In the Powertrain GPU at Delco Electronics, the mechanical engineer is responsible for the overall physical layout of the PCB design so that it meets the customer's physical requirements. The mechanical engineer determines the placement, routing, and via keepout locations on the board. These responsibilities may also include the "preplacement" of certain components and "height-restricted" placement regions based on thermal and physical constraints.

Traditionally, this information was conveyed to the PCB layout designer using a combination of drawings, sketches, and phone calls. This method is prone to inaccuracies due to the potential for miscommunication and misinterpretation of the paper information. An electronic method for conveying much of this information from the mechanical engineer to the PCB layout designer has been established.

The electronic transfer eliminates the need for interpretation of the data because the data will show up in Board Station as the intelligent entities that Board Station requires to properly constrain the placement and routing of the PCB. An additional GRIP program in Unigraphics also creates an IGES and text file containing the graphic image and bill of materials information required to complete a fully detailed hand-placed assembly drawing from within the Mentor Graphics tools. These two files are electronically sent to the "common area" and automatically imported into the Mentor Graphics tools by the AMPLE program that automatically creates the manufacturing assembly drawings.

The current methods for handling mechanical information in the Mentor Graphics tools are being used but are, at this time, very limited. Additional capabilities are needed to allow a full bi-directional interface to be developed. Some of these "future" requirements and possible methods will be discussed from Delco Electronics Information Technology point of view.

Bio:
Kimberley Kimmel is an advanced project engineer in the Engineering Information Technology Development Group at Delco Electronics Corporation located in Kokomo, Indiana. She has experience in the mechanical design and analysis of IC packages and Hybrid Modules. Kimberley has been with Delco Electronics for 17 years and in her current assignment of selecting and developing automation tools for the Mechanical engineers in Powertrain for the last six years. Currently her job is evolving into developing methods of allowing data transfer and/or data sharing between various engineering tools. She is familiar with HPUX, Unigraphics, the GRIP programming language (Unigraphics), and C along with the Mentor Graphics Board Station tools.