Hack Your Circuits: Exploring Open-Source EDA with eSim

Electronic Design Automation (EDA) is at the heart of modern electronics, but many industry-standard tools are proprietary, expensive, and closed-source. This workshop introduces eSim, an open-source EDA tool developed by the FOSSEE Project at IIT Bombay, and explores how a complete electronics design workflow can be built using open-source software.

Participants will get hands-on experience designing and simulating electronic circuits using eSim and its underlying open-source tools, including KiCad, Ngspice, GHDL, Verilator, and Python. The workshop will demonstrate the journey from schematic design and circuit simulation to analysis and PCB design, while highlighting how open-source tools can make electronics design more accessible, transparent, and collaborative.

Through a practical circuit-design exercise, participants will learn how to experiment with circuits, understand simulation results, and explore the possibilities of open-source EDA. The session is aimed at students, educators, electronics enthusiasts, researchers, and FOSS contributors who are curious about building and hacking electronics with open tools.

The workshop ultimately aims to encourage participants to move beyond simply using EDA software—to explore, modify, contribute to, and build upon the open-source EDA ecosystem.

Understand Open-Source EDA and how it differs from proprietary EDA tools.

Get hands-on with eSim for circuit design, simulation, and analysis.

Explore the eSim toolchain including KiCad, Ngspice, GHDL, Verilator, and Python.

Design and simulate analog, digital, and mixed-signal circuits using open-source tools.

Understand the complete workflow from schematic → simulation → analysis → PCB design.

Discover the FOSS ecosystem for electronics and how different open-source tools work together.

Learn how to extend and contribute to open-source EDA projects.

Build confidence to experiment, hack, and innovate with open-source electronics tools.