This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority of the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2019-48905, filed on Mar. 15, 2019, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The embodiments discussed herein are related to a method, an apparatus, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for calculating a coupling route of a mechanical part.
In a design of an electronic apparatus, in order to suppress electrical noise, conductive mechanical parts (hereinafter simply referred to as “mechanical parts”) are designed by visually checking, with a current tool, whether or not each mechanical part is coupled to a printed substrate (including electrical parts) of a noise radiation source or is coupled in a shortest route.
There has been known a technique in which a plurality of parts are divided into configuration parts having a size equal to or smaller than a designated maximum size, and the shortest distances in respective portions are totally measured.
Examples of the related art include Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-155379 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2009-276928.
According to an aspect of the embodiments, provided is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for storing a program which causes a processor to perform processing for calculating a coupling route of mechanical parts. The processing includes: extracting, from CAD data, information on each of a plurality of routes through which electricity is capable of flowing from a plurality of the mechanical parts constituting a conductive structure excluding an electronic part mounted over a substrate, to the substrate; extracting each of a coupling surface and a coupling point between the mechanical parts or between the mechanical part and the electronic part; calculating each of distances between the extracted coupling points; selecting a route having a shortest distance among the plurality of routes from a specific mechanical part in the plurality of mechanical parts to the substrate; and outputting the selected shortest route.
The object and advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the claims.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are not restrictive of the invention.
When a plurality of mechanical parts are stacked over a printed substrate while being electrically coupled to each other, electrical noise (simply referred to as “noise”) propagating through each mechanical part is propagated in various directions via the mechanical parts in a coupling relationship.
The mechanical parts respectively have various shapes and sizes. Therefore, even if the number of the mechanical parts of the route through which noise obtained based on the coupling relationship between the mechanical parts is small, it is not necessarily designed to be the shortest distance to the printed substrate to be capable of suppressing noise.
There is a problem that a designer checks the route from the electronic part to the printed substrate, and may specify the shortest distance based on knowledge and skill such as a shape, a size, and characteristics of the electronic part when noise propagates.
Therefore, in one aspect, an object of embodiments is to facilitate check of a route through which noise propagates regardless of the skill of the designer.
It is possible to easily check a route through which noise propagates regardless of skill of a designer.
Hereinafter, embodiments are described with reference to the drawings.
Conductive parts disposed in a part configuration 2 are referred to as mechanical parts. In the part configuration 2, parts D, E, G, H, J, and K are mechanical parts that form a conductive structure. Of these mechanical parts, the parts D, E, G, H, and J are electrically directly coupled or indirectly coupled to one or more of the electrical parts A, B, and C, and are stacked on the printed substrate 1. The mechanical part K is a part disposed in the part configuration 2 while not being electrically directly coupled or indirectly coupled to the printed substrate 1. The electrical part and the mechanical part may be collectively referred to as “part”.
When each mechanical part is set as a starting point, the mechanical part to which the EMC noise propagates is route-searched by referring to a table in which coupling partners are listed. In this example, a data example relating to the mechanical parts J, G, and D is illustrated.
Usually, all routes are searched from an uppermost mechanical part J of the part configuration 2. Routes r1, r2, and r3 are specified from the mechanical part J.
Among these, the route r1 returns to the mechanical part J of the starting part via the mechanical parts G and J. The route r2 returns to the mechanical part G again via the mechanical parts G and J. The route returning to either the mechanical part that started the route search or a middle mechanical part is excluded because it is not suitable for suppressing the EMC noise. The mechanical part K that may not be specified by the coupling partner is also excluded because it is not coupled to the printed substrate 1.
Therefore, a route coupled to the printed substrate (A or B) is the route r3 of the mechanical part J->the mechanical part G->the mechanical part D->the printed substrate (A or B), and it may be determined that the EMC noise may be suppressed because the route r3 may be specified. However, it is not possible to determine whether or not the route is a shortest route.
In the route search based on the coupling relationship between the mechanical parts, it is possible to determine whether the printed substrate 1 is directly coupled or indirectly coupled (hereinafter simply referred to as “coupling”), but it is difficult to determine the shortest route. For example, in the route r3, the mechanical part J is coupled to both the electrical part A and the electrical part B. Even when the mechanical part J is coupled to both of the electrical part A and the electrical part B, the same route r3 is obtained.
However, a distance when being coupled from the mechanical part G to the electrical part A via the mechanical part D is different from a distance when being coupled to the electrical part B. Therefore, even if the route r3 may be specified by using a tool capable of existing route searching, the shortest route may not be specified. Check of a route or a non-coupled portion which does not follow the printed substrate 1 is visually performed. As a result, a designer visually checks the part configuration 2 and, based on knowledge and skill, checks all routes which are equal to or more than thousands, so that there is a variation in product quality due to omission of check or wrong determination.
In the present example, the route to the printed substrate 1 is extracted in consideration of a shape, a size, and the like of the mechanical part to facilitate check by the designer. The shortest route among the routes to the printed substrate 1 may be specified with high accuracy.
The coupling route calculation apparatus for realizing the present example has a hardware configuration as illustrated in
The CPU 11 corresponds to a processor that controls the coupling route calculation apparatus 100 and realizes various processes according to the present example described later by executing a program stored in the storage unit 130. The input device 14 is operated by the designer and receives data in response to the operation, and the display device 15 displays various screens as a user interface. The communication I/F 17 controls communication with an external device.
A coupling route calculation program according to the present example stored in a storage medium 19 (for example, a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) is installed in the storage unit 130 via the drive device 18, and may be executed by the CPU 11.
The storage medium 19 for storing the program according to the present example is not limited to the CD-ROM, and may be any one or more non-transitory, tangible media having a computer readable structure. As the computer-readable storage medium, in addition to the CD-ROM, a digital versatile disk (DVD), a portable recording medium such as a USB memory, or a semiconductor memory such as a flash memory may be used.
The storage unit 130 stores computer-aided design (CAD) information 51, a part information table 52, a part coupling table 53, an all-route table 54, a coupling surface table 55, a coupling point table 56, a coupling point distance table 57, a route distance table 58, and a shortest route table 59.
The collection unit 41 creates the part information table 52 and the part coupling table 53, and stores them in the storage unit 130. The collection unit 41 acquires part information of each of the electrical parts A, B, and C, and the mechanical parts J, G, D, L, E, H, and K from the CAD design information 51 of the part configuration 2 stored in the storage unit 130, creates the part information table 52, and stores the part information table in the storage unit 130. The collection unit 41 specifies a part coupled to each of the mechanical parts J, G, D, L, E, H, and K from the CAD design information 51 of the part configuration 2, creates the part coupling table 53, and stores the part coupling table in the storage unit 130. The part coupling table 53 indicates that there is no coupling part with respect to the mechanical part K without coupling.
The route search unit 42 searches all routes coupled to the printed substrate 1 starting from each of the mechanical parts J, G, D, L, E, and H coupled to other mechanical parts with reference to the part coupling table 53, creates the all-route table 54, and stores the all-route table in the storage unit 130.
The correspondence table creation unit 43 obtains a surface (coupling surface) on which parts are coupled to each other, creates the coupling surface table 55, specifies a corner portion of the obtained surface as a coupling point, and creates the coupling point table 56.
The correspondence table creation unit 43 acquires a combination of two parts to be coupled with reference to the part coupling table 53, obtains an area (coupling area) of the coupling surface with reference to the part information table 52, creates the coupling surface table 55, and stores the coupling surface table in the storage unit 130. The correspondence table creation unit 43 uses the created coupling surface table 55 to dispose a coupling point over a surface of an upper part for each coupling surface, creates the coupling point table 56 indicating a list of the disposed coupling points, and stores the coupling point table in the storage unit 130.
The shortest route specification unit 44 calculates a distance for each combination of a coupling point of a coupling source and a coupling point of a coupling destination for each coupling of parts along a route starting from a part designated by the designer, creates the coupling point distance table 57, and stores the coupling point distance table in the storage unit 130. For one part, the coupling point of the coupling source corresponds to each coupling point on the coupling surface of the part opposite to a printed substrate 1 side. Similarly, the coupling point of the coupling destination corresponds to each coupling point on the coupling surface of the part on the printed substrate 1 side.
The shortest route specification unit 44 uses the coupling point distance table 57 to acquire a route with the coupling point of each coupling source in the part designated by the designer as the starting point. The shortest route specification unit 44 calculates the route distance by adding up the distances between the coupling points for each route. The route distance table 58 indicating the route distance is created and stored in the storage unit 130. In the route distance table 58, a plurality of route distances are indicated for one route.
The shortest route specification unit 44 specifies the shortest route based on all the distances obtained from the all-route table 54. The shortest route table 59 including the information of the shortest route is created and stored in the storage unit 130.
The priority determination unit 45 determines paths between coupling points to be preferentially selected when the paths are the same route but are coupled to two or more electrical parts at the coupling destination. As an example, in
The priority determination unit 45 determines, from the route distance table 58, whether to select a path to any part of the coupling destination in the corresponding route based on the size of each volume of the part of the coupling destination or the area (hereinafter simply referred to as “coupling area”) of the coupling surface, for parts in which distances of the coupling points are equal from the designated part to the printed substrate 1.
When the priority determination is made based on the volume, the priority determination unit 45 refers to the part information table 52. When the priority determination is made based on the coupling area, the priority determination unit 45 refers to the coupling surface table 55. The route selected by the priority determination unit 45 is indicated in the shortest route table 59.
The display unit 46 displays the part configuration 2 on the display device 15 based on the CAD design information 51 according to an operation of the designer, and notifies the collection unit 41 of an identifier of the part in accordance with the designation of one or a plurality of mechanical parts by the designer. By this notification, the coupling route calculation process according to the present example is started.
The display unit 46 indicates the shortest route over the part configuration 2 displayed based on the CAD design information 51 in accordance with the completion of the creation of the shortest route table 59. The display unit 46 easily displays the mechanical parts without coupling detected in the process of the coupling route calculation process.
The CAD design information 51 includes design information of the part configuration 2 designed by using the CAD by the designer. The CAD design information 51 indicates the shape, disposition coordinates, electrical characteristics (presence or absence of electrical conductivity), a material, a volume, and the like of each part disposed over the printed substrate 1.
After the coupling route calculation process by the coupling route calculation apparatus 100 according to the present example is described, the part information table 52, the part coupling table 53, the all-route table 54, the coupling surface table 55, the coupling point table 56, the coupling point distance table 57, the route distance table 58, and the shortest route table 59 will be described respectively.
The collection unit 41 collects coupling information between the parts from the CAD design information 51, creates the part coupling table 53, and stores the part coupling table in the storage unit 130 (step S202). When the mechanical part is coupled to the electrical part, the collection unit 41 may add information such as “distance 0 mm” as supplementary information. For example, in a case where a part which is not coupled to any part exists, the collection unit 41 may indicate that there is no part to be coupled in the part coupling table 53. By referring to the created part coupling table 53, it is possible to specify the part to be coupled for each part.
Next, the route search unit 42 uses the part coupling table 53 to make each part as a starting part, searches for the route to the printed substrate 1, creates all-route information, and stores the all-route table 54, in which the created all-route information is listed, in the storage unit 130 (step S203).
The correspondence table creation unit 43 acquires a coupling surface based on the part information table 55 for each combination of two parts to be coupled extracted from the part coupling table 53, calculates a coupling area based on the specified coupling surface, creates the coupling surface table 52, and stores the coupling surface table in the storage unit 130 (step S204).
Based on the coupling surface, the correspondence table creation unit 43 disposes the coupling point of the coupling portion in mesh point coordinates determined in advance (step S205). The correspondence table creation unit 43 creates the coupling point table 56 in which coupling points are associated with each other for each coupling surface, and stores the coupling point table in the storage unit 130 (step S206).
Next, the shortest route specification unit 44 calculates a distance between the coupling points (step S207), and acquires the shortest route for each mechanical part (step S208). The shortest route specification unit 44 specifies a coupling surface from the coupling surface table 55 for each coupling for each route indicated in the all-route table 54, and acquires the coupling point by referring to the coupling point table 56 by using the specified coupling surface. The shortest route specification unit 44 calculates all distances from the coupling point of the coupling source to the coupling point of the coupling destination. One or more routes may exist for one mechanical part in the coupling part. Further, there may be a plurality of paths (hereinafter referred to as “coupling point paths”) by the coupling point for one route.
The shortest route specification unit 44 may specify the route to which the shortest coupling point path belongs in all of one or more routes. The route distance table 58 including information of the specified route and distance is output to the storage unit 130. If the coupling point paths having the same shortest distance are specified by the shortest route specification unit 44 for each of two or more routes, step S209 is performed. When only one route is specified, the coupling route calculation process skips step S209, and proceeds to step S210.
When two or more routes are specified by the shortest route specification unit 44, the priority determination unit 45 determines the priority of the route (step S209). The priority determination unit 45 determines a route to be preferentially selected by using a volume or a coupling area of a part to be the coupling destination. The method of the priority determination will be described later.
The display unit 46 displays the shortest route of the mechanical part on the display device 15 (step S210). The designer may designate one or a plurality of mechanical parts. Among the routes starting from the designated mechanical part, the shortest route and the distance thereof are displayed for each mechanical part. When the designer newly designates a part, the display unit 46 notifies the collection unit 41 of the identifier of the part, and the same process as described above is repeated. By a termination operation of the designer, the coupling route calculation process by the coupling route calculation apparatus 100 is terminated.
The part identifier indicates the identifier capable of uniquely specifying the part in the part configuration 2. The part information includes values such as the shape, the coordinates, the electrical conductivity, the material, and the volume (cm3). Each piece of the part information of the mechanical parts J, G, D, L, H, E, and K, and the electrical parts A, B, and C is indicated.
Definitions of the coupling between the parts are illustrated below.
For the part J, the collection unit 41 specifies the part G from a coupling portion 7a, specifies the part L from a coupling portion 7b, and specifies the part H from a coupling portion 7c. For the part G, the collection unit 41 specifies the part J from the coupling portion 7a, specifies the part D from a coupling portion 7d, and similarly, for the part D, specifies the part G from the coupling portion 7d, specifies the part A from a coupling portion 7e, and specifies the part B from a coupling portion 7f.
Similarly, for the part L, the collection unit 41 specifies the part J from the coupling portion 7b, and specifies the part B from a coupling portion 7g. For the part H, the collection unit 41 specifies the part H from the coupling portion 7c and specifies the part E from a coupling portion 7i, and for the part E, specifies the part B from a coupling portion 7h, specifies the part H from the coupling portion 7i, and specifies the part C from a coupling portion 7j. For the part K, since a coupling portion does not exist, the collection unit 41 determines that there is no part to be coupled to the part K.
By the process of the collection unit 41 as described above, the part coupling table 53 as illustrated in
The part identifier indicates the identifier capable of uniquely specifying the part in the part configuration 2. The coupling part identifier indicates all of the part identifiers of the parts to be coupled. For a non-coupled part, “no” is set to indicate that there is no coupling part. The supplementary information is set to information that does not require the calculation of the distance between coupling points described later, but, for example, is not limited to the information to be set.
In the data configuration example of
The coupling parts of the parts L, H, and E are also respectively illustrated, and for the parts L and E, the “distance 0 mm” is set in the supplementary information. The part K is indicated to have no coupling part. Information such as “not coupled” may be set to the supplementary information of the part K.
In the data configuration example illustrated in
Also in the case of the part G coupled to a bottom surface of the part J, three routes exist. The first route is the part G->the part D->the printed substrate 1. The second route is the part G->the part J->the part L->the printed substrate 1. The second route is a detour route which is directed to the part J which is a direction away from the printed substrate 1 from the part G, and which reaches the printed substrate 1 from the part J via the part L. The third route is the part G->the part J->the part H->the part E->the printed substrate 1, and this route is also a detour route. Other than the part J farthest from the printed substrate 1, a detour route is included.
For each of the parts D, L, H, and E, three routes exist, and at least one or more detour routes is included. As illustrated in
Next, a coupling surface associated with the correspondence table creation process by the correspondence table creation unit 43 will be described.
The correspondence table creation unit 43 specifies the coupling surface for each of the coupling portions 7a to 7j illustrated in
The pair identifier indicates the identifier of two parts to be coupled. The coupling surface indicates information that uniquely specifies the coupling surface 4 of the two parts. The identifier may be uniquely created for each coupling surface. The coupling area indicates a value of the coupling area calculated by the correspondence table creation unit 43.
In the data configuration example illustrated in
In this example, four coupling points “JG1A”, “JG1B”, “JG1C”, and “JG1D” are defined for the coupling surface “JG1”. For the coupling surface “JL1”, four coupling points “JL1A”, “JL1B”, “JL1C”, and “JL1D” are defined. Similarly, coupling points are defined for the other coupling surfaces.
Next, the shortest route specifying process by the shortest route specification unit 44 will be described. The shortest route specification unit 44 calculates a distance to all combinations of a coupling point on an upper surface and a coupling point on a bottom surface for each part by using a coupling point defined in the part coupled in the part configuration 2.
In this example, four distances are calculated for the part G, eight distances are calculated for the part D, four distances are calculated for the part L, four distances are calculated for the part H, and eight distances are calculated for the part E.
The shortest route specification unit 44 records the distance in the coupling point distance table 57 every time the distance is calculated. A corresponding relationship between the part configuration 2 and the coupling point distance table 57 will be described.
According to the combination of the coupling points illustrated in
In the part G table 57-1, distances between the coupling points “JG1A-GD1A” and “JG1B-GD1B” are equal to each other, and are “a” mm, and distances between the coupling points “JG1A-GD1B” and “JG1B-GD1A” are equal to each other, and are “b” mm. In the part L table 57-3, distances between the coupling points “JL1A-LB1A” and “JL1B-LB1B” are equal to each other, and are “k” mm, and distances between the coupling points “JL1A-LB1B” and “JL1B-LB1A” are equal to each other, and are “I” mm.
In the part D table 57-2, a distance between the coupling points GD1A-DA1A is “c” mm, a distance between the coupling points “GD1A-DA1B” is “d” mm, a distance between the coupling points “GD1A-DB1A” is “e” mm, and a distance between the coupling points “GD1A-DB1B” is “f” mm. A distance between the coupling points “GD1B-DA1A” is “g” mm, a distance between the coupling points “GD1B-DA1B” is “h” mm, a distance between the coupling points “GD1B-DB1A” is “i” mm, and a distance between the coupling points “GD1B-DB1B” is “j” mm.
The shortest route specification unit 44 calculates the distance between all routes based on the coupling point distance table 57.
In
Taking the route of the part J->the part L->the printed substrate 1 (part B) as an example, as illustrated in
In two or more paths in which the route lengths are equal to each other in the same route, as illustrated in
A: Volume Comparison
Based on coupling from the coupling point “GD1A” to the coupling point “DA1B”, which is the distance g, the priority determination unit 45 refers to the coupling point table in
The priority determination unit 45 acquires a volume of each of the part A and the part B to be the coupling destinations of the part D from the part information table 52 illustrated in
In the part configuration 2 illustrated in
When the priority determination unit 45 performs the volume comparison between the part A and the part B described with reference to
Step B: Coupling Area Comparison
The priority determination unit 45 acquires and compares a coupling area “2.5” cm2 of the coupling surface “DA1” between the part D and the part A with a coupling area “1” cm2 of the coupling surface “DB1” between the part D and the part B from the coupling surface table 55 illustrated in
In the above description, step B is performed when the priority path may not be selected in step A, but step B may be performed first, and step A may be performed as desirable.
In the present example, one or more mechanical parts of the part configuration 2 may be regarded as a check object. The data configuration example of the shortest route table 59 obtained when the designer selects all of the mechanical parts J, G, D, L, H, E, and K will be described.
The mechanical part of the check object indicates the identifier of the part selected by the designer from the part configuration 2. The selection of the part is made by displaying the part configuration 2 on the display device 15 according to the operation of the designer, and the shortest route is obtained by using the identifier of the part selected as the starting part of the route. The designer may select one or more starting parts.
The shortest route indicates the shortest route in all routes of the starting part designated by the designer in the all-route table 53. A distance value, exception items, and the like are mainly recorded in the supplementary information. When the part is directly coupled to the printed substrate 1, it is indicated that the distance is “0 mm”. In this example, the parts D, L, and E are applied.
When there is a part which is not coupled to any part, a message for making the designer know the fact is indicated. In this example, “no coupling” is indicated with respect to the part K. Information such as a distance “0 mm” and “no coupling” is information obtained from the part coupling table 53 (
By confirming the screen G80, the designer may visually check the shortest route 8m over the part configuration 2, so that it is possible to easily determine suitability of the design. Since the presence or absence of the no-coupling part K or the like may be checked, the check operation of the designer may be reduced, and the design review may be efficiently performed. Although
In
Similar to
In
As described above, in the second example of the coupling point disposition method, since the number of coupling points 5p is reduced, the calculation of the distance between the coupling points 5p is reduced, and the number of records in the coupling point distance table 57 (
On the other hand, since the EMC noise tends to propagate through the surface of the part, if priority is given to distance accuracy, it is desirable to apply the first example of the coupling point disposition method illustrated in
Next, as a method of improving the accuracy by the second example of the coupling point disposition method illustrated in
In
On the other hand, similar to
In
As described above, in the third example of the coupling point disposition method, when two parts are coupled by two or more coupling surfaces 4, the calculation amount may be reduced from the first example of the coupling point disposition method. On the other hand, in
As described above, since the coupling route calculation apparatus 100 according to the present example specifies and displays the shortest route for each mechanical part of the check object designated by the designer, the designer may easily check the route through which the EMC noise may propagate without depending on skill.
For example, the embodiments not limited to the examples disclosed and various modifications and various changes may be made without departing from the scope of the claims.
In the present examples, a part of the collection unit 41 and the route search unit 42 is an example of a route extraction unit, and the correspondence table creation unit 43 is an example of a coupling information extraction unit. A part of the shortest route specification unit 44 is an example of a distance calculation unit, a part of the shortest route specification unit 44 and the priority determination unit 45 are an example of a route selection unit, and the display unit 46 is an example of an output unit.
All examples and conditional language provided herein are intended for the pedagogical purposes of aiding the reader in understanding the invention and the concepts contributed by the inventor to further the art, and are not to be construed as limitations to such specifically recited examples and conditions, nor does the organization of such examples in the specification relate to a illustrating of the superiority and inferiority of the invention. Although one or more embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail, it should be understood that the various changes, substitutions, and alterations could be made hereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2019-048905 | Mar 2019 | JP | national |