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PERFORMANCE
OF
COMPLETED
PROJECTS
STATUS REPORT
NUMBER 1
NIST SPECIAL PUBLICATION
950-1
Economic Assessment
Office
Advanced Technology Program
Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899
William F. Long
Business Performance Research Associates, Inc.
Bethesda, Maryland 20814
March 1999
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Executive Summary
Introduction
CHAPTER 1 - Overview of Completed Projects
Characteristics of the Projects
Timeline of Expected ATP Project
Activities and Impacts
Gains in Technical Knowledge
Dissemination of New Knowledge
Commercialization of the New Technology
Broad-Based Economic Benefits
CHAPTER 2 - Biotechnology
Aastrom Biosciences,
Inc.
Aphios Corporation
Molecular Simulations, Inc.
Thermo Trilogy Corporation
Tissue Engineering, Inc.
CHAPTER 3 - Chemicals and Chemical Processing
BioTraces, Inc.
CHAPTER 4 - Discrete Manufacturing
Auto Body Consortium (Joint
Venture)
HelpMate Robotics, Inc.
PreAmp Consortium (Joint Venture)
Saginaw Machine Systems, Inc.
CHAPTER 5 - Electronics
Accuwave Corporation
AstroPower, Inc.
Cree Research, Inc.
Cynosure, Inc.
Diamond Semiconductor Group, LLC
FSI International, Inc.
Galileo Corporation
Hampshire Instruments, Inc. (Joint Venture)
Illinois Superconductor Corporation
Light Age, Inc.
Lucent Technologies, Inc.
Multi-Film Venture (Joint Venture)
Nonvolatile Electronics, Inc.
Spire Corporation
Thomas Electronics, Inc.
CHAPTER 6 - Energy and Environment
American Superconductor Corporation
Armstrong World Industries, Inc.
E.I. duPont de Nemours & Company
Michigan Molecular Institute
CHAPTER 7 - Information, Computers, and Communications
Communication Intelligence Corporation #1
Communication Intelligence Corporation #2
Engineering Animation, Inc.
ETOM Technologies, Inc.
Mathematical Technologies, Inc.
Torrent Systems, Inc.
CHAPTER 8 - Materials
AlliedSignal, Inc.
Geltech Incorporated
IBM Corporation
APPENDICES
Appendix A: Development of New
Knowledge and Early Commercial Products and Processes
Appendix B: Terminated Projects
END NOTES
End Notes
Click here for PDF version of report.
Return to Main Page.
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PreAmp
Consortium
(Joint Venture)
New
Models to Speed the Development of Electronics Components
| Printed
circuit boards are ubiquitous. Most people know that boards
are in computers, and that each computer actually contains several
boards. They are also found in televisions, VCRs and the hand-held
controls for these devices, as well as in printers, airplanes,
thermostats, automobiles, appliances, calculators, garage-door
openers, industrial controls, communications satellites and
numerous other devices. |
Data Sharing Speeds
Component Development
In this ATP
project, the PreAmp consortium developed common parts identifiers
(a standard "product model" for components) and fabrication procedures
(a generic "manufacturing process model" for making components)
that can be shared among producers and users of printed circuit
boards and other electronics components all along the production
chain. These models will enable true concurrent (simultaneous) engineering
of component design and manufacturing processes, an arrangement
that will reduce the cost of developing components, improve their
quality and decrease their time-to-market. These improvements, in
turn, will lead to similar improvements in finished electronics
products that incorporate printed circuit boards and other components
developed via this new technology.
PreAmp is a
joint venture of the South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA) and
four large companies that use printed circuit boards in their finished
products. Funding from ATP enabled the consortium to conduct research
that it otherwise would have been unable to do. It also facilitated
the formation of alliances among the research partners, helping
them to demonstrate technology-enhanced concurrent engineering concepts
to industry.
The research
involved four major tasks: the design of software architecture for
electronically sharing component specifics; the development of software
prototypes; the implementation, analysis, evaluation and demonstration
of a component database and access mechanism; and the refinement
of the manufacturing capability database, its software architecture
and manufacturing process planning.
Easier to Share Information
The PreAmp "product
model" for electronics components was successfully developed. It
is a complete standards-based, data-sharing framework for automating
the design and manufacture of electronic components such as printed
circuit boards. It is an extension to the electronics industry of
STEP (Standard for Exchange of Product Model Data), an international
standard that defines a standard product model for automation systems
in order to facilitate the capture and use of all information relevant
to product design and manufacture. This extension will speed the
development of electronics components (and, ultimately, finished
electronics products) by greatly easing the sharing of information
among the engineers who design electronics components and those
who design the processes for manufacturing these components.
In addition,
the PreAmp generic model of manufacturing processes was designed
to further aid manufacturing engineers by capturing all relevant
data on the manufacturing capabilities of a particular plant, information
such as shop-floor equipment capabilities, equipment layout, and
operating requirements and limits. As part of this effort, researchers
developed a knowledge-based software system that can extract process
"rules" from the manufacturing process data - for example, "Given
current equipment, interconnects may not be spaced closer than X."
Such rules will improve the functioning of the system.
The combination
of the full product and manufacturing models allows concurrent (simultaneous)
engineering of component design, process design and component manufacturing.
Studies cited by the consortium suggest the new technology can reduce
time-to-market by 50 percent or more, double component quality levels
and reduce development costs by 30 percent to 70 percent. The project's
commercialization work is still underway, so it is not yet known
whether these expectations will be matched by improvements in the
quality of actual component design and manufacturing processes.
Initial Commercialization
Some of the
technology developed by the PreAmp consortium has been adapted and
incorporated in software tools by STEP Tools, Inc., an informal
participant in the ATP project. STEP Tools developed a prototype
STEP data application interface for the project. Afterward, the
company enhanced the prototype to make it suitable for commercial
use and incorporated it in the ST-Developer(tm), an application
that already has several hundred customers.
The principal
"test-bed" implementation of the models developed during the ATP
project was carried out by PreAmp members. Boeing is conducting
a pilot project to determine whether it can use the new software
technology in its internal operations to increase the productivity
of printed circuit board design work. The company is working with
an ATP-project subcontractor in developing software to translate
existing database information to work in the new "product model"
system. It will probably be known by 1999 whether the Boeing effort
succeeds. If it does, the creation of commercial products will be
much more likely.
Three members
(Boeing, Hughes and Rockwell) have arranged with SCRA for it to
serve as the PreAmp agent with vendors interested in creating commercial
software systems that include the ATP-funded technology. Consortium
members, with the help of SCRA, proposed the enhanced STEP procedures
to the International Standards Organization for registration, which
is expected to be issued as STEP Application Protocol 210.
Reorganization
and company upheavals among consortium members, however, seem to
be hindering further progress toward commercialization. Organizational
energy has been siphoned off to deal with mergers and acquisitions.
In addition, reductions in national defense work have caused turmoil
in three of the four corporate members of the consortium that have
been very active defense contractors. But if energy can be refocused
on further developing the ATP-funded technology, it could be commercialized
in several years.
Large Potential Benefits
From Data-Sharing Standards
The new technology
was intended for use in the production of printed circuit boards,
and it has potential applications in the manufacture of other electronics
components as well. If widely adopted, the product and manufacturing
process models would provide a "common language" for the production
process. In that case, the economic spillover benefits from widespread
use of the technology could be large since so much of it involves
data-sharing standards. Given the hundreds of millions of printed
circuit boards produced for use in the United States each year,
the benefits from this kind of standardization would be extremely
large.
PROJECT:
To develop a standards-based data-sharing framework for automating
the design and manufacture of electronics components. The framework
will enable true concurrent (simultaneous) engineering of component
design and manufacturing, which will reduce the cost of developing
components, increase their quality and decrease their time-to-market.
Such improvements will lead to similar improvements in finished
electronics products that incorporate these components.
Duration:7/1/1992 - 7/31/1996
ATP number:91-01-0267
FUNDING
(in thousands)::
| ATP |
$ 5,166 |
37% |
| Company |
8,625 |
63% |
| Total |
$13,791
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
PreAmp successfully completed all technical goals, including
development of a knowledge-based software system that can
extract process "rules" from manufacturing process data. Other
accomplishments include:
- STEP Tools,
an informal participant in the project, developed prototype
software to validate a standard data access interface library
that has since become part of its ST-Developer product.
ST-Developer has been distributed to more than 100 customers
worldwide and is being used to build and maintain STEP (Standard
for Exchange of Product Model Data) applications and databases.
- Researchers
presented several papers at professional conferences, including
the
Design and Automation
Conference,
National Electronics Packaging Conference, and
Reliability in Agile Manufacturing Symposium.
- PreAmp hosted
a "Vendor Opportunity Forum" to give software vendors opportunities
to commercialize the technology developed by the project.
COMMERCIALIZATION
STATUS:
A modest amount of commercialization is under way via the
product introduced by STEP Tools, but the main commercial
goals of the consortium have so far not been accomplished.
Boeing is conducting a pilot project, and SCRA continues to
develop the technology and promote commercialization.
OUTLOOK:
The core technology developed by the project may be commercialized
in several years, after additional R&D work. Thus, there
is some prospect of benefits to eventual users. If commercialization
does occur, the spillover benefits could be large, since so
much of the work of this project is in the development and
promulgation of data-sharing standards.
COMPANIES:
PreAmp Consortium
South Carolina Research Authority
(SCRA, consortium lead)
1330 Lady St., Suite 503
Columbia, SC 29201
Contact:
Gerry Graves
Phone: (803) 760-3793
Other consortium
members: Boeing Company, Defense & Space Group; Hughes
Aircraft Company; Martin Marietta Corporation, Electronics
Information & Missiles Group; and Rockwell International
Corporation, Collins Avionics & Communication Division
Informal participants:
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and STEP Tools, Inc.
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Return to Top
of Page
Go to other
sections of Chapter 4: DISCRETE MANUFACTURING
A Systems Solution to a Quality Problem in Auto
Body Manufacturing
Robot Navigation Technology
New Models to Speed the Development of Electronics Components
Better Precision for Machine Tools Through
Thermal-Error Correction
Date created: March 1999
Last updated:
April 12, 2005
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