Apparatus and method for assembling circuit structures

A method for assembling circuit structures in a continuous assembly process wherein said circuit structure assembling method comprises the steps of

• receiving and holding a circuit board while mounting components thereon during assembly of a circuit structure,
• inserting selected components in ones of a plurality of apertures each constructed to receive one of the selected components and position each received component in alignment with a mounting location defined by a program instruction set on the circuit board,
• receiving ones of said aligned components and electrically programming the received components in accordance with subsets of program instructions defining operation of the circuit structures wherein said program subsets are selected from the program instruction set,
• receiving others of said aligned components and electrically configuring said received other components to conform to specific physical configurations in accordance with configuring subsets of the program instruction set,
• installing said electrically programmed and configured components at the predefined locations on the circuit boards, and
• controlling selection of the components from component storage apparatus and said inserting, receiving and electrically programming and configuring and installing steps in a predefined sequence in accordance with the program instruction set to configure, program and assemble the circuit structures in real-time to conform with the program instruction set and configuring and programming subsets thereof.

Apparatus for assembling circuit structures in real-time on a continuous assembly line comprising

• receiving means for receiving and holding a circuit board while mounting components thereon during assembly of a circuit structure,
• storage means configured for storing said components to be mounted on the held circuit board,
• aligning means having a plurality of apertures each constructed to receive ones of said components from said storage means and for aligning each received component to correspond with a mounting location predefined by a program instruction set and positioned on the held circuit board,
• means for selectively receiving ones of said components aligned by said aligning means and electrically programming and configuring said received components with specific firmware instructions and physical configurations in accordance with configuring and programming subsets of said program instruction set,
• selecting means controlled by said program instruction set for selecting ones of said components from said storage means and inserting each selected component in a predefined sequence in said alignment apertures and in said selectively receiving and electrically programming and configuring means and installing each programmed and configured component at the predefined circuit board mounting location, and
• means interconnected with said selecting means and with said programming means for controlling said selecting and configuring and programming means to select ones of the components from said storage means and insert said selected components in said aligning means to electrically program and configure said aligned components in said configuring and programming means and installing each aligned, programmed and configured component in the predefined circuit board mounting location to assemble each one of said circuit structures in accordance with said program instruction set stored therein.