JP2000187680A - Print circuit board design system and its method using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a print circuit board system for efficiently operating the design of a print circuit board. SOLUTION: In this print circuit board design method, the function of each circuit part and the physical information and the arrangement know-how of an experienced board designer are stored through an input and output means 40 in a storage means 57 and accumulated respectively as a circuit element information data base 62b, part physical information data base 62c, and arrangement know-how data base 62a. At the time of designing a print circuit board, the connection information of circuit parts to be loaded on the print circuit board and an arrangement condition imposed on each circuit part is inputted through the input and output means 40 to a set file generating part 58, and each data base 62a-62c is readout to the set file generating part 58. The set file generating part 58 generates a set file 71 based on the various kind of information, and an automatic arrangement executing part 59 executes design based on the set file 71.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printed circuit board design system for automatically arranging a plurality of circuit parts mounted on a printed circuit board and designing wiring between the circuit parts.
And a method of designing a printed circuit board using the system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 2 shows a conventional printed circuit board design CA.
It is a block diagram showing a D system. As a printed circuit board design system, a printed circuit board CAD as shown in FIG.
(Computer aided design) system is generally used. The conventional printed circuit board design CAD system is designed to design the layout of a printed circuit board through dialogue with a board designer. The component data / data for inputting / outputting data of individual circuit components and data of the printed circuit board is used.
A printed circuit board data input / output device 1; a circuit data generation input / output device 2 for inputting / outputting circuit diagram data indicating a connection relationship between circuit components; a computer 10;
And

A computer 10 includes a storage device 11 for storing circuit component and printed circuit board data input from the component data / printed circuit board data input / output device 1,
A storage device 12 for storing circuit diagram data input from the circuit data generation input / output device 2 and a central processing unit 13 for determining a mounting position of a circuit component and determining a route of a wiring connecting the circuit components. Have. The input unit 20
A graphic display 21 for drawing and displaying data processed by the computer 10, a keyboard 22 for inputting printed circuit board design information as keys, and a mouse 23 for inputting printed circuit board design information two-dimensionally
And

Next, a method of designing a printed circuit board using the printed circuit board CAD system of FIG. 2 will be described. The circuit designer creates circuit diagram data including connection information between terminals of the circuit using the circuit data creation input / output device 2 and inputs the circuit diagram data to the computer 10 by communication. Along with this,
The circuit designer describes the layout conditions of the wiring system, the control system, the power supply system, and the like in the circuit diagram on a sheet of paper or the like, and passes it to the board designer. The circuit diagram data input to the computer 10 is temporarily stored in the storage device 12. On the other hand, the storage device 11 stores data of a plurality of types of circuit components and data of a printed circuit board in advance. The board designer interacts with the computer 10 using the input unit 20 and
The printed circuit board and the circuit components are selected from the data stored in the PC, and a plurality of circuit components are arranged on the selected printed circuit board by the central processing unit 13, and wiring between the circuit components is performed.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing an example of the arrangement of circuit components designed using FIG. In the actual design, the board designer monitors the graphic display 21,
Circuit components 3 with various arrangement conditions using mouse 23
Layout 0. The graphic display 2
1, for example, the outer shape 31 of the circuit component 30 and the terminal position 32
Are displayed.

[0006]

However, the conventional printed circuit board design CAD system has the following problems. The placement conditions include, for example, prevention of guidance disturbance,
The circuit component 30 is disposed so that the wiring for transmitting the high-speed clock is short in distance, and the circuit component 30a in FIG. It may not be placed at a close position. Circuit components 30 having such various arrangement conditions are:
Since the board designer comprehensively judges the arrangement conditions and arranges the arrangement conditions, a great amount of time is required. In addition, in the case where a mistake is made in the arrangement of the circuit components 30 under various arrangement conditions, and as a result, a malfunction occurs, redesigning of the printed circuit board has a great effect on both the man-hour and the cost. Was giving. Further, when determining the arrangement of each circuit component 30, ease of handling of the circuit component 30 when mounting each component 30 to manufacture a printed circuit board,
Consideration is given to the know-how of the board designer, which affects the ease of pouring the solder and the linearity of the wiring pattern. The ability to deal with these depends on the skill of the board designer, and the designed printed circuit board may vary from board designer to board designer.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer having a computer, the arrangement of a plurality of circuit components mounted on a printed circuit board with the aid of the computer. And a printed circuit board design system for designing wiring between the circuit components,
It is configured as follows. That is, the computer according to the first aspect of the present invention includes: a storage unit for storing information relating to each of the circuit components and information obtained by making a rule of know-how used by a skilled person when performing the arrangement; Automatically connecting the plurality of circuits based on the connection information between the terminals of the circuit components in the designed circuit to be designed and the placement conditions imposed on the circuit components and the information read from the storage means. An automatic placement execution unit for arranging components and designing wiring between the circuit components.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the printed circuit board design system of the first aspect has the following configuration.
That is, the computer is a basis for setting the arrangement of the circuit components based on the connection information and the arrangement conditions input from the outside and the respective information read from the storage means, and further includes another printed circuit board. The design system is also provided with a setting file generating unit for creating a reusable setting file, and the automatic placement executing unit loads the setting file and arranges the plurality of circuit components and designs wiring between the circuit components. Is performed.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printed circuit including a computer having a storage means therein, the arrangement of a plurality of circuit components mounted on a printed circuit board and the design of wiring between the circuit components are supported by the computer. The following methods have been adopted in the board design method. That is, in advance, information on each of the individual circuit components and information obtained by making a rule of know-how used by a skilled person when performing the placement are sequentially stored and accumulated in the storage unit, and the respective information in the design target circuit is stored. The connection information between the terminals of the circuit components and the arrangement conditions imposed on each circuit component are converted into data, and the plurality of connection information and the arrangement conditions are converted into data based on the information read out from the storage unit. And the design of wiring between the circuit components.

According to the first to third aspects of the present invention, the printed circuit board designing system and the printed circuit board designing method are configured as described above, so that the arrangement of the circuit parts on the printed circuit board and the wiring between the circuit parts are performed. When designing a product, not only information on individual circuit components and connection information between circuit components mounted on a printed circuit board, but also information on arrangement conditions imposed on the circuit components and information on know-how used by skilled persons are taken into consideration. Is done. Therefore, the above problem can be solved.

[0011]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a printed circuit board design CAD system showing an embodiment of the present invention. The printed circuit board design CAD is mainly used by a circuit designer to design the arrangement of a plurality of circuit components and the wiring between them, and the input / output means 40 provided to the circuit designer. And a computer 50. The input / output unit 40 includes, for example, a graphic display 41, a keyboard 42, and a mouse 43. The computer 50 includes a circuit element input unit 51, a component information input unit 52, an arrangement know-how input unit 53, a circuit diagram data input unit 54, and an arrangement condition input unit 55 each including a central processing unit (CPU) and an interface circuit (not shown). , And a component arrangement data input unit 56.

The circuit element input section 51 is for inputting data indicating the function of the circuit component given from the input / output means 40. The circuit element input section 51 is provided with a random access memory (hereinafter referred to as a RAM) or the like. Is connected to the circuit element data storage section 57a in the storage means 57 constituted by. The component information input section 52 is for inputting component information such as that the material of the circuit component or the component itself given from the input / output means 40 is likely to malfunction due to the influence of other signal wiring. 52 is connected to a component information data storage unit 57b in the storage unit 57. The arrangement know-how input unit 53 is a rule based on the know-how of a skilled board designer, such as easy handling of circuit components when manufacturing a printed circuit board, ease of pouring solder, and linearity of a wiring pattern. To enter data,
The arrangement know-how input section 53 is connected to an arrangement know-how storage section 57c in the storage means 57.

The printed circuit board is further provided with a setting file generating section 58 constituted by a central processing unit and an automatic placement executing section 59. The setting file generating section 58 generates a setting file for determining the arrangement of all circuit components mounted on the printed circuit board. The setting file generating section 58 includes a circuit element data storage section 57a, a component information data storage section 57b, and an arrangement know-how storage section. The output side of the unit 57c is connected to the output side of each circuit diagram data input unit 54, arrangement condition input unit 55, and component arrangement data input unit 56. The automatic placement executing section 59 loads the setting file generated by the setting file generating section 58, and automatically performs arrangement of a plurality of circuit components and design of wiring between the circuit components.

FIG. 4 is a printed circuit board design CAD of FIG.
It is a figure showing data used by a system. The outline of the printed circuit board design method performed in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG. In the printed circuit board design CAD system shown in FIG. 1, circuit diagram data 60 indicating the connection relationship of circuit components in the circuit to be designed, data obtained by converting arrangement conditions 61 imposed on each circuit component, and data stored in advance are stored. The database 62 is used. As a database, a placement know-how database 62a in which the know-how of a skilled board designer such as easiness of handling, ease of pouring of solder, and linearity of wiring pattern is databased for each event.
A circuit element information database 62b indicating functions unique to the circuit component, and a component physical information database 62c describing component specific information such as the component material and the component itself likely to malfunction due to the influence of other signal wiring. is there. Based on the circuit diagram data 60, the placement conditions 61 and the database 62, a setting file generation process 70 is performed, and the setting file 7
1 is generated, and a printed circuit board is designed based on the setting file 71.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the generation of the database 62 of FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the printed circuit board designing method performed in FIG. The operation method and operation of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. Before designing a printed circuit board, it is necessary to create a database 62 in advance. When the database 62 is created, the keyboard 42 or the keyboard 42, the mouse 43, and the graphic display 41 are used.
Are used in combination, and circuit element information indicating the functions of the circuit components mountable on the printed circuit board is input to the computer 50 in the process S1 of FIG. The circuit element information is stored in the circuit element data storage section 57 via the circuit element input section 51.
and is stored in the circuit element data storage unit 57a. The data stored in the circuit element data storage unit 57a becomes the circuit element information database 62b. Processing S
2, the component information for each circuit component is stored in the component information data
7b. The component information is composed of component-specific information and the like such as the outer shape and terminal position of each circuit component, and the material and component of each circuit component are likely to malfunction due to the influence of other signal wiring. The component information is stored in the component storage data storage unit 57b, and the component physical information database 6
2c. In the process S3, similarly to the process S1, the data of the layout know-how of the skilled board designer is input to the layout know-how storage unit 57c via the layout know-how input unit 53. Information obtained by converting the arrangement know-how into data is accumulated in the arrangement know-how storage unit 57c, and becomes the arrangement know-how database 62a. The above processing S1 to S3
Are performed sequentially, and the database 60 is updated and always kept up to date.

When a printed circuit board to be designed is actually designed, the circuit element information database 62a is read from the circuit element data storage section 57a and the component information data storage section 57b is read in steps S11 to S13 in FIG. The component physical database 62c is read, and the placement know-how database 62a is read from the placement know-how storage unit 57c. In the processing S14 after S11 to S13, the circuit designer uses the keyboard 42 or, in some cases, the graphic display 41 and the mouse 43 together, and outputs circuit diagram data indicating the connection relation of the circuit components to the computer 50.
To enter. This circuit diagram data is input to the setting file generation unit 58 via the circuit diagram data input unit 54. In step S15, similarly to step S14, the arrangement conditions are converted into data and input to the computer 50. The placement condition is
For example, the setting is made up of the restriction on the distance of the wiring, the distance between the components of the power supply system and the wiring system, and the like, and is input to the setting file generation unit 58 via the arrangement condition input unit 55. In step S16, as in step S14, where the circuit component is to be placed on the printed circuit board is input to the computer 50, and is provided to the setting file generation unit 58 via the component placement data input unit 56.

In step S17, the setting file generating section 58 determines various conditions composed of the data input in steps S11 to S16, and generates a setting file for performing automatic arrangement. The automatic placement execution unit 59 loads the setting file generated by the setting file generator 58 and automatically designs the arrangement of a plurality of circuit components and the wiring between the circuit components.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the printed circuit board design CAD of FIG.
FIG. 4 is a plan view showing an example of the arrangement of circuit components using the system, in which components common to those in FIG. 3 are denoted by common reference numerals. By generating the database 62 by the processes S1 to S3 and designing the processes S11 to S18, the circuit components 30 are arranged based on the rules according to the setting file. Aligned neatly. Thereby, the direction of each circuit component 30 and the distance between each circuit component 30 become appropriate, the efficiency at the time of mounting is improved, and the wiring becomes linear, so that a wiring pattern is easily created.

As described above, the printed circuit board design CAD
Since the system is configured, it has the following advantages. (1) Since the layout know-how of a skilled board designer is stored in the database 62 in advance, only a circuit designer can design a printed circuit board. (2) Since the placement conditions are converted into data in the process S15 and reflected in the setting file, placement errors can be reduced, and the man-hour of the designer can be reduced. (3) Since the setting file generation unit 58 is provided to once generate a design file, if this setting file is diverted to another printed circuit board design system, the printed circuit board design system can be designed in another printed circuit board design system. Becomes possible. (4) The automatic placement is performed after the setting file is created by using the database 62, circuit diagram data, data layout conditions, and component layout information generated in advance, so that the layout is constant regardless of the skill level of the designer. High quality design results.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications are possible. For example, there are the following modifications. (I) The processing order of the processes S11 to S16 is not limited to FIG. 6 and can be changed. (Ii) The processing order of the processing S1 to S3 is not limited to FIG. 5 and can be changed.

[0021]

As described above in detail, according to the first and second aspects of the present invention, a storage means for storing information on individual circuit components and information obtained by making a rule of know-how used by a skilled person, An automatic arrangement for arranging a plurality of circuit components and designing wiring between the circuit components based on the connection information between the terminals of the components and the arrangement conditions imposed on the circuit components and the information read from the storage means. Since the placement execution unit is provided in the computer, not only information on individual circuit components and connection information between circuit components mounted on the printed circuit board, but also
Information on the layout conditions imposed on the circuit components and the know-how used by a skilled person can also be taken into consideration, for example, the circuit can be designed only by a circuit designer. In addition, arrangement errors can be reduced, the man-hour of the designer can be reduced, and a constant high-quality design result can be obtained regardless of the skill level of the designer.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, information relating to individual circuit components and information obtained by making a rule of know-how used by a skilled person when performing the arrangement are sequentially stored and accumulated in the storage means. The connection information between the terminals of each circuit component in the circuit to be designed and the layout conditions imposed on each circuit component are converted into data, and based on the data-formed connection information and the layout conditions and each information read from the storage unit, Since the layout of a plurality of circuit components and the design of wiring between the circuit components are performed,
Not only information on individual circuit components and connection information between circuit components mounted on the printed circuit board, but also information on the layout conditions imposed on circuit components and know-how used by skilled personnel are taken into account, and the design is performed only by the circuit designer. It can be performed. In addition, by reducing the number of placement errors, the man-hours of the designer can be reduced, and a constant high-quality design result can be obtained regardless of the skill level of the designer.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a printed circuit board design C showing an embodiment of the present invention.
It is a functional block diagram of an AD system.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a conventional printed circuit board design CAD system.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing an example of arrangement of circuit components using FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing data used in the printed circuit board design CAD system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing generation of a database 60 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a printed circuit board design method performed in FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing an example of the arrangement of circuit components using the printed circuit board design CAD system of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 30 circuit components 40 input / output means 50 computer 51 circuit element input section 52 component information input section 53 placement know-how input section 54 circuit diagram data input section 55 placement condition input section 56 component placement data input section 57 storage means 58 setting file generation section 59 Automatic placement execution unit 60 Circuit diagram data 61 Placement conditions 62 Database 62a Placement know-how database 62b Circuit element information database 62c Parts physical information database 71 Setting file

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Masashi Shigemori 1-7-12 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 5B046 AA08 BA05 BA06 KA05

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A printed circuit board design system comprising a computer, wherein, with the aid of the computer, an arrangement of a plurality of circuit components mounted on the printed circuit board and a design of wiring between the circuit components are provided. Storage means for storing information relating to each of the circuit components and information obtained by making a rule of know-how used by a skilled person when performing the arrangement; and The arrangement of the plurality of circuit components and the wiring between the circuit components are automatically performed based on the connection information between the terminals and the arrangement conditions imposed on the circuit components, and the information read from the storage unit. A printed circuit board design system, comprising: an automatic placement execution unit for designing a printed circuit board. 2. The computer according to claim 1, further comprising: a base for setting the arrangement of the circuit components based on the connection information and the arrangement condition input from the outside and the information read from the storage unit. The printed circuit board design system is also provided with a setting file generating unit that creates a setting file that can be diverted, wherein the automatic placement execution unit loads the setting file and arranges the plurality of circuit components and places between the circuit components. 2. The printed circuit board design system according to claim 1, wherein the system is designed to design wiring. 3. A printed circuit board design method comprising: a computer having a storage means therein, the arrangement of a plurality of circuit components mounted on the printed circuit board and the design of wiring between the circuit components are supported by the computer. In advance, information on the individual circuit components and information obtained by making a rule of know-how used by an expert when performing the arrangement are sequentially stored and accumulated in the storage unit, and the circuit components in the circuit to be designed are stored. The connection information between the terminals and the arrangement conditions imposed on each of the circuit components are converted into data, and the plurality of circuits are determined based on the data-formed connection information and the arrangement conditions and the information read from the storage unit. A method for designing a printed circuit board, comprising: arranging components and designing wiring between the circuit components.