DECISION AID FOR PRELIMINARY LAYOUT USING EVALUATING FUNCTION ADOPTING A DISTANCE CONCEPT - APPLICATION TO FORCED-CONVECTION COOLING DESIGNOF ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS

In this paper we propose a quantitative evaluation method for the prel iminary layout of electronic systems. The preliminary layout is conven tionally determined by trial and error based on rough sketches by a sk illed engineer. This study is based on the assumption that the skilled engineer adopts distance as the main criterion for comparison between design cases. First, a method of describing past design cases is demo nstrated using similarity on the basis of a pattern attribute vector. The mahalanobis distance between design cases is formulated using this similarity, and a statistical calculation method for the evaluated fu nction, which consists of the mahalanobis distance, is shown. A protot ype of a layout design support tool was constructed to demonstrate the advantages of this evaluation method. This method is useful because o f its short calculation time and the generality of its methodology.