ABSTRACT:

This paper presents an activity-based model in which the process steps are defined by material processing activities.  A “material-centric? approach makes sense for printed wiring boards (PWBs) because the cost of a PWB is usually dominated by material costs.
 The models presented in this paper focus on computing the volume of materials, used and wasted by various activities associated with the fabrication of PWBs.  Activities included in the modeling are open and closed system plating, coating, etching, stripping, and desmearing; plasma etching, lamination, drilling, filling, singulation, scrapping, and waste disposition.  The models presented here have been integrated into a software tradeoff environment that performs system cost and performance analysis.