Enclosure design is the process of creating a package that will support and protect enclosed circuitry. Electronic enclosures are used in almost all industries, such as aerospace, automotive, naval, computer, toy, etc. Many designers use computer aided design (CAD) packages to aid them in creating these enclosures. Enclosure creation involves a working knowledge of the physics behind electrical and mechanical systems. Each of these engineering disciplines has separate CAD packages with their own set of rules, programming language, and interfaces. This creates a barrier for communication flow between electrical CAD (ECAD) and mechanical CAD (MCAD). The purpose of this thesis is to overcome the communication barrier by effectively transferring the knowledge contained in the ECAD package to the MCAD package, and use this information to aid in the electronic enclosure design process.

CAD systems are important design tools that enable the designer to conceptualize, visualize, analyze, and manufacture a design (Shahin 2008). Although high-end CAD systems provide several built-in design applications, the users of CAD often select various custom or proprietary non-CAD analyses that constrain, optimize, or evaluate their designs. An efficient method is needed to perform trade studies from within the CAD environment. Methods have been developed to meet the challenges associated with this need. The methods have been implemented in a program, called the Process Integrator, which resides in a CAD system and allows the user to perform trade studies on an assembly model from within the CAD environment. The Process Integrator allows the user to create a generic process configuration to link analyses with CAD assemblies for optimization. The generic configuration can then be run at any time, on any assembly that meets the configuration requirements. Test cases are presented in which the efficiency of the automated process is demonstrated. Results indicate that significant time savings can be achieved through the application of these methods.

This research presents a new method to preserve data consistency in a multi-user CAx environment. The new method includes three types of constraints which work by constraining and controlling both features and users across an entire multi-user CAx platform. The first type of constraint includes locking or reserving features to enable only one user at a time to edit a given feature. The second type of constraint, collaborative feature constraints, allows flexible constraining of each individual feature in a model, and the data that defines it. The third type of constraint, collaborative user constraints, allows the constraining of user permissions and user actions individually or as a group while providing as much flexibility as possible. To further present this method, mock-ups and suggested implementation guidelines are presented. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the method, a proof-of-concept implementation was built using the CATIA Connect multi-user CAD prototype developed at BYU. Using this implementation usage examples are provided to show how this method provides important tools that increase collaborative capabilities to a multi-user CAx system. By using the suggested method design teams will be able to better control how their data is used and edited, maintaining better data consistency and preventing data conflict and data misuse.

Einführung Die Kranioplastik (KP) nach Kraniektomie dient der Wiederherstellung der Funktionalität und Ästhetik des Schädels. Obwohl es sich um einen Routineeingriff handelt, wurden hohe Komplikationsraten beschrieben, die zum Teil auf die unterschiedlichen Arten des verwendeten Implantatmaterials zurückzuführen sind. Wir haben diese Studie durchgeführt, um intraoperativ-geformte (Palacos®) und CAD-CAM-PMMA-Implantate bei Patienten/-innen nach Kraniektomie hinsichtlich perioperativer Modalitäten, kurz- und langfristiger Komplikationsraten und ästhetischer Ergebnisse zu vergleichen. Methoden Diese retrospektive Single-Center-Analyse wurde an 350 Patienten mit 359 Kranioplastiken durchgeführt, die sich in 133 Palacos®-Fälle (01/2005-12/2012) und 226 CAD-CAM-Fälle (01/2010-12/2018) aufteilten. Postoperative Komplikationen wurden in kurzfristige (≤ 30 Tage) und langfristige (> 30 Tage) unterteilt. Die ästhetischen Ergebnisse wurden per Telefoninterview erhoben und auf einer 5-Punkte-Skala bewertet. Ergebnisse CAD-CAM-Patienten hatten eine kürzere Operationszeit (p < 0.001), einen geringeren intraoperativen Blutverlust (p < 0.001) und einen kürzeren postoperativen Krankenhausaufenthalt (p < 0.005) als Palacos®-Patienten. Operative Revisionen nach CP mussten bei 12,8 % der Patienten durchgeführt werden. Implantatinfektionen traten bei 3,8 % der Palacos®-Fälle und 1,8 % der CAD-CAM-Fälle auf. Wundheilungsstörungen traten bei CAD-CAM-Patienten häufiger auf, was mit einer höheren Anzahl an kraniellen Vor-Operationen und Vorinfektionen einherging. Palacos®-Patienten hatten signifikant mehr Implantatdislokationen (p < 0.05). CAD-CAM-Patienten berichteten von einem besseren ästhetischen Ergebnis im Vergleich zu Palacos®-Patienten. Fazit Diese Studie zeigt eine Überlegenheit der CAD-CAM-PMMA-Implantate im Vergleich zu Palacos®-Implantaten hinsichtlich peri- und postoperativer Faktoren, sowie dem ästhetischen Ergebnis. CAD-CAM-Implantate haben geringere Komplikations- und Infektionsraten als Palacos®-Implantate und zeigten positive Wirkungen, wenn sie in vorinfiziertes Gewebe implantiert wurden. Die langfristigen Komplikationsraten von CAD-CAM-Implantaten müssen weiter evaluiert werden. / Introduction Cranioplasty (CP) after craniectomy restores the functionality and aesthetic of the patient’s cranial vault. Although it is a routine procedure, high complication rates have been described, partly related to the different type of implant material used. We conducted this study to compare intraoperative-moulded (Palacos®) and CAD-CAM-PMMA implants in patients underwent craniectomy regarding perioperative modalities, short- and long-term complication rates and aesthetic results. Methods This retrospective single-center-analysis was conducted on 350 patients with 359 cranioplasties, dividing into 133 Palacos® cases (01/2005-12/2012) and 226 CAD-CAM cases (01/2010-12/2018). Postoperative complications were divided into short-term (> 30 days) and long-term (< 30 days). Aesthetic results were evaluated via telephone interview on a 5-item scale. Results CAD-CAM patients had a shorter surgery time (p < 0.001), a lower intraoperative blood loss (p < 0.001) and shorter postoperative hospitalization (p < 0.005) than Palacos® patients. Operative revisions after CP had to be carried out at 12.8% of patients. Implant infections occurred in 3.8% of Palacos® cases and 1.8% of CAD-CAM cases. Wound healing disorders occurred more frequently in CAD-CAM patients, which was associated with higher cranial pre-operation and pre-infection rates. Palacos® patients had significantly more implant dislocations (p < 0.05). CAD-CAM patients reported a better aesthetic result compared to Palacos® patients. Conclusion This study shows superior peri-, postoperative and aesthetic results for CAD-CAM-implants compared to Palacos®. CAD-CAM implants have lower complication and infection rates than Palacos® implants and showed positive effects when implanted in pre-infected tissue. Long-term complication rates of CAD-CAM implant need to be further evaluated.

The use of computer aided design (CAD) tools has catalyzed the growth of IC design techniques. The rapid growth in transistor count for synchronous digital circuits has increased circuit complexity. This growing complexity of synchronous circuits has exposed design issues such as clock skew, increased power consumption, increased electromagnetic interference and worst case performance. The increasing number of challenges posed by synchronous designs has encouraged researchers to explore asynchronous design techniques as an alternative methodology. Asynchronous circuits do not use a global clock signal that is the primary cause of many design challenges faced by synchronous designers. It has also been shown in some designs that asynchronous circuits consumes less power, and exhibits better average case performance than synchronous circuits. Asynchronous design techniques, even with their various advantages over synchronous systems, are not widely accepted by logic designers. This is due to the shortcomings of asynchronous design methodologies, primarily, the limited availability of CAD tool support and the use of proprietary specification languages. To overcome the shortcomings of current asynchronous design techniques, this research uses a methodology for designing asynchronous circuits starting from clocked RTL design. This research extends the concepts of Phased Logic (PL) and marked graphs to quasi-delay insensitive gates (QDI) gates to create an asynchronous PL-QDI methodology. The PL methodology is easy to use as it maps conventional RTL designs into delay insensitive PL circuits using commercial CAD tools. Caltech?s QDI gates exhibit fast forward latency, but the use of Caltech?s methodology requires a user skilled in the pecurialities of the Caltech design methodology. This research uses best of Caltech?s QDI circuit methodology and the PL methodology to come up with a new asynchronous PL-QDI methodology. It also presents a synthesis algorithm that uses commercially available synchronous CAD tools to map clocked designs to PL-QDI systems. Results of this research show that third-party clocked RTL codes including intellectual property (IP) cores can be converted to asynchronous PL-QDI systems using the PL-QDI CAD tools presented in this research. This work shows how mature synchronous CAD tools can be used to design clockless circuits.

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