The printed circuit board artwork system (The PCB ARTYST)

The objective of the study is to automate the artwork generation of PCBs by interfacing the system to the IBM PC XT microcomputer. The heart of the system is Design Automation (DA) and Numeric Control (NC). NC is a sequence of instructions or programs that is fed to and drives those machines. DA is a total or partial computer design process. Computer-Aided Design is a subsystem of it. The PCB ARTYST uses this concept of DA to solve problems in PC Manufacturing. To generate an artwork is a tedious and time consuming task. The designer redesign the schematic diagram to an artwork layout form. Whether he uses the tapemaster or a special marking pen he has to be very precise with his work. Using Design Automation and Numeric Concept, the system does away with pen, paper and ruler. It layouts the electronic packages and finds the shortest route between two points. The system then uses the XY plotter to drill and print the artwork. It can easily duplicate in copies of the same circuit. The designer first enters the packages in the schematic diagram. He then enters the connecting points. The ARTMATE finds a good artwork layout. WIth a PCB clamped on the XY plotter and with the vertical drill on the Z axis, the program drives the plotter to work as a drilling machine. Changing the drill with a marking pen, the system can print the artwork on the PCB. There exist a problem of increasing the speed and surface area of the XY plotter without sacrificing efficiency, quality and accuracy. It is recommended that another device be used to enter the user data and that another machine be used to print and drill on PCBs. Using the same trial and error method, some degree of intelligence can be incorporated to lessen the number of combinations that can be tried. The ARTMATE can also be modified to increase the ease of operation