Software Toolkit for Visualization and Process Selection for Modular Scalable Manufacturing of 3D Micro-Devices

Abstract

SMARTLAM is a European funded research project, intended to develop a modular manufacturing platform and capability database, for three-dimensional integration/manufacturing of component parts constructed from laminated polymer films. To enable communication/interaction between SMARTLAM integrated manufacturing modules and the capability database, a software toolkit has to be developed, which must comply with the modularity concept of the SMARTLAM manufacturing system, and with the capability to integrate changes in the manufacturing platform, e.g. adding a new manufacturing module. This paper presents the implementation of the SMARTLAM software toolkit, i.e. the software and graphical user interface designed and developed to conform to these requirements, which allows for automated process chain selection while enabling the operator to load and modify the selected process chains and to alter parameters’ values. The developed software toolkit was tested and it was found able to compile and execute complete manufacturing recipes with the given equipment and it was directly linked to the SMARTLAM database. In addition to its ability to exchange data between different manufacturing modules, it gives the users the opportunity to modify the manufacturing processes in real time. The main result of the overall software development is a fully functional and a commercially applicable solution for the design, planning, configuration and coordination of a modular manufacturing platform for micro-devices with minimum cost/time of the identified process chain. As a validation example, a flexible lighting device demonstrator (DLED) was manufactured using the SMARTLAM platform, and the software toolkit was successfully utilized to visualize and select the appropriate production process chain.