JPH11121884A - Printed wiring board - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize a printed wiring board which can be modified without cutting off disused part of a conductor pattern or connecting a jumper wire. SOLUTION: A printed wiring board is equipped with conductor patterns 20 provided on an insulating material, a communication means 50 which receives data from the outside, memory means 60 which store connection data obtained from the outside through the communication means 50, and connection switching means 40 which control the connection of conductor patterns between continuity and discontinuity so as to electrically connect the conductor patterns together as required on the basis of connection data obtained through the memory means 60.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printed wiring board in which a plurality of conductive patterns are formed of a conductive material on the surface or inside of an insulating material, and more particularly, to securing desired electrical continuity between patterns.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional printed wiring board, lands, which serve as connection bases for mounted components, are connected by conductor patterns. The conductor pattern is formed by forming and fixing a pattern with a conductive material on the surface or inside of an insulating material. Therefore, the connectivity of the conductor pattern is fixed in only one way.

In recent years, printed circuit boards have been increased in density and the components themselves such as LSIs and resistors and capacitors to be mounted have been increased in density and reduced in size. Special L
In SI, there is a remarkable tendency.

[0004] A printed wiring board is a conductive pattern formed and fixed on the surface or inside of an electrically insulating material (insulating substrate) using a conductive material. This refers to a substrate that has been processed (state immediately before mounting electronic components).

A printed circuit board on which electronic components are mounted, soldering connection is completed, and a circuit having a design specification specified by the design is realized is called a printed circuit board.

[0006]

When the design specifications of the printed circuit board change, or when the circuit is changed during debugging in the development stage, the conductor pattern of the printed wiring board itself must be changed. Things can happen.

On a printed wiring board, a conductor pattern is formed.
Because it is fixed, in order to change the conductor pattern, it is necessary to cut unnecessary parts of the already arranged conductor pattern or solder a jumper wire to a place to be newly connected .

As the amount of circuit change for such a correction increases, the number of steps required for the correction becomes unacceptable, and in some cases, the profit cannot be obtained. Further, in the case of a multilayer printed wiring board, the middle pattern layer cannot be cut, so that it may be difficult to correct it.

In a large-scale dedicated LSI, etc., the pins of the LSI to be connected to the printed wiring board are densely arranged such that pins of 0.17 to 0.27 mm are arranged at 0.5 mm intervals, and In addition, miniaturized products are becoming a matter of course today.

When a pattern is changed in a circuit using the above-mentioned LSI, 0.27 or
A very difficult and time consuming operation must be performed because 0.32 mm jumper wires must be soldered. In the future, the mounting density of printed circuit boards will be
Since there is a tendency for higher densities, it is more difficult to change the pattern, and a very serious problem is expected.

By the way, in consideration of such connection, an LSI (Field Programming Programmable Programmable Programmable Circuit), for example, which can change an internal logic circuit to a logic circuit having a desired function based on external information, is used.
Array) and PLD (Programmable Logic Device).

However, these circuit scales are limited by the technology of the LSI manufacturing process, and when manufactured using the same LSI manufacturing process technology in view of the internal circuit scale, when compared with the dedicated LSI, FPGAs and PLDs have built-in connection means for enabling internal connections to be changed based on connection information, so that the circuit scale that can be realized internally from dedicated LSIs is smaller. Therefore, a circuit scale equivalent to that of a dedicated LSI cannot be realized by an FPGA or PLD, and it may be more advantageous to use a dedicated large-scale LSI when designing a circuit.
The scale of the circuit that can be changed inside the PGA or PLD was small.

Further, in the internal circuit of the FPGA or PLD,
When an analog circuit is to be realized, various analog circuits and constants associated with the analog circuits must be prepared in the LSI.

Therefore, since only a digital circuit is built in an FPGA or PLD, in the case of an analog circuit,
Since an FPGA or PLD could not be used, there was no other way but to change the circuit by changing the pattern of the printed wiring board.

When the printed wiring board is changed in accordance with the circuit change, it is difficult or impossible to correct the printed wiring board, so that a new printed wiring board must be re-created. In some cases, the development period of a new product is long, or there is a delay in quickly launching a new product.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above technical problems, and has as its object to realize a printed wiring board which can be modified without cutting unnecessary portions of a conductor pattern or connecting jumper wires. And

[0017]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a printed wiring board configured so that desired conductor patterns can be connected to each other. The details are described below.

(1) In the first invention, a plurality of conductor patterns disposed on an insulating material, communication means for receiving information from outside, and connection information from outside via the communication means are stored. A plurality of storage units, and a plurality of units that perform connection control between conduction and non-conduction so as to ensure conductivity between desired ones of the connected conductor patterns based on connection information from the storage unit. And a connection switching means.

According to the invention of the printed wiring board, connection / non-conduction connection control is performed by the connection switching element based on the stored connection information. Nature is secured.

As a result, it is possible to realize a printed wiring board which can be modified without cutting unnecessary portions of the conductor pattern or connecting jumper wires.

(2) The second invention is based on a plurality of conductor patterns provided on an insulating material, communication means for receiving information from outside, and connection information from outside via the communication means. And a plurality of connection switching means for controlling connection between conduction and non-conduction so as to ensure conductivity between desired ones of the connected conductor patterns.

In the invention of the printed wiring board, connection / non-conduction connection control is performed by the connection switching element based on connection information from the outside, so that desired ones of the plurality of conductor patterns are connected to each other to form a conductive pattern. Is secured.

As a result, it is possible to realize a printed wiring board which can be corrected without cutting unnecessary portions of the conductor pattern or connecting jumper wires.

[0024]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail.

First, the overall configuration of the printed wiring board used in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall electrical schematic configuration of a printed wiring board according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of the printed wiring board according to the present embodiment.

In these figures, 10 is an insulating material, 2
0 is a conductor pattern provided on the insulating material 10, 30 is a land provided at an end of the conductor pattern 20 and serves as a base for connection with a mounted component, and 40 is a conductive pattern for a part of the connected conductor pattern 20. A connection switching element for performing connection control for conducting / non-conducting so as to ensure communication, a communication means for performing communication (at least reception) with the outside, and a connection information obtained via the communication means 50 Is a storage means for storing and supplying the connection switching element 40 and the outside.

The connection switching means 40 has a plurality of input / output terminals, and the conductor pattern 2 connected to the input / output terminals.
A function of arbitrarily controlling conduction or non-conduction between desired input / output terminals in accordance with connection information of 0 is provided.

3 (a), 4 and 6
The operation at the time of circuit setting will be specifically described based on (a).

The communication means 50 has a function of transmitting or receiving (at least receiving) information with the outside, and is interposed between the outside and the storage means 61 to 66. Storage means 6
The connection between 1 to 66 and the communication means 50 can be considered to be directly connected or indirectly connected. In any case, it is assumed that there is no problem in information transmission.

By this communication means 50, FIG.
Receiving connection information for realizing the circuit shown in FIG.
In addition, the connection information is transmitted to the plurality of storage units 61 to 66 (S1 in FIG. 6A).

The storage means 61 to 66 are interposed between the communication means 50 and the connection switching means 41 to 46. The storage units 61 to 66 store connection information provided from the outside via the communication unit 50 (S2 in FIG. 6A), and provide the connection information to the connection switching units 41 to 46.

The connection switching means 41 to 46 include a storage means 61
To 66 and the conductor pattern 20. When the internal switches are set in accordance with the connection information provided from the storage units 61 to 66, the connection switching units 41 to 46 conduct between the desired patterns connected to the respective connection switching units 41 to 46. 6 is formed, and impermeableness is formed between the undesired patterns (FIG. 6).
(A) S3).

As a result, conductivity can be ensured between desired patterns, between patterns and lands, and between lands, and a desired circuit is formed (FIG. 6 (a) S4). ).

In the above-described printed wiring board, in order to configure the circuit after the change shown in FIG.
According to the procedure of the flowchart of (b), the corrected connection information is stored again (S2 in FIG. 6B), and the desired conductor patterns 20 are re-formed by the connection switching elements 41 to 46 (FIG. 6B). S3 and S4) are shown in FIG.

As described above, when it is necessary to cut the points A and B in FIG. 3 and connect the points B and C due to a design change or the like, according to the conventional method, the B-C It was necessary to connect a jumper wire to the
By controlling the connection state of the connection switching elements 41 to 46 as shown in FIG. 5, it is possible to secure conduction between desired patterns, and as a result, without using a jumper wire,
The pattern can be modified.

In order to check whether the connection information stored in the storage means matches the content received from the outside, reception, storage and connection switching are performed (FIGS. 7S1 to S4).
The contents stored in the storage unit are copied and output to the outside via the communication unit (S5 in FIG. 7). This makes it possible to perform an inspection outside. Note that, in this case as well, the contents stored in the storage means are kept as usual.

The connection switching means 40 to 46 can be constituted by electronic circuits such as general-purpose analog switches or optical switches.

The storage means 60 to 66 can be constituted by a nonvolatile memory or a volatile memory.

The connection switching units 41 to 46 and the storage units 61 to 66 have a one-to-one connection relationship. That is, the connection switching unit 41 and the storage unit 61 are connected, and the connection switching unit 41 performs connection switching control based on the connection information stored in the storage unit 61.

Although power is not specifically shown in the figure, it is assumed that power is supplied to all function realizing means and mounted components.

Further, the present invention is not limited to the above description.
This is effective even when a large-scale dedicated LSI is used in a printed wiring board using the large-scale dedicated LSI. Because large-scale dedicated LSIs are connected to a printed wiring board
I pins are 0.57 mm pitch 0.17 ~
Today, a line of 0.27 mm LSI pins has become a matter of course.

It is very difficult to solder a jumper wire to this large-scale dedicated LSI. In the future, it is expected that higher densification and miniaturization will advance, and it may be impossible to change the pattern of the printed wiring board for circuit change eventually, but it can be solved by using the present invention, It is also possible to realize a printed wiring board that can significantly reduce development time such as debugging time during development.

Further, in the present invention, the connection can be changed as desired even when designing an analog circuit. For example, it is possible to easily prepare a plurality of circuit constants on a substrate in advance. Thus, a printed wiring board whose circuit constant can be changed only by changing the connection information can be realized.

Further, according to the present invention, a printed wiring board capable of changing a circuit by transmitting connection switching information and updating the connection information is also realized for a printed wiring board of a remote device by communication. it can.

Other Embodiments (1) In the above description of the specific example, the number of layers of the printed wiring board is not particularly limited. Whether it ’s a single-layer printed wiring board,
Good results are obtained as well as with multilayer printed wiring boards. Further, in the case of a multilayer printed wiring board, it may be extremely difficult to cope with jumper wires, but the pattern can be easily changed by the connection switching means.

(2) The connection switching means described above may be an analog element or a digital element. In the case of a digital element, the signal flows in one direction, but in the case of an analog element, there is no limitation on the signal flow direction.

(3) The output of the digital connection switching means can be provided with a buffer function. In such a case, it is not necessary to consider the limitation of the number of fan-outs.

(4) The output stage of the digital connection switching means can have a waveform shaping function. In that case, it is possible to shape the undershoot or overshoot included in the passing signal.

[0050]

As described above in detail with the embodiments, according to the invention described in this specification, the following effects can be obtained.

According to the present invention, the conductivity between the components mounted on the printed wiring board and the land such as a connector required for connection with the outside of the printed wiring board can be determined by connection information given from the outside or in advance. The connection information stored in the storage means makes it possible to secure conductivity between desired patterns, between patterns and between lands, and between lands and lands. Even when a change occurs, or when a change occurs in the printed wiring board for circuit changes during debugging at the development stage, unnecessary parts of the conductor pattern of the printed wiring board should be cut or newly connected It is possible to realize a printed wiring board in which a circuit can be changed only by changing connection information without making a correction such as soldering a jumper wire to a location.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printed wiring board used in a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a pattern connection state in a printed wiring board used in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of circuit connection before change, a state of circuit connection after change, an IC form, and a state of pin numbers used in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a state before a pattern change shown in FIG. 3A in a printed wiring board used in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing a state of the printed wiring board used in the embodiment of the present invention after the pattern shown in FIG. 3B is changed.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a procedure for setting a pattern circuit and changing a circuit of a printed wiring board used in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a procedure for setting a pattern circuit of a printed wiring board and reading stored information used in the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Insulating substrate 20 Conductor pattern 30 Land 40 Connection switching means 41 Connection switching means # 1 42 Connection switching means # 2 43 Connection switching means # 3 44 Connection switching means # 4 45 Connection switching means # 5 46 Connection switching means # 650 Communication Means 60 Storage means 61 Storage means # 1 62 Storage means # 2 63 Storage means # 3 64 Storage means # 4 65 Storage means # 5 66 Storage means # 6

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of conductor patterns provided on an insulating material; a communication unit for receiving information from outside; a plurality of storage units for storing connection information from outside via the communication unit; A plurality of connection switching means for performing connection control between conduction and non-conduction based on the connection information from the storage means so as to secure conductivity between desired ones of the connected conductor patterns. Printed wiring board. 2. A communication device comprising: a plurality of conductor patterns provided on an insulating material; communication means for transmitting and receiving information to and from the outside; and connection information from outside via the communication means.
A plurality of connection switching means for controlling connection between conduction and non-conduction so as to ensure conductivity between desired ones of the connected conductor patterns.