JPH07117968B2 - Automatic component placement device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a component automatic placement apparatus for determining the placement position of a component mounted on a printed circuit board,
In particular, the present invention relates to an automatic component placement device capable of determining the placement position in consideration of cooling of components that generate heat.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional automatic component allocating device of this type is arranged without considering the heat generated by the component, and then performs a thermal analysis based on the power consumption of the component, the heat radiation efficiency and the like. (For example, JP-A-3-109674).

[0003]

As described above, conventionally, the components are arranged without considering the heat generated by the parts, and then the thermal analysis is performed, so that the cooling is insufficient in the thermal analysis. There are cases in which various parts are found. In such a case, it is necessary to redo the component placement process again.
There are times when you can't get rid of all the defective parts by fixing it once.
There is a problem that it takes a lot of labor and time to obtain a desired result.

An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic component placement device which can perform placement in consideration of cooling of heat-generating components.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is an automatic component placement device for automatically determining the placement position of a component mounted on a printed circuit board, which is mounted on the printed circuit board. A netlist storing connection information between components, a component placement table storing placement information, a component library storing power consumption and heat dissipation efficiency of components placed on the printed circuit board, and the print Virtual component setting means for forcibly placing a virtual component at the cooling medium inflow port for the substrate and adding the placement information of the virtual component to the component placement table, and power consumption and heat dissipation efficiency of the component stored in the component library. On the basis of this, the component requiring cooling is recognized based on the virtual component, a virtual connection is generated between the component requiring cooling and the virtual component, and information regarding the virtual connection is provided to the virtual component. A virtual connection generation means to be added to the list, a weighting means for weighting the virtual connection generated by the virtual connection generation means based on the power consumption and heat dissipation efficiency of the components stored in the component library, The placement position of the component is determined based on the connection information between the components stored in the netlist, the information regarding the virtual connection added to the netlist, and the weight given to the virtual connection by the weighting unit. The automatic placement means is provided.

[0006]

With the virtual component setting means, the virtual component is forcibly placed at the cooling medium inflow port of the printed circuit board, and the placement information of the virtual component is added to the component placement table.

The virtual connection generating means recognizes a component requiring cooling based on the power consumption and heat dissipation efficiency of the component stored in the component library, and generates a virtual connection between the component and the virtual component. Add information about virtual connections to the netlist.

The weighting means weights the virtual connection generated by the virtual connection generating means based on the power consumption and heat radiation efficiency of the components stored in the component library.

[0009] The automatic placement means uses the connection information between the parts stored in the netlist, the information about the virtual connection added to the netlist by the virtual connection generation means, and the weight given to the virtual connection by the weighting means. Based on this, the placement position of the component is determined.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, in which a virtual component setting means 11 and a virtual connection generating means 12 are provided.
It includes a weighting unit 13, an automatic placement unit 14, a component placement table 15, a component library 16, and a net list 17. In the figure, solid arrows indicate the flow of data and white arrows indicate the flow of control.

The component placement table 15 stores information such as the types and placement positions of individual components mounted on the printed circuit board.

In the parts library 16, each kind of parts is
Information such as power consumption, heat dissipation efficiency, and physical shape is stored.

The net list 17 stores connection information between components mounted on the printed circuit board.

The virtual part setting means 11 takes in position information indicating the position of the cooling medium inflow port inputted from the outside, forcibly arranges the virtual part at that position, and arranges the virtual part in the part arrangement table 15. It has a function of adding information indicating a position.

The virtual connection generating means 12 is a parts library 1
The type of component that requires cooling is recognized based on the power consumption and heat dissipation efficiency for each type of component stored in 6, and a virtual connection is generated between the component of that type and a virtual component, and the virtual connection is generated. It has a function of adding to the netlist 17 as new connection information.

The weighting means 13 is a virtual connection generating means 12
The degree of necessity of cooling the component that is to be connected to the virtual component by the virtual connection generated by the power consumption for each type of the component stored in the component library 16,
It has a function of making a determination based on the heat radiation efficiency and weighting the corresponding virtual connection according to the degree.

The automatic placement means 14 is based on the weight set by the weighting means 13, the physical shape of the component stored in the component library 16, and the connection information between the components stored in the netlist 17. Has a function of determining the arrangement position of each component and storing the result in the component arrangement table 15.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the arrangement result, in which 21 is a cooling medium inflow port, 22 is a virtual component, 23 is a printed circuit board, and A to D are components mounted on the printed circuit board 23. There is. In the figure, the alternate long and short dash line indicates virtual connection, the broken line indicates signal connection, and the white arrow indicates the flow of the cooling medium. Further, in FIG. 2, for simplification of the expression, the end points of the signal connection are set to the center of the parts, but in reality, the signal connection is expressed by using the terminal positions of the parts as the end points.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

When the position information indicating the position of the cooling medium inflow port 21 shown in FIG. 2 is input from the outside, the virtual part setting means 11 sets the virtual part 22 so that the representative point is located at the center of the cooling medium inflow port 21. The placement information of the virtual component 22 is added to the component placement table 15 together with the forced placement, and then the control is passed to the virtual connection generation means 12.

When the control is passed, the virtual connection generating means 12 recognizes the type of the component requiring cooling based on the power consumption and the heat radiation efficiency of each type of the component stored in the component library 16, and the type is recognized. A virtual connection is generated between the virtual component 22 and the virtual component 22, and the virtual connection is added to the netlist 17 as new connection information.

Now, for example, if the components A and B of the components A to D mounted on the printed circuit board 23 are components that need to be cooled, the virtual connection generating means 12 is arranged between the virtual component 22 and the component A. , A virtual connection is generated between the virtual component 22 and the component B, and the virtual connection is added to the netlist 17 as new connection information.

The weighting means 13 is the virtual connection generating means 12
The degree of necessity of cooling for the parts A and B that are to be connected to the virtual part 22 by the virtual connection that has occurred is based on the power consumption and heat dissipation efficiency for each kind of parts stored in the parts library 16. The virtual connection between the parts A and B and the virtual part 22 is weighted according to the degree. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the virtual connection corresponding to a component having a large degree of need for cooling is given a larger weight.

When the processing of the weighting means 13 is completed, the automatic placement means 14 selects one of the unplaced parts that is most connected to the already placed parts. Now, for example, in FIG. 2, assuming that the virtual part 22 and the parts C and D are already arranged parts, the unarranged parts A and B are both connected to the virtual part 22 and the parts C and D. Therefore, the automatic arrangement means 14 selects one of the parts A and B.

Assuming that the component A is selected, the automatic placement means 14 determines the virtual wiring length L1 between the components A and C, the virtual wiring length L2 between the components A and D, and the virtual wiring length L between the components A and 22. The weighting means 13 applies the virtual wiring length L3 to the component A and the virtual component 2.
The value α · multiplied by the weight α given to the virtual connection between
The component A is placed at an empty position where the total sum (L1 + L2 + α · L3) with L3 is minimized, and the placement information is stored in the component placement table 15. Now, for example, assuming that the weight given to the virtual connection between the component A and the virtual component 22 by the weighting means 13 is "5", the component A has the cooling medium inlet 21 of the cooling medium inlet 21 as shown in FIG. It will be placed in the vicinity.

After that, the automatic placement means 14 performs the same processing as described above for the part B, places the part B, and stores the placement information in the part placement table 15. Now, for example, the weight given to the virtual connection between the component B and the virtual component 22 by the weighting means 13 is "2".
Then, as shown in FIG. 2, the component B is arranged at a position farther from the cooling medium inlet 21 than the component A.

The automatic arrangement means 14 repeats the above-mentioned processing until the arrangement of all parts is completed.

In the above-described embodiment, one virtual part 22 is forcibly arranged at the cooling medium inlet 21 such that its representative point is located at the center of the cooling medium inlet 21. When the width of the inlet 21 is wide, the cooling medium inlet 21 is divided into a plurality of parts, the virtual parts are forcibly arranged in each part, and the parts requiring cooling are evenly allocated to the respective virtual parts. You can also do so. By doing so, it becomes possible to prevent components requiring cooling from concentrating in the central portion of the inlet. In this case, the virtual part setting means 11 is externally provided with position information of the respective parts so that the virtual parts are forcibly arranged in the respective parts,
It is necessary to give the virtual connection generation means 12 a number of divisions from the virtual component setting means 11 so that the virtual components forcibly arranged in the respective portions are allocated on average to the components that require cooling.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, virtual connection is generated between the virtual part setting means for forcibly placing the virtual part at the cooling medium inlet and the virtual part and the part requiring cooling. The virtual connection generation means, the weighting means for weighting the virtual connection based on the power consumption and the heat radiation efficiency of the parts requiring cooling, and the automatic arrangement means for performing the arrangement in consideration of the weight are provided to cool the virtual connection. Since the more necessary components are placed closer to the cooling medium inlet, the number of defective spots found when performing thermal analysis can be greatly reduced compared to conventional techniques, and the efficiency of placement design can be improved. The effect is that you can do it.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a placement result.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 ... Virtual component setting means 12 ... Virtual connection generating means 13 ... Weighting means 14 ... Automatic placement means 15 ... Component placement table 16 ... Component library 17 ... Netlist 21 ... Cooling medium inlet 22 ... Virtual component 23 ... Printed circuit board A ... D ... Parts

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A component automatic placement apparatus for automatically determining a placement position of a component to be mounted on a printed circuit board, and a netlist storing connection information between components mounted on the printed circuit board. A component placement table that stores placement information, a component library that stores power consumption and heat dissipation efficiency of components that are placed on the printed circuit board, and a virtual component is forcibly placed at a cooling medium inlet for the printed circuit board A virtual component setting unit that adds placement information of the virtual component to the component placement table, and recognizes a component that requires cooling based on power consumption and heat dissipation efficiency of the component stored in the component library,
A virtual connection generating means for generating a virtual connection between a component requiring cooling and the virtual component and adding information about the virtual connection to the netlist; and a virtual connection generated by the virtual connection generating means. On the other hand, weighting means for performing weighting based on power consumption and heat dissipation efficiency of components stored in the component library, connection information between components stored in the netlist, and virtual information added to the netlist. An automatic component placement apparatus comprising: an automatic placement unit that determines a placement position of a component based on connection information and a weight given to the virtual connection by the weighting unit. 2. A value obtained by multiplying a virtual wiring length between the virtual component and a virtual component by a weight given by the weighting component when the automatic placement component determines a layout position of the component virtually connected to the virtual component. 2. The automatic component placement apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a position where the total sum of the virtual wiring length with other components and the virtual wiring length is the minimum is the placement position of the component.