Printed wiring board system programmer's manual

The printed wiring board system provides automated techniques for the design of printed circuit boards and hybrid circuit boards. The system consists of four programs: (1) the preprocessor program combines user supplied data and pre-defined library data to produce the detailed circuit description data; (2) the placement program assigns circuit components to specific areas of the board in a manner that optimizes the total interconnection length of the circuit; (3) the organizer program assigns pin interconnections to specific board levels and determines the optimal order in which the router program should attempt to layout the paths connecting the pins; and (4) the router program determines the wire paths which are to be used to connect each input pin pair on the circuit board. This document is intended to serve as a programmer's reference manual for the printed wiring board system. A detailed description of the internal logic and flow of the printed wiring board programs is included

Design of a Solar Panel Deployment and Tracking System for Pocketqube Pico-Satellite

Modularized small satellites will have even greater potential with better energy supply. In this paper, a PocketQube solar panel deployment and tracking system will be presented. The system is designed for a 3P PocketQubes. During the designing phase, trade-off analysis is done to meet the balance of weight, dimension and efficiency. Reliability, manufacturability, and cost are also considered from the beginning, as commercial production and launch are expected. The CAD design, dynamics analysis, motion simulation, and rendering for the project are undertaken by Solidworks, whereas Abaqus CAE is utilized for the finite element analysis of the vibration test of the panels. In the gimbal subsystem, we use two micro stepper motor to drive the panels via a two-axis gearbox, enabling the panels to track the sun omnidirectionally. In the panel subsystem, two types of customized spring hinges are designed. Robust and verified parts, such as burner resistors, are chose for the control and deployment system. After the continuous optimization process throughout the design phase, by comparing different manufacturing processes technologies, materials, and design details, the full scale prototypes of the gimbal subsystem were built and tested. In the end, the most feasible solution, as well as the suggestions for the development, were put forward

Design and Development of an X-Ray Machine

Este documento reúne el diseño, investigación, construcción y puesta en funcionamiento de una fuente de rayos X para radiografía y escáner TAC de objetos pequeños, utilizando un inversor “Zero Voltage Switching” mejorado, un programa para simularlo, el código para generar radiografías en falso color y un algoritmo de reconstrucción tomográfica. La seguridad en este proyecto es clave debido a la radiación ionizant

SensorTape: Modular and Programmable 3D-Aware Dense Sensor Network on a Tape

SensorTape is a modular and dense sensor network in a form factor of a tape. SensorTape is composed of interconnected and programmable sensor nodes on a flexible electronics substrate. Each node can sense its orientation with an inertial measurement unit, allowing deformation self-sensing of the whole tape. Also, nodes sense proximity using time-of-flight infrared. We developed network architecture to automatically determine the location of each sensor node, as SensorTape is cut and rejoined. Also, we made an intuitive graphical interface to program the tape. Our user study suggested that SensorTape enables users with different skill sets to intuitively create and program large sensor network arrays. We developed diverse applications ranging from wearables to home sensing, to show low deployment effort required by the user. We showed how SensorTape could be produced at scale using current technologies and we made a 2.3-meter long prototype.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF award 1256082

Packaging printed circuit boards: A production application of interactive graphics

The structure and use of an Interactive Graphics Packaging Program (IGPP), conceived to apply computer graphics to the design of packaging electronic circuits onto printed circuit boards (PCB), were described. The intent was to combine the data storage and manipulative power of the computer with the imaginative, intuitive power of a human designer. The hardware includes a CDC 6400 computer and two CDC 777 terminals with CRT screens, light pens, and keyboards. The program is written in FORTRAN 4 extended with the exception of a few functions coded in COMPASS (assembly language). The IGPP performs four major functions for the designer: (1) data input and display, (2) component placement (automatic or manual), (3) conductor path routing (automatic or manual), and (4) data output. The most complex PCB packaged to date measured 16.5 cm by 19 cm and contained 380 components, two layers of ground planes and four layers of conductors mixed with ground planes

Board design for a citizen-science cosmic ray muon detector

The main aim of this project is to develop a printed circuit board for a cosmic ray muon detector with primary use for citizen science. Compared to the previous versions of the detector, the goals were to reduce the low frequency noise levels in the output and to improve the general board layout and functionality. The study of cosmic rays aids to reduce the electronic errors in consumer electronics and satellites along with quantifying the health impact of this natural radiation. Cosmic rays which contain mainly protons and nuclei interact in the upper atmosphere and produce muons that can reach the earth’s surface. These are then detected using photo diodes. The resulting signal is amplified using a charge sensitive preamplifier followed by a high-pass filter thereby allowing to reduce the unwanted noise and helping to obtain a strong signal

Thermal Analysis, Parasitic Extraction, and Wirebond Reliability Studies of Power Electronic Modules

This thesis research investigates thermal performance, parasitic extraction and wirebond/encapsulation reliability of power electronic modules. Thermal performance is critical to the power electronic modules. As such, thermal analysis is an important part of the power electronic module design process. Several cases are studied on generalized power modules with a full bridge layout. A database is built based on these results. The studies are performed using SolidWorks thermal simulation tool. The database involves several parameters such as power dissipation, maximum junction temperature, ambient temperature, convection coefficient required to cool the module, size of the baseplate, heat-sink size, substrate size, spacing between dies, and different materials that can be used for the power electronic module. Using this database, procedures to select appropriate parameters in a thermally efficient layout for the power electronic modules are illustrated using examples. It was found that, for optimum performance, ∆T (maximum junction temperature - ambient temperature) should be greater than 125ᴼC for power modules with medium and high power dissipation. Also, for a low ∆T and high power dissipation, baseplate acts more like a thermal resistance than a heat-spreader. Hence, it is ineffective to employ base-plates for these cases. Increasing substrate size to bring down maximum junction temperature is more effective in higher power dissipation cases than those for medium or low power dissipation. Parasitic extraction for an electronic power module using a time domain reflectometry (TDR) method in the form of differential inductance waveforms was developed. These measured parasitic inductance and parasitic capacitance are compared with the parasitic parameters extracted using a Q3D extractor software. The accuracy of the measurement results from these two different approaches is studied in detail. Reliability of wirebonds in the case of encapsulated and un-encapsulated power modules were investigated by subjecting them temperature cycling from -55ᴼC to 250ᴼC. It was found that the solder flux affected the reliability of the wirebonds. As such, it is recommended that the power connectors on the power substrate should be free of flux, as the residual solder flux can affect the nearby wirebonds in the power modules. As expected, the differences in the coefficients of thermal expansion between the power substrate bond wires and encapsulation affect the reliability of the wirebonds. Large diameter wirebonds tend to be stronger and can withstand the stress and strain created by the different material systems in the power electronic modules

Prototyping and control of a robotic gripper

Mestrado de dupla diplomação com a UTFPR - Universidade Tecnológica Federal do ParanáThis paper consists on the design and modelling of a electric-actuated gripper structure, the production and assembly of a prototype with the use of a 3D printer and the development of an control system that limits the force applied by the tool. The final result, despite the motor limitation, allowed a study of the applied force control by manipulating a servo motor positioning