John V. Messina

PWB warpage analysis and verification using an AP210 standards-based engineering framework and shadow moire

Thermally induced warpage of printed wiring boards (PWB) and printed wiring assemblies (PWAs) is an increasingly important issue in managing the manufacturing yield and reliability of electronic devices. In this paper, we introduce complementary simulation and experimental verification procedures capable of investigating warpage at the local feature level as well as the global PWB level. Simulation within a standards-based engineering framework allows efficient introduction of detailed feature information into warpage models of varying fidelity. Experimental results derived from temperature-dependent shadow moire provide a rapid high resolution picture of local warpage in critical regions. We describe initial results for two unpopulated PWB test cases which indicate a promising outlook for the methodology.

Environmental Regulations Impose New Product Lifecycle Information Requirements

In a global response to increasing health and environmental concerns, there has been a trend towards governments enacting legislation to encourage sustainable manufacturing where industry creates products that minimize environmental impact. This legislative trend seeks to shift the environmental responsibility of product manufacturing to the finished goods manufacturer. To meet this new responsibility, data relevant to the material composition of a product must flow unimpeded from the raw material producers to the final producers. Unfortunately, existing systems are ill-prepared to handle the new data requirements. For example, the European Union’s (EU) Energy Using Product (EuP) Directive will require that companies provide total energy used during a product’s lifecycle, including manufacturing and transportation energy. To meet these new requirements, new systems must be designed and implemented, or modifications made to existing data management systems. Because every law poses its own unique requirements on industry, it is not always clear what information will need to be collected and stored. This paper seeks to provide industry with a forward-looking view at new data exchange requirements needed within the manufacturing supply chain of the future. It surveys current and forthcoming environmental legislation including EU Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), China RoHS, California RoHS, EU EuP, and the EU Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals Directive (REACH). The paper identifies the unique data requirements that will need to be incorporated in a products supply chain in order for companies to comply with each law.

Collaborative Augmented Reality for Better Standards

Concurrent engineering depends on clear communication between all members of the development process. As that communication becomes more and more complex, the quality of the standards used to move and understand that information likewise becomes more and more important. If the standard is incomplete, redundant, or ambiguous, most of the expected benefits are lost. In order to improve data exchange standards, explicit data models are required. However, creating those data models is a process that requires collaboration between domain experts. What is needed is a solution that encourages interaction without requiring a high level of data modeling expertise. Focus is a software tool designed to provide such an environment. It is a distributed design and conferencing application which uses augmented reality to allow domain experts to come together in real time for data modeling. By developing Focus, we hope to allow domain experts to create data models without first having to learn complex UML modeling programs. Because of the networked nature of Focus, it is easier to ensure the participation of the best domain experts regardless of location. This paper details the development, features, and expected benefits of Focus in a collaborative engineering environment.

Expanding Environmental Information Management: Meeting Future Requirements in the Electronics Industry

The environmental impact of product manufacturing, use, and disposal has become a worldwide concern. Laws and regulations designed to protect human health and the environment are being established throughout the global community. In addition to regulatory needs, manufacturing networks have begun to respond to market driven ecoefficiency and sustainability requirements. To optimize manufacturing systems for these requirements, information must flow freely upstream and downstream during a product’s lifecycle. This information includes regulatory compliance information, material content, energy use, and test data among others types of information. To modify systems to effectively manage these data requires an understanding of what information is required. This paper discusses both regulatory and voluntary information needs with a focus on electronics industry efforts for environmental information management and exchange. The information needs are broken down into regulatory information (compliance information, material content, etc.) and voluntary information (lifecycle assessment, cradle to cradle, etc).

Improving environmental information handling and data exchange within the electronics industry

Environmental regulations impacting the electronics industry are driving the need for new data management systems to track environmental data including material data. This paper describes efforts to take a holistic approach in managing this information by working with industry standards organizations and applying system design philosophies to the standards development process.

Data Modeling to Support Environmental Information Exchange throughout the Supply Chain

With an ever-increasing awareness of the environmental impact of manufacturing, more and more political organizations (countries, states, and unions) are enacting legislation designed to protect the environment. One category of this restrictive legislation is called Extended Producer Responsibilities (EPR). EPR directives place greater responsibility on manufacturers for the environmental impact of their products. These laws shift the focus from the product’s origin to the product’s final destination and from the process of manufacturing to the product itself. The highest impact of these directives is the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive, finalized by the European Union in 2003. The RoHS directive restricts imports of new electrical and electronic equipment containing lead and five other hazardous substances. For manufacturers to successfully comply with RoHS and similar legislation, they need the ability to exchange material content information. This information would then propagate through the supply chain from the raw material suppliers all the way to the final producer. While a solution could be generated for any single piece of legislation, the problem is that companies will need to successfully deal with potentially dozens of laws and directives. To deal with this problem, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (a US Government Research Laboratory) developed a data model to address the underlying material declaration problem using a software development methodology. This data model was used in the development of IPC’s 1752 Material Declaration standard. IPC’s 1752 standard helps the electronics industry comply with RoHS by providing a data exchange mechanism by which businesses can declare the presence or absence of the restricted materials. While IPC 1752 was created to deal with EU’s RoHS, the data model was designed with the intent that it would be able to support future RoHS-like legislation (China RoHS, California RoHS, etc). Even if different solutions were developed for each piece of Legislation, they can interoperate provided they are based on the same data model. This paper looks at the data model designed for the IPC1752 standard, the methodology that was used to create it, and how it can be adapted to similar RoHS-like laws and directives.