Component electronic catalog

Details Component electronic catalog Component electronic catalog

2001-08-13

2002-11-12

Breene, John (Department: 2177)

Data processing: database and file management or data structures

Database design

Data structure types

C705S027200, C705S026640

Reexamination Certificate

active

06480846

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a component electronic catalog which enables easy selection of electronic components fit to the kinds of needs through a search operation and with the use of a display screen, as well as formation of mounting data for a mounting apparatus to automatically mount the selected electronic components without manual inputs of data related to the to-be-mounted components, mainly when the electronic components are mounted on electronic circuit boards by the mounting apparatus to form the boards.
2. State of the Art
There are many kinds of electronic components to be mounted to boards to produce various types of electronic circuit boards, some of which are replaceable with other kinds of components. The total number of kinds of electronic components is furthermore increased if compatible components among different manufacturers are included. In forming an electronic circuit board by mounting electronic components of various kinds to a board, it is necessary to select electronic components that meet various kinds of needs set in the design stage of the electronic circuit. In mounting the various kinds of components on boards, it is also necessary to consider, so as to mount the components properly and surely, not being mutually influenced by characteristics and durabilities of the electronic components to be mounted and other electronic components. A growing requirement these days is to correctly recognize shapes of components and highly accurately mount the components, especially as the lead pitch is minimized in accordance with the increased density of components.
More specifically, the kind of nozzles and chucks for carrying the electronic components, the moving speed of a mounting head equipped with the nozzles and chucks, necessary fall positions of the nozzles and chucks when taking out the electronic components from a component feed section or mounting the components, that is, heightwise positions when the nozzles and chucks take out the electronic components or heightwise positions when the nozzles and chucks mount the electronic components to the board, the moving speed of the board, which has at least one electronic component mounted thereon, particularly acceleration of the board, and various kinds of allowances, etc. should be taken into consideration when the electronic components are mounted to the board.
These various kinds of electronic components are packed in tapes to be automatically supplied to the mounting apparatus or are contained in trays, or handled in the form of sticks or in bulk. The component supply manner, including an accommodation pitch or the like of components, i.e., the form of packing the components, should also be taken in mind when mounting data are to be formed.
Meanwhile, when the electronic components are mounted, whether or not the electronic components are properly selected or directed is recognized, so that improper components are exchanged or the direction of the components is corrected based on the recognition results. In order to achieve the above inspection, it is necessary to form inspection data, as the mounting data, on the basis of information related to the electronic components such as shapes, surface reflectivities, colors, hue, polarity marks, printed characters, and color codes marked on the components, etc.
Component catalog brochures have been used heretofore to form the above-described mounting data or inspection data so as to select electronic components of various kinds in conformity with the need from the viewpoint of the circuit design and to mount the selected electronic components properly. Detailed and complicated component information are edited and recorded for every kind of electronic component in the brochures according to a predetermined classification method. In some cases, electronic components have been actually measured with the use of calipers or the like to obtain necessary data.
It is difficult not only to actually measure the electronic components as above, but to search for the electronic components meeting a need from the catalog brochures. The success of the optimum selection of required components depends on how carefully the catalog brochures are reviewed in detail, which consumes a large quantity of labor and time. In particular, the recent diversification of needs increases the number of kinds of electronic components which are provided, enlarging the amount of information data, thus furthermore hindering the optimum selection of components.
For solving the problem, a so-called component electronic catalog has been provided, whereby data of electronic components in the catalog brochures are handled as image data to be displayed on a screen. The image data, edited and stored according to a predetermined classification method in the electronic catalog, are read out and displayed on the screen by a special read device, a personal computer or the like, in accordance with predetermined classification and search procedures. The electronic components can thus be rationally searched and selected in a short time while the display screen is changed through the search or look-up operation. The electronic catalog EC using a storage medium such as a CD-ROM holds the image data for displaying various data of various kinds of electronic components on the screen in an image data file IMF as shown in FIG.
23
. The image data file IMF holds character data such as numerics and characters and figure data such as pictures, figures, etc. together in one set or in a suitably divided state.
The above-described component electronic catalog EC stores various kinds of data of shapes, dimensions, surface states, characteristics, and usage, etc. of the electronic components as the image data to be displayed on the screen in the form of photographs, drawings, tables, and graphs, and naturally includes data for forming the mounting data of the components as well.
A flow chart of
FIG. 24
shows a conventionally practiced sequence to form the mounting data with the use of the electronic catalog EC. The sequence will be described below. First, the electronic catalog EC is loaded to a read device and the read device is started to read out the catalog on the screen.
Then, a command is input through manipulation of a search key and setting of conditions in accordance with predetermined classification and search procedures. A command analysis section subsequently starts searching. Commands are repeatedly input until one electronic component is selected.
FIG. 25
shows a display screen obtained by designating a rough classification group of transistors and then searching bipolar transistors (PN) . . .
2
SA,
2
SB in a detailed classification group. A cursor in the screen is located to point to the first component among 62 components concerned. A user can search for any component among the 62 components by moving the cursor to a column of the required component. As a result of this, one electronic component is selected to thereby detect image data of which component should be displayed on the screen. The image data of the detected component are displayed on the screen according to predetermined procedures by the user's manipulation.
For example, supposing that the user designates a search of the component
2
SA
1022
on the screen of FIG.
25
and manipulates an explanation key, image data related to the rudimental description of the component
2
SA
1022
are displayed on the screen as shown in FIG.
26
.
When a search (S) is selected on the screen of
FIG. 26
, a list of display items in the rough classification group selectable on the screen of
FIG. 26
is window-displayed as in FIG.
27
. If an outline view is selected on the screen of
FIG. 27
or directly from the screen of
FIG. 26
, image data related to the outer shape of the component are shown on the screen as indicated in FIG.
28
. If a land view is selected, image data related to the land are displayed on the screen as in FIG.
29
. If a taping size is selected, image data related to the t

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