Design and Development of Gerber Data Editing Software

Abstract

Solder paste application stencil design is a crucial task in Electronic Manufacturing and Service (EMS) industry due to the complexity of modern electronics devices. Proper solder joint must be built-up between electronics components and the printed circuit board (PCB) in order to achieve expected functionalities, performance and durability of such device. To obtain a quality solder joint, an optimal solder volume should be deposit by using a properly designed stencil on the component pads in the PCB layout. The aim of this project is to provide a software solution for designing solder paste application stencils based on the respective Gerber data of the PCB. The Gerber is a 2-D monochrome vector image data representation format which extensively used in EMS industry. Gerber data file is an output of PCB designing applications. Gerber file consists of human readable series of commands that corresponds to series of graphics objects supper imposed on top of each and ultimately generates a single image. Since Gerber file consists of set of graphic objects, object oriented programming concept was involved in the solution. All the basic objects as well as macro objects which are defined in the Gerber format specification [1] were developed according to the object oriented concept. Major functionalities required for stencil design process; reading, displaying, editing and saving were developed in the evolutionary prototype model. Subsequent to the main problem, important algorithm for selecting complex 2-D polygon objects was invented during the project. The new algorithm can be used to solve common Point-In-Polygon problem in any 2-D vector graphics application.