Open Hardware at CERN in practice: electronics

Friday 9 May 2025, 14:00 → 17:00 Europe/Zurich

503/1-001 - Council Chamber (CERN)

The CERN Open Source Program Office (OSPO) invites you to a half-day event which will provide a complete picture of the journey from idea to commercial Open Source Hardware (OSHW) at CERN. The target audience is electronics designers, and anybody with an interest in OSHW at CERN and elsewhere. This event will focus on Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design, manufacturing, test and interaction with companies for procurement and commercialisation.

Please use https://liveqna.web.cern.ch/event/KV3maq (CERN login only) to ask questions and vote for your favourite questions during the event. We will try to answer as many as possible. If you do not have a CERN login, you can connect via Zoom and ask your questions in the chat. We will do our best to convey the questions to the Live Q&A dashboard.

1 Welcome and introduction

This quick presentation will provide an introduction to the event, whose main purpose is to take designers on a journey from design idea to commercial Open Source Hardware (OSHW) in the CERN context. We start with the importance of Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) tools for Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design, and a presentation of KiCad, which now benefits from commercial support at CERN. We then move on to the support you can expect from CERN’s electronics design office and from the IT department. Whether you design collaboratively or on your own, you can use the Open Hardware Repository to share your designs and related information with the world, either throughout the design process or at the end. The Knowledge Transfer (KT) group helps you maximise the impact of your designs outside CERN. In collaboration with the CERN Open Source Program Office (OSPO) they provide guidance including interaction with companies and recommendations for the use of the CERN Open Hardware Licence (OHL). Procurement is an essential part of the process. This is when you change hats, stop designing and start purchasing hardware. The CERN procurement service helps you in this important part of the journey. We will finish with two examples putting it all together: radiation-tolerant lighting and White Rabbit. Then we will have a bit of time for discussion in the meeting room. Those who want to continue are welcome to join us after the event in nearby restaurant #1 for more informal discussion, hopefully on the terrace if the weather is good!

Speaker: Javier Serrano (CERN)

js_oshw_event_cern_may_2025.pdf

Recording

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2 KiCad: a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) tool for Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design

This presentation introduces KiCad, a powerful, free and open-source software suite for Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design. With robust features, active development, and growing community support, KiCad is a viable alternative to proprietary tools. We'll highlight key capabilities, recent improvements, and examples of successful designs to show why it's well-suited for use at CERN.

Speaker: Roberto Fernandez Bautista (CERN)

KiCad_ FOSS tool for PCB design 2025.pdf

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3 The CERN Electronics Design Office

This presentation will highlight the experience and the way the Design Office of the BE-CEM-EPR Electronics Service handles Open Hardware projects. How Open Hardware projects are identified and how the storage is done on EDMS. What is important to take care when working on an Open Hardware project.

Speaker: Raphael Berberat (CERN)

Open-Hardware-Event-May-2025_Design-Office.pdf

Open-Hardware-Event-May-2025_Design-Office.pptx

4 IT support for Electronics Design Automation (EDA) tools

This presentation highlights the current level of IT support for KiCad users. We will outline the contract we have established with KSC to provide efficient technical support to our engineers; the scripts that convert our Altium parts library to KiCad; and a new CMF package for KiCad that will help automate software installation and library setup for Windows users.

Speaker: Christos Gentsos (CERN (IT-CA-GES))

IT_support_for_Electronics_Design_Automation__EDA__tools-8.pdf

5 The Open Hardware Repository

This presentation introduces the Open Hardware Repository (OHWR) - a curated, easy-to-browse catalogue of open-source hardware designs. We'll explore together its history and key features, with a focus on how hardware designers can leverage OHWR to showcase their work, foster design reuse, get feedback and contribute to a growing community of open-source hardware for physics experiments across the world.

Speaker: Dimitris Lampridis (CERN)

20250509-OHWR_dlampridis.pdf

15:10 Coffee break

6 Knowledge Transfer (KT) at CERN and Open Hardware

The Knowledge Transfer (KT) group engages with experts at CERN and outside our Organization, in science, technology and industry, to create opportunities for the transfer of CERN’s technologies and know-how. The goal is to accelerate innovation and maximise the global positive impact of CERN on society, and KT supports scientists in the definition of the best dissemination pathway.
Open Source is an important tool in the KT toolbox. This talk summarizes the role of the KT group at CERN, and its role when open-sourcing a technology.

Speaker: Benjamin Frisch (CERN)

20250509_OHW_KT.pdf

7 The CERN Open Hardware Licence

The CERN Open Hardware Licence (“CERN OHL”) was developed in 2011 to promote collaboration among hardware designers and to provide a legal tool which supports the freedom to use, study, modify, share and distribute hardware designs and products based on those designs. The second version of CERN OHL released in 2020 provides additional flexibility by introducing three CERN OHL variants – the permissive, the weakly-reciprocal and the strongly-reciprocal, thus enabling the selection of a licence adapted to the needs of each project. This presentation offers a legal perspective on CERN OHL key features, including its approach to derivative works, documentation, and obligations for redistribution.

Speaker: Dane Tacchini (CERN)

CERN Open Hardware License (OHL) 09 05 25.pdf

CERN Open Hardware License (OHL) 09 05 25.pptx

Recording

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8 Support for Open Hardware in CERN's Open Source Program Office (OSPO)

The CERN OSPO provides support for designers willing to open-source their hardware and gateware designs. This is in addition to the more traditional support offered by OSPOs in the context of software.
The OSPO is not involved in the decision to open-source a given design. Its role is guiding and facilitating the open-sourcing process once that decision has been made. The support includes:

• Maintaining a set of best practices for sharing hardware and gateware designs in the OSPO documentation website.
• Discussing licensing options, in collaboration with Knowledge Transfer (KT), and providing advice on how to publish the designs to maximise impact and gather communities around them.
• Participating with KT and procurement in discussions with companies and other potential stakeholders, in particular explaining how Open Source Hardware (OSHW) can be made part of an overall commercial strategy, and providing examples thereof.
• Providing advice on the drafting of Price Enquiry and Call for Tender documents in the context of OSHW, in collaboration with the IPT-PI-SU (procurement of supplies) section.

The talk will quickly present the CERN OSPO and summarise the different types of support hardware designers can expect from it, providing references and points of contact for those who would like to discuss further.

Speaker: Hamza Boukabache (CERN)

OSPO_OHW2.pdf

OSPO_OHW2.pptx

9 Procurement of Open Hardware

This presentation takes a look at open hardware from the point of view of a procurement officer. It draws on real-life examples to examine the supposed advantages and disadvantages of going open source for hardware we have to procure. It will also touch on the issues of using procured proprietary software for designing open-source hardware.

Speaker: Josh Davison (CERN)

Procurement of open hardware.pdf

Procurement of open hardware.pptx

10 Putting it all together: radiation-tolerant lighting in CERN's Proton Synchrotron (PS)

This talk will present the full lifecycle of an open hardware project from initial design to repeat procurement, and share the most important lessons learned.

One of the most ambitious projects for LS2 was the electrical refurbishment of the PS accelerator. A huge part of this project was the design, development, procurement and installation of the first generation of radiation tolerant LED lights, designed under the CERN open hardware licence. I will be sharing my experience with the whole process, from identifying the requirements for new lights, all the way to having a contractor install them and following up performance several years later. The design has been a success and a new contract was recently signed for a second generation of lights to go into the SPS accelerator. The architecture has been adopted by EN-AA for flashing warning beacons in the LHC, a version has been adapted for the American market and is installed at SLAC. You can even find them in the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne.

The talk will cover the following points:
• Why can’t you buy radiation tolerant LED lights off the shelf?
• A very (very) short primer on radiation effects in electronics.
• Justifying an open hardware approach to management.
• How we designed for radiation without batch & lot qualification.
• Getting the design CE certified.
• What about patent infringement?
• Updating and adapting the design for new applications.

Speaker: James Devine (CERN)

jd_lights_talk_May_25.pdf

jd_lights_talk_May_25.pptx

Recording

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11 Putting it all together: White Rabbit

White Rabbit (WR) is an open-source (hardware, gateware, firmware, software, documentation) synchronisation technology developed at CERN in collaboration with several institutes and companies. This talk will focus on the hardware side of the project. In particular:

• A quick survey of WR designs and the role of KiCad in the latest generation of WR Event Node (WREN) designs.
• Hosting designs at ohwr.org and interacting with the community in forums.ohwr.org.
• The experience subcontracting design work outside CERN, and synchronising with the CERN drawing office to guarantee a high-quality result.
• The interaction with KT in the creation and running of the WR Collaboration.
• Our licensing choices.
• Some comments on calls for tender of WR equipment in collaboration with IPT-PI.

The presentation will finish with some thoughts about the future, including solutions to current challenges and plans for improving the WR technology and providing a friendly welcoming environment for the WR community.

Speaker: Adam Artur Wujek

open_hardware_at_cern_in_practice_WR.pdf

Recording

12 Discussion session

Speaker: Evangelia Gousiou (CERN)

event_KV3maq.svg

Q&A