Masters Abstracts (1991)

UGUR, HAKAN
(December 1991)

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An Integrated Expert system Environment to Support Design and Manufacturing Activities for Printed Circuit Boards using Surface Mount Technology

The research and development of an Integrated Expert System Environment (IESE) to establish links and interfaces between the component sub-systems including design, assembly process planning, soldering, and testing was the global objective of this thesis. The IESE including its several sub-systems and a common database of PCB assembly information was designed and developed to illustrate the feasibility of complex information integration.

A sub-objective of this thesis was to design and develop an expert system as a part of the IESE. The function of this expert system is to support PCB substrate design activities. This expert system uses information that relates to components, machines, etc. It also considers manufacturing information such as machine capabilities, producibility of conductor widths and hole sizes, component characteristics, etc. The prototype system designed and developed helps with the determination of the number of layers in a board, conductor space and width values, and the selection of medium-interconnection type. The IESE was developed using Common LISP on a workstation. The symbolic manipulation and procedural programming characteristics of LISP made the system user friendly. It is extremely effective in representing the expert's knowledge and mimicking the expert's thought process.