New Requirements And Solutions For Product Data Processing Of Three-dimensional Molded Interconnection Devices

Abstract

The design of electronical devices is determined by seperate construction of flat printed circuit boards with discret components and its insertion into a mechanical unit. New chances of integrating housing and circuitry by means of three-dimensional Molded Interconnection Devices (3D-MIDs) results not only in new challenges of assembly technique but first of all in new requirements for processing product data. Submitted essay gives an overview of new requirements to handle three-dimensional data in designing electronical products especially3D-MIDs. Promising steps for integrating the functionalit of CAD systems for electronical (ECAD) and mechanical (MYCAD) applications are described and further developments to introduce 3-D-ECAD-Systems are presented. 1. Steps of lntearation in Production EleCtronic Products The current trend in the field of electronic equipment production, from the product development stage through to market launch, is characterized by extremely short innovation cycles. The main cause for this tendency is the rapid development of microelectronics as a base technology which has given rise to equally rapid advances in the implementation of new equipment structures. The trend has been further intensified by the general demands of the market for greater product variation and a higher power density in the electronic. devices. The strong requirements can be corresponded with the use of computer aided tools in planning, design and manufacturing. In the production of electronic devices in particular, there is an extraordinarily close correlation between the introduction of rational manufacturing technologies and the formation of new product structures. Conventional equipment designs have until now been characterized b discrete production steps (figure 1). A board is constructechrom individual components and then mounted in the unit. The advantages of this method are optimized single processes and functionally reliable subsystems. The main disadvantage however is the size of the final device.