William A. Smith
ABSTRACT
An expert system prototype was developed to provide a merit rating for design options selected by a printed circuit board (PCB) designer. Experts in design, manufacturing, test and procurement from three companies were used to develop the knowledge base using a preselected PCB as a prototype. The system is designed to act as a guide toward accepted practice and to encourage consideration of manufacturing engineering, component selection, and test perspectives as well as product design orientation. The process involved team consensus building and problem solving among cross disciplinary functions within each company while capturing quantitative and qualitative design information in a structured transferable format.
An internal and external knowledge base were created to promote flexibility in use for different products and varied company standards. The internal knowledge base contains system structure, chaining strategy, knowledge confirmation and calculation methodology. The external knowledge base contains issue weights, options, values, and descriptions. The user can modify and update the external knowledge base without depending on a system professional. Any or all of the overlapping frame-based issues may be selected when evaluating the design. Special attention is given to issues relevant to several branch and design options.
AI TOPIC: Configuration and Design
DOMAIN AREA: Printed Circuit Board Design
LANGUAGE TOOL: Personal Consultant Plus
STATUS: Working Prototype, Proposal Pending for Developed System
EFFORT: Two Person Years
IMPACT: This printed circuit board design guide promotes problem solving among the cross disciplinary functions of design, test, procurement, and manufacturing.
- 1.Bao, H.P. "Surface Mount Technology: Data Representation and Value Analysis of SMT Printed Circuit Board Assembly," University of Missouri-Columbia, Assembly and Test Operation Focus Meeting, Raleigh, October 1987.Google Scholar
- 2.Bao, H.P. "An Expert System for SMT Printed Circuit Board Design for Assembly," Manufacturing Review, Vol. 1, No. 4, December 1988, pp. 275-280.Google Scholar
- 3.Jacobs, R.M. "Preproduction Design Assurance," ASQC Quality Congress Transactions--Dallas, 1987, pp. 472-490.Google Scholar
- 4.Mangin, C.H. "Design for Pmducibility," Assembly Engineering, August 1988.Google Scholar
- 5.Mangin, C.H. "Design for Testability," Assembly Engineering, September 1988.Google Scholar
- 6.McKirachan, J.F., Jr., et al. "NCSU SMT Database and Design Merit Analysis," Master's thesis project, Integrated Manufacturing System Engineering Institute (IMSEI), North Carolina State University, 1987.Google Scholar
- 7.Peace, G.S. "Surface Mount Technology Statistical Applications,'' ASQC Quality Congress Transactions---Dallas, 1988, pp. 500-507.Google Scholar
- 8.Raby, J.D., and Scott, M. "Automated Circuit Card Assembly Process and Facility," 2nd Annual international Electronics Packaging Conference, San Diego, California, 1982, pp. 378-395.Google Scholar
- 9.Sharman, D., and Kendall, E. "A Case Study: Acquiring Strategic Knowledge of Expert System Development," IEEE Expert, Fall 1988, pp. 32-40. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 10.Smith, William A, Jr. "Integrated Printed Circuit Board Assembly and Test," International Electronics Assembly Conference Proceedings, HE, Santa Clara, California, October 1985.Google Scholar
- 11."Summary Proceedings of Surface Mount Technology Workshop," Ridgecrest, CA, Electronics Manufacturing Productivity Facility (EMPF), January 27-28, 1988.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- A multiple perspective printed circuit board design guide: expert system prototype
Recommendations
An expert systems approach to completing partially routed printed circuit boards
DAC '85: Proceedings of the 22nd ACM/IEEE Design Automation ConferenceExpert systems use the expertise of experienced people to evaluate and solve problems in a decision making domain. Such systems use their knowledge base to model a human approach to the problems' solution. Expert system technology has been applied to ...
Knowledge engineering problems during expert system development
Expert systems are artificial intelligence computer programs which emulate human expertise within some domain of interest. The recent financial successes of such expert systems as PROSPECTOR and XCON have created a demand in government and industry for ...
Comments