[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-ai-agent-workflow-sizes-analog-circuits-barely-nails-it":10,"sections":35},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":24,"tags":25,"sources":30,"feedback":34,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":34,"total_tokens":34},7022,"ai-agent-workflow-sizes-analog-circuits-barely-nails-it","AI Agent Workflow Sizes Analog Circuits, Barely Nails It","A research workflow pairs vision-language models with Bayesian search to size analog circuits, though its strict accuracy still lags its relaxed score.","Researchers have built an AI agent workflow that can size analog circuit components, but it only nails the exact right answer about one time in four.\n\nThe system, called VLM-CAD, tackles a known weak spot in vision language models: they get confused reading densely packed schematics, sometimes misreading spatial layouts or hallucinating connections that are not there. VLM-CAD fixes this with a module called Image2Net, which converts raw schematic images into explicit topological graphs and structured JSON before the model ever reasons over them. A second piece, ExTuRBO, runs an explainable trust-region Bayesian optimization that uses AI-generated seeds to jump-start the search and produces sensitivity evidence explaining which components matter most. Tested across 12 sizing tasks spanning six circuits and four technology platforms, it hit a pooled Strict Pass@1 of 23.3% and a Relaxed Pass@1 of 91.7%.\n\nThat gap is the story. Analog design has resisted the kind of automation that reshaped digital chip layout, partly because it demands visual judgment and tradeoff reasoning that do not reduce neatly to rules. A workflow that explains its sensitivity analysis and lands in the right neighborhood 92% of the time is a genuine step toward making that reasoning legible to engineers, not just a black box.\n\nBut analog circuits do not grade on a curve: a design is either in spec or it is not, and a one-in-four hit rate on exact answers is closer to a promising prototype than a tool anyone should hand off to. The 91.7-to-23.3 split is worth remembering next time a demo claims an AI can \"design\" a circuit.","[\"analog circuits\",\"vision-language models\",\"eda\",\"ai agents\"]","2026-09-18T04:00:00.000Z","2026-09-19T07:43:30.470Z","2026-09-19T07:43:42.392Z","published",null,[],"ai",[26,27,28,29],"analog circuits","vision-language models","eda","ai agents",[31],{"name":32,"url":33},"arXiv cs.AI","https:\u002F\u002Farxiv.org\u002Fabs\u002F2601.07315",0,{"sections":36},[37,41,46,51,56,61,66,71,75,80,85,90,95,100],{"name":38,"slug":24,"count":39,"latest_published_at":40},"AI",4114,"2026-09-19T18:33:46.000Z",{"name":42,"slug":43,"count":44,"latest_published_at":45},"Security","security",673,"2026-09-19T17:30:00.000Z",{"name":47,"slug":48,"count":49,"latest_published_at":50},"Policy","policy",345,"2026-09-19T19:22:20.000Z",{"name":52,"slug":53,"count":54,"latest_published_at":55},"Deals","deals",179,"2026-06-29T20:02:07.000Z",{"name":57,"slug":58,"count":59,"latest_published_at":60},"Hardware","hardware",156,"2026-09-19T11:00:00.000Z",{"name":62,"slug":63,"count":64,"latest_published_at":65},"Science","science",129,"2026-09-19T19:45:00.000Z",{"name":67,"slug":68,"count":69,"latest_published_at":70},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",99,"2026-09-09T17:27:33.000Z",{"name":72,"slug":73,"count":74,"latest_published_at":18},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",78,{"name":76,"slug":77,"count":78,"latest_published_at":79},"Software","software",75,"2026-09-10T20:41:21.000Z",{"name":81,"slug":82,"count":83,"latest_published_at":84},"Startups","startups",55,"2026-09-09T23:14:29.000Z",{"name":86,"slug":87,"count":88,"latest_published_at":89},"Gaming","gaming",43,"2026-09-10T12:18:06.000Z",{"name":91,"slug":92,"count":93,"latest_published_at":94},"General","general",42,"2026-09-18T22:35:10.000Z",{"name":96,"slug":97,"count":98,"latest_published_at":99},"Reviews","reviews",20,"2026-06-24T12:00:01.000Z",{"name":101,"slug":102,"count":103,"latest_published_at":104},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]