Although the surface mount technology has been used extensively in the printed circuit design and manufacturing, modeling tools to support the prediction of placement process quality are limited. To assure the quality of printed circuits through the interaction of product and process design, the basic understanding of the relationship between product and process quality should be better developed. In this research, a basic alignment model for a lead of a surface mounted component and its corresponding pad on the printed circuit board is presented. A placement process error model is setup using the basic alignment model to represent the process variations of the component placement process. Major process variables are simulated to study their effects on the component placement quality....[ Read more ]

Although the surface mount technology has been used extensively in the printed circuit design and manufacturing, modeling tools to support the prediction of placement process quality are limited. To assure the quality of printed circuits through the interaction of product and process design, the basic understanding of the relationship between product and process quality should be better developed. In this research, a basic alignment model for a lead of a surface mounted component and its corresponding pad on the printed circuit board is presented. A placement process error model is setup using the basic alignment model to represent the process variations of the component placement process. Major process variables are simulated to study their effects on the component placement quality.