Electronic Printed Circuit Boards Research Articles

Design for Manufacturability of Printed Circuit Board Assemblies

The manufacture of electronic printed circuit board assemblies is a business activity which is a strong candidate for the application of flexible automation, computer aided design and manufacturing, and computer integrated manufacturing technology. This paper examines some of the economic factors pertinent to the manufacture of printed circuit hoards. A simple technique for estimating the cost of test and repair is described and used to illustrate that these costs are a significant percentage of the overall cost of assembly. The paper also shows that adding the cost of test and repair to labor and equipment charges can drastically change the break-even points between manual and robotic assembly. Recent work being conducted at the University of Massachusetts on the design of the individual components for ease of assembly of printed circuit board devices is also described. This research is presently aimed at the manual assembly of non-standard components and classifies the times and costs associated with the delivery, insertion, and test/repair of various components in terms of the individual component characteristics.

Infrared Inspection of Multilayer Laminates and Composite Structures

A description is given of novel applications of infrared inspection which include evaluation of multilayer electronic printed circuit boards, armor plate, automobile tires, aircraft structures, thermal insulation of residential buildings, and others.