Twitter: https://sie.ag/3FEvEb
#PCBDesign #PCBdesignbestpractices #PCB #PCBDesigning #ElectricalEngineering #Engineering #AIPCBdesign
What if the biggest bottleneck in hardware design isn't your engineer's skill — it's the sheer volume of manual work standing between a great idea and a working schematic? And once you decide to embrace AI-assisted design, how do you make sure the output is actually trustworthy enough to build from?
In this episode of the Printed Circuit Podcast, host Steph Chavez welcomes back Antonio Becerra Esteban, VP of Customer Success at CELUS — a physicist-turned-engineer with experience at Infineon and Altium who now leads the team ensuring customers extract real value from the platform.
The conversation tackles the fragmented, manual journey from requirements to schematic that burdens small hardware teams. Antonio explains how CELUS's functional block-level design approach lets engineers define system architectures, navigate component trade-offs with an AI assistant, and output fully-interconnected schematics — illustrating the point with a Linux-based HMI example where the right abstraction layer turns a complex MPU build into a simple SOM selection.
On the trust question, Antonio is direct: the engineer must own every decision. CELUS backs this up with manufacturer-validated design blocks, transparent sourcing, and a human-in-the-loop process — putting engineers in the driving seat rather than asking them to ship whatever the model produces.
What you’ll learn…
(00:12) Why fragmented workflows hit SMB hardware teams hardest
(02:39) The real cost of going from requirements to prototype without specialist support
(07:33) How functional block-level design changes early decisions — including when a SOM beats building from scratch
(12:04) Why system-level abstraction catches wrong-path decisions before they reach the schematic
(14:39) The "rubber duck debugging" effect: how AI clarifies requirements before they become costly mistakes
(17:54) The biggest AI misconception in hardware design — and why the engineer must own every decision
(20:30) How CELUS's NXP collaboration delivers manufacturer-validated, human-in-the-loop solutions
(25:05) Why abstraction-first tools help SMBs take on projects that would otherwise be out of reach
(28:19) The CELUS Success Program: high-touch onboarding for SMBs on the Siemens instance
Connect with Steph Chavez:
LinkedIn- https://sie.ag/5mNVi4
Connect with Antonio Becerra Esteban:
LinkedIn- https://sie.ag/oTFRS
▶️ Listen and subscribe:
» Spotify: https://sie.ag/2EYmrF
» Apple: https://sie.ag/6L3up9
» iHeart: Printed Circuit | iHeart
» Stitcher: https://sie.ag/4fWihE
» Siemens Podcast Network: https://sie.ag/5GGr9d
▶️ Connect with us:
LinkedIn: https://sie.ag/5Zuz35
» PCB Systems Design Discussion Board: https://sie.ag/2pCrWz
» Twitter: https://sie.ag/3FEvEb
#PCBDesign #PCBdesignbestpractices #PCB #PCBDesigning #ElectricalEngineering #Engineering #AIPCBdesign
