As new co-design tools enter the market, the claim of “AI-verified PCB designs” is everywhere. But if you drill into what these claims mean, they often reduce to simple DRC clearance passes or models checking their own outputs.
In high-trust hardware engineering, verification cannot be a self-referential check. It demands structured, independent gates.
The Dilution of Verification
Traditionally, verification happens after the PCB is laid out. The design is run through Design Rule Checks (DRC) in tools like Altium or Allegro, looking for clearance violations, open nets, or component overlaps.
But when co-design systems generate layouts, checking clearances is only a baseline check. It does not answer critical electrical and thermal questions:
- Did the router size the power traces correctly for 3A loads?
- Is the trace thickness sufficient to keep the temperature rise under 20°C?
- Are the differential impedances locked exactly to 90 Ohms across the layer stack?
Clearance passes will not catch a power trace that burns out under load because it was sized on a guess.
Our Definition of Verified
At OmeraCode, we define a design as verified only when it satisfies a four-part criteria:
- Traceable Constraints: Every design requirement maps back to an explicit input assumption. You can trace why a regulator footprint was chosen and see its specifications.
- Deterministic Mathematical Solvers: The parameters are calculated by physical equations (IPC-2152, Fourier conduction heat grids) with zero statistical margins.
- Independent Audit Gates: Layout calculations undergo safety checks by ClaimGuard, checking for component pin-out and trace mismatches.
- Cryptographic Checksum Locks: The files, parameters, and solver logs are tied together with digital checksums. If a net is altered, the checksum invalidates the release status.
Verification is not a promise — it is an auditable trail of proofs. By enforcing this structure, OmeraCode ensures that automated design speed never compromises hardware safety.