Component Carrier Traceability Through Displaced Information Structures
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing miniaturization and complexity of electronic components on component carriers, such as printed circuit boards, pose challenges in heat removal, mechanical robustness, electrical reliability, and traceability, especially under harsh conditions.
Innovation Solution
A component carrier body with laterally and vertically displaced information carrying structures, such as QR codes, is implemented, allowing for accurate tracing and linking manufacturing data through a database, ensuring reliable and tamper-proof tracking.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple identification codes are placed on different surfaces of the component carrier, then traceability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent embeds information carrying structures within the layer stack of the component carrier rather than placing them on external surfaces. Each layer contains an information carrying structure that can be read through transparent or translucent layers, creating a nested configuration where information is stored inside the component carrier structure itself rather than adding external elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from placing identification codes on two-dimensional external surfaces to embedding them within the three-dimensional layer stack. By utilizing the vertical dimension and making information readable through transparent layers, the system enables traceability without adding external complexity.
2Reliability
If information carrying structures are embedded within layer structures, then traceability is improved, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates tolerance compensation into the design by allowing information carrying structures to be read through multiple layers. The system is designed to accommodate manufacturing variations and misalignments by enabling reading through transparent layers, so that minor positioning errors do not prevent successful reading of the information.
Solution Approach 2:
Transparent or translucent layers act as intermediaries that allow optical reading of information carrying structures embedded within the layer stack. These intermediary layers enable the reading process to tolerate certain manufacturing imprecisions by allowing the reading beam to pass through multiple layers to reach the information carrying structure.
3Measurement precision
If laterally displaced information carrying structures are used, then reading accuracy is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses lateral displacement of information carrying structures within the layer stack to enable selective reading. By positioning information carrying structures at different lateral positions within the thickness of the component carrier, the system can read specific information by adjusting the reading position, utilizing the third dimension (depth within layers) rather than adding external reading mechanisms.
Data Source
Figure 1~1A
Figure 2
Figure 3~6
AI summary
A component carrier related body (100) which comprises a stack (102) comprising a plurality of electrically conductive and/or electrically insulating layer structures (110 to 112), and at least two information carrying structures (107 to 109) formed vertically displaced on at least two different of the layer structures (110 to 112), wherein at least two of the at least two information carrying structures (107 to 109) are laterally displaced in a plan view on the stack (102).