CoilTile

Planar Studio

Design planar inductors, transformers, PCB motors, filters and antennas inside KiCad. Planar Studio reads your board's stack, calculates electrical estimates, and places the generated copper into the PCB as one undoable operation.

Download v1.6.0 · Install · Guides · Common PCB issues · Flyback example · GaN example · CoilTile example

Explore the workspaces

Current application captures. Click a view to open the full-size image.

Open the full 15-image gallery → — obstacle routing, transformer search, motor families, antenna variants and both interface themes.

Save editable designs, compare calculated responses, and export KiCad boards or footprints, SVG, DXF, JSON and specification sheets. The Design tools panel adds constrained searches, measurement overlays, tolerance studies and board checks; see the tools guide.

Install

The 1.6.0 development release supports KiCad 9.0.1 or newer on Windows, macOS and Linux. Release notes.

1. Download planar-studio-1.6.0.zip and leave it zipped.
2. In KiCad's main Project Manager, open Plugin and Content Manager.
3. Choose Install from File, select the ZIP and apply pending changes.
4. Restart KiCad, open the PCB Editor, and launch Planar Studio after its Python environment finishes setting up.

Upgrading or getting a metadata error?

To upgrade, close Planar Studio and the PCB Editor. In Plugin and Content Manager → Installed, uninstall the old version and apply pending changes before installing the new ZIP. Saved designs are stored separately; preserve the settings folder.

Use the installer linked above. GitHub's Code → Download ZIP and Source code archives contain the repository, not a PCM installer.

5 W planar flyback example

A10 retains the winding-short repair, increases measured turn gaps to about 0.289 mm, enlarges T1 annular rings and removes tangent secondary-via contacts. Independent geometry, connection-width and full copper/mask Gerber checks protect these changes. Use the A10 package and the common PCB issues reference when reviewing or editing the design.

An 18–36 V DC to isolated 5 V / 1 A converter with an LT8302 controller and transformer windings built into a six-layer PCB. The example includes a KiCad 10 project, schematic, BOM, calculations and single-board manufacturing files for JLCPCB-managed panelization.

Unbuilt engineering prototype. Factory acceptance and electrical, thermal and magnetic qualification remain open.

Explore the board and schematic · Review package · Validation record

60 W GaN planar LLC example

A 48 V nominal to isolated 12 V / 5 A target using an integrated GaN half bridge, silicon synchronous rectifiers and an eight-layer PCB transformer. The 64 × 56 mm chamfered board has all electronics on top, removable screw-terminal ports, and the flyback example's exposed-substrate M3 hole geometry on a 55 × 47 mm pattern. The A10 schematic uses visible local wiring and has no four-way connections. The accompanying MIT PER and video studies explain the layout decisions. An 82-reference ratings audit records the corrected parts and outstanding electrical limits.

Unbuilt engineering prototype. ERC, DRC, connectivity, assembly-file agreement and a portable rebuild pass. Factory DFM, ferrite installation and electrical, magnetic and thermal qualification remain open. 60 W is not a measured result.

Manufacturing audit: do not order the current revision. The five-board review found overlapping same-net component lands, incomplete courtyards, GaN stencil/mask and placement-origin issues, and a factory stack mismatch. The audit and cost breakdown record required corrections and unconfirmed turnkey operations.

Explore the native KiCad example · KiCad package · Layout resource review · PER design study · Validation record

CoilTile USB inductive sensing example

A 2 × 2 near-field metal-sensing array using four printed coils generated by Planar Studio, an LDC1614 converter and an MCP2221A USB bridge. The A3 schematic shows one continuous USB → I²C → sensor → LC-tank signal path. The 72 × 90 mm four-layer PCB reuses the flyback/GaN examples' exposed-substrate M3 edge holes.

Includes editable KiCad 9 files, a Python heatmap and CSV logger, an exact-code JLCPCB BOM/CPL, Gerbers, and bring-up instructions. No firmware flashing is needed. Unbuilt prototype: native ERC/DRC and connectivity checks pass; physical sensing range, crosstalk and supplier assembly acceptance remain unverified.

Explore CoilTile · Schematic PDF · A3 review · Assembly handoff

Guides

• Design tools — optimization, measurements, tolerances and board checks.
• Layer setup and loaded transformers — board layers, winding stacks and source/load models.
• Directional antennas — Vivaldi, Yagi, log-periodic and bow-tie layouts.
• Engineering models — equations, reference comparisons, assumptions and limits.
• Development — run without KiCad, build an installer, run checks and capture screenshots.

Calculated performance depends on the selected model. Review its assumptions and validate the resulting hardware with appropriate simulation, KiCad DRC and measurements. Transformer loss or thermal results that cannot be calculated are reported as unknown.

Built on planar-coil-studio. Released under the MIT license.