Method and apparatus for computer-aided design of different-sized RF modular hybrid circuits

摘要

A method and apparatus is presented for designing an RF modular hybrid circuit assembly (100). The apparatus comprises a rule-based control mechanism (320), a graphical user interface (310) and a library (330) of RF hybrid elements including model front- and back-sides, and input/output instances. The method comprises the steps of initializing (410, 450) standardized front- and back-plane models, adding (430) input/output instances along the perimeter of the back-plane, designing (470, 490) the hybrid circuit on the front-plane and combining (460) the two planes to arrive at an RF modular hybrid layout design. A data library of RF hybrid elements is provided to facilitate rapid prototyping. The final design is then sent concurrently to a photo-plotter and a laser subsystem for printing the thick-film and cutting the PTH's respectively.