Precise Numerical Control for the Thermal Conduction Module

Automated manufacturing processes have been developed and put into practice for the high-volume production of the thermal conduction module, the high-density circuit package used in the IBM 3081 processor models. The very precise work required on the ceramic surface required the solution of many problems. The small but significant residual distortions (warpage) which resulted from firing the multi-layer ceramic substrates made it difficult to locate tooling precisely for subsequent processes. A unique scheme for measuring the module and precalculating numerical control data has made it possible to achieve full automation. The nature of the problem, the attempts at a simple solution, and the algorithms finally used for numerical control data calculation are presented.