Computer-aided design and analysis of circuits and semiconductor – Nanotechnology related integrated circuit design
Reexamination Certificate
2001-08-31
2004-09-21
Garbowski, Leigh M. (Department: 2825)
Computer-aided design and analysis of circuits and semiconductor
Nanotechnology related integrated circuit design
C703S013000, C700S098000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06795950
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printed circuit board design system, and in particular to a printed circuit board design system for performing, with a three-dimensional (3D)-CAD system, a mounting design including a cabinet.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent electronic equipment such as mobile terminal equipment, not only the downsizing/complication of its shape but also the reduction of its TTM (Time To Market) has been demanded. With this demand, its printed circuit board has been downsized/complicated, so that accuracy of outer dimensions, which is required for removing an interference with a cabinet, and besides reduction of mounting design man-hours have been demanded.
A prior art printed circuit board design system completes the arrangement of mounting components (parts) on a printed board, and then generates a 3D (three-dimensional) model (data) of a printed circuit board unit. Based on this model, a 3D-CAD (Computer-Aided Design) system has determined whether or not the printed circuit board and the cabinet interfere with each other.
FIG. 15
shows an arrangement of a printed circuit board design system (hereinafter occasionally abbreviated as PCB-CAD system)
10
and a 3D-CAD system
30
.
The PCB-CAD system
10
is composed of a PCB mounting design DB (Data Base) storage
11
and a 3D converter
13
which inputs PCB information stored in the PCB mounting design DB storage
11
and 3D component LIB (Library) information from the 3D-CAD system
30
to provide a 3D model of the printed circuit board to the 3D-CAD system
30
.
The 3D-CAD system
30
is composed of a 3D model storage
31
for storing the 3D model of the printed circuit board, a cabinet interference inspecting portion
34
for inspecting a cabinet interference based on model information stored in the 3D model storage
31
, a 3D component LIB storage
33
for storing the 3D component library information, and a manual input portion
35
for inputting data of the components in the 3D component LIB storage
33
based on a management sheet
36
.
FIG. 16
shows a prior art procedure example for preparing a 3D model of a printed circuit board.
The PCB-CAD system
10
firstly arranges the components on the printed board to perform the mounting design of the printed circuit board (at step S
70
in FIG.
16
), which is repeated until the component arrangement is completed (at step S
71
).
When the component arrangement is completed, the 3D converter
13
converts the printed circuit board into the 3D model to be sent to the 3D-CAD system
30
(at step S
72
).
In the 3D-CAD system
30
, the 3D model storage
31
stores the 3D model received, while the cabinet interference inspecting portion
34
inspects the interference between the 3D model and the cabinet (at step S
73
).
When the components are required to be moved because of a contact between the printed circuit board and the cabinet, or a dimensional shortage, the procedure returns to step S
70
to execute a rearrangement of the components (at step S
74
). Hereafter, the same procedures are repeated until the component move becomes unnecessary. When the move is not required, a wiring/design rule check (DRC) of the printed circuit board is performed to complete the operation (at step S
75
).
The components mounted on the printed board comprise ones required to be arranged on fixed positions (hereinafter occasionally referred to as fixed components), and ones whose arranged positions can be moved (hereinafter occasionally referred to as nonfixed (unfixed) components).
FIG. 17
shows a procedure in case where both fixed and nonfixed components are included in the procedure of the 3D model preparation shown in FIG.
16
.
The PCB-CAD system
10
performs the mounting design of the printed circuit board
50
which mounts thereon a fixed component I
4
, and nonfixed components I
5
and I
6
on a printed board
51
. The 3D converter
13
converts the printed circuit board
50
into the 3D model to be sent to the 3D-CAD system
30
.
In the 3D-CAD system
30
, the cabinet interference inspecting portion
34
performs the interference inspection between the received 3D model and the cabinet. In the presence of the interference, the component is required to be moved or the dimensions of the cabinet to be changed in order to avoid the interference. However, fixed
onfixed states of the components I
4
-I
6
can not be recognized by the 3D models.
Therefore, in order to recognize the fixed component on the 3D-CAD system
30
before the interference inspection, the color of the fixed component was changed.
FIG. 18
shows a 3D model of a mechanical component mounted on the printed board
51
.
The 3D converter
13
firstly converts a mechanical component E
1
of a complicated shape into the maximum rectangle E, and then makes a rectangular parallelepiped, which has the rectangle E as a base and the maximum height H of the component E
1
, a pseudo 3D model of the mechanical component E
1
.
In 3D modeling by such a prior art PCB-CAD system, there is a possibility that man-hours increase and manual mistakes occur as follows:
{circle around (1)} The 3D model conversion was not performed before completing the arrangement of the mounting component in the printed circuit board
50
.
{circle around (2)} When the change of the component shape occurred in the PCB-CAD system
10
, the component shape at the library in the 3D-CAD system
30
was correspondingly changed by the manual input portion
35
. For this reason, data for identical components stored in the PCB mounting design DB storage
11
and the 3D component LIB storage
33
were occasionally different from each other.
Also, in the 3D-CAD system
30
, whether or not the 3D model of the component in the printed circuit board
50
is the 3D component model of the 3D component LIB was visually recognized.
{circle around (3)} In the printed circuit board mounting design, the attributes of the components; an arranged component/unarranged component, a fixed component
onfixed component, a manufactured height (rise) by soldering, a pseudo component (switching land or the like) were not taken into consideration, so that they could not be recognized.
Therefore, the component models in which the display color is changed in order to recognize the fixed component/unarranged component on the 3D-CAD system
30
and the manufactured height is taken into consideration were prepared before the interference inspection.
{circle around (4)} The mechanical component or the like was modeled by the maximum rectangular shape, so that the inspection of the cabinet interference was inaccurate, leading to an occurrence of interference which does not inherently exist. Therefore, the accurate shape of the mechanical component was provided from the manual input portion
35
of the 3D-CAD system
30
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a printed circuit board design system generating a 3D model of a printed circuit board which mounts thereon a component on a printed board, performing, with a 3D-CAD system, a mounting design including a cabinet, and generating an accurate 3D model of the printed circuit board to be provided to the 3D-CAD system.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the printed circuit board design system according to the present invention comprises: a converter for converting the printed circuit board into one or more models based on attributes preliminarily added to the component.
Namely, the converter can disassemble the printed circuit board into one or more constitutional elements according to the attributes preliminarily added to the component, and convert the constitutional elements into the models.
Thus, the printed circuit board can be disassembled into a plurality of portions corresponding to the attributes of the mounting component to perform a modeling, so that accurate modeling can be done without mistakes in less man-hours depending on design stages of the printed circuit board.
Also, in the present inve
Matsushita Hideharu
Nakayama Masayuki
Fujitsu Limited
Garbowski Leigh M.
Stass & Halsey LLP
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