Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design process and fabrication

This module describes main characteristics of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). A brief history of PCBs is introduced in the first chapter. Then, the design processes and the fabrication of PCBs are addressed and finally a study case is presented in the last chapter of the module.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Plasma sprayed titanium coatings with/without a shroud

Abstract: Titanium coatings were deposited by plasma spraying with and without a shroud. The titanium coatings were then assessed by scanning electron microscopy. A comparison in microstructure between titanium coatings with and without the shroud was carried out. The results showed that the shroud played an important role in protecting the titanium particles from oxidation. The presence of the shroud led to a reduction in coating porosity. The reduction in air entrainment with t he shroud resulted in better heating of the particles, and an enhanced microstructure with lower porosity in the shrouded titanium coatings were observed compared to the air plasma sprayed counterpart

Development of Economic Water Usage Sensor and Cyber-Physical Systems Co-Simulation Platform for Home Energy Saving

In this thesis, two Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) approaches were considered to reduce residential building energy consumption. First, a flow sensor was developed for residential gas and electric storage water heaters. The sensor utilizes unique temperature changes of tank inlet and outlet pipes upon water draw to provide occupant hot water usage. Post processing of measured pipe temperature data was able to detect water draw events. Conservation of energy was applied to heater pipes to determine relative internal water flow rate based on transient temperature measurements. Correlations between calculated flow and actual flow were significant at a 95% confidence level. Using this methodology, a CPS water heater controller can activate existing residential storage water heaters according to occupant hot water demand. The second CPS approach integrated an open-source building simulation tool, EnergyPlus, into a CPS simulation platform developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The NIST platform utilizes the High Level Architecture (HLA) co-simulation protocol for logical timing control and data communication. By modifying existing EnergyPlus co-simulation capabilities, NIST’s open-source platform was able to execute an uninterrupted simulation between a residential house in EnergyPlus and an externally connected thermostat controller. The developed EnergyPlus wrapper for HLA co-simulation can allow active replacement of traditional real-time data collection for building CPS development. As such, occupant sensors and simple home CPS product can allow greater residential participation in energy saving practices, saving up to 33% on home energy consumption nationally

Conductive lithographic films

This paper reports progress in the development of a novel fabrication technique for printing circuit board designs directly onto suitable substrates. Circuit tracks can be formed on organic or synthetic substrates by depositing films of a metal-loaded ink via a standard lithographic printing process. The application of this work is in substitutes for conventional (copper-clad resin/laminate) circuit boards where, for low complexity circuits, directly printed substrates offer cost advantages and environmental benefits. The paper is a resume of work and results, including; ink formulation, environmental test, circuit modelling and life cycle analysis. Conductive lithographic films have now been successfully demonstrated in a telephone handset developed in conjunction with Nortel, microprocessor and microwave stripline applications. Whilst developed primarily as a low cost, low environmental impact alternative to subtractive PCB manufacture, other potential advantages such as flexibility and environmental robustness are apparent

Design and manufacturing of a Selective Laser Sintering test bench to test sintering materials

The goal of this project is to design and build a prototype of recoating system for a laser cutting machine to turn it into a selective laser sintering printing machine. This prototype will be used to study new sintering materials and to design, if decided, a SLS 3D printing Machine (Selective Laser Sintering). This project has been developed in the installations and funded by Fundació CIM. The project develops the mechanical design and the electronic system design. Both parts are explained on this paper, so new users can use the machine and can understand the system. With this paper, it is expected that it can be improved in a future to test other parameters and configurations. The paper is divided in three basic blocks that are summed up here: The first block is an introduction to the 3D printing technologies. The most used of them are explained and selective laser sintering is explained in deep. With this block the reader can understand why it is important to develop the SLS technology and what has to be done to improve the machines and the technology. The second block is a discussion on the mechanical design of the machine. The general idea of the machine is explained so the user can understand why the machine is designed in this way. After that, each part is detailed to see how the different mechanical challenges where overtaken. At the end of the block, there is a small calculations section needed on the electronic part. The third block is an extensive explanation of the electronic system that controls and moves the machine. In that block, the different components are explained so the user can understand its basics working principles. It is also explained how the selection of the electronic components was done. Then everything is put together to see the whole electronic system. Along with this paper, there are annexes that provide some extra information for the reader. One of this annexes refers to the mechanical part and the other one has some datasheets and coding for the electronic section. The whole design has been done in SOLIDWORKS cad software and its electric extension ELECWORKS. The programming job was done with Arduino compiler

A natural language interface to databases

The development of a Natural Language Interface which is semantic-based and uses Conceptual Dependency representation is presented. The system was developed using Lisp and currently runs on a Symbolics Lisp machine. A key point is that the parser handles morphological analysis, which expands its capabilities of understanding more words

Prediction of radiated electromagnetic emissions from PCB traces based on Green dyadics

Because it costs to solve ElectroMagnetic Compatibility (EMC) problems late in the development process, new methods have to predict radiated electromagnetic emissions at the design stage. In the case of complex printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) containing embedded microstrips and a large number of nets, a tradeoff between accuracy and simulation time must be found for this evaluation. In this paper the basic algorithm used within a new emissions predictive analysis tool: ElectroMagnetic Interferences Radiated (EMIR) is presented. It is able to take accurately into account the actual cross section between the metal plane and the air for each PCB trace. It is compared to theoretical formulas for validation. The effects of superstrate (cover) on a dipole radiation are describe

3D Printed Soft Robotic Hand

Soft robotics is an emerging industry, largely dominated by companies which hand mold their actuators. Our team set out to design an entirely 3D printed soft robotic hand, powered by a pneumatic control system which will prove both the capabilities of soft robots and those of 3D printing. Through research, computer aided design, finite element analysis, and experimental testing, a functioning actuator was created capable of a deflection of 2.17” at a maximum pressure input of 15 psi. The single actuator was expanded into a 4 finger gripper and the design was printed and assembled. The created prototype was ultimately able to lift both a 100-gram apple and a 4-gram pill, proving its functionality in two prominent industries: pharmaceutical and food packing

Intensity-based image registration using multiple distributed agents

Image registration is the process of geometrically aligning images taken from different sensors, viewpoints or instances in time. It plays a key role in the detection of defects or anomalies for automated visual inspection. A multiagent distributed blackboard system has been developed for intensity-based image registration. The images are divided into segments and allocated to agents on separate processors, allowing parallel computation of a similarity metric that measures the degree of likeness between reference and sensed images after the application of a transform. The need for a dedicated control module is removed by coordination of agents via the blackboard. Tests show that additional agents increase speed, provided the communication capacity of the blackboard is not saturated. The success of the approach in achieving registration, despite significant misalignment of the original images, is demonstrated in the detection of manufacturing defects on screen-printed plastic bottles and printed circuit boards

Analog Circuits for Computing

This project entails designing, simulating, and verifying analog circuits that can perform essential computing functions for power systems applications. The project aims to remedy critical challenges associated with handling calculations digitally, namely, time and power. This project\u27s scope includes creating a library of circuits in SPICE that can be used to model and simulate complex mathematical equations. From these SPICE models, the circuit can be constructed physically, where the solution can be generated in less time using less power than doing the computation digitally. The performance and efficiency of analog computing will be measured and compared to conventional digital methods