Editor's Note: The best-laid plans. . .

For several years, I have been following the progress of an interesting technology for infrared PCB inspection. Although not a panacea, it addresses a number of fault types and failure mechanisms that both test and other inspection methods find difficult to deal with.

The product, known as ISIS, was developed by Advanced Research Technology (Montreal, QC, Canada). Manufacturers who tried the approach found it helpful, but it remained relatively unknown to the industry at large.

In July 2002, Photon Dynamics (San Jose, CA) bought the technology. I hoped the change of venue would help ISIS "hit the streets" in a big way.

I wrote an article about the technology for this issue of the "Machine-Vision & Inspection Test Report," but we didn't publish it—at the last moment, we learned that Photon Dynamics was closing its electronics divisions, including the ISIS product line, to concentrate on flat-panel displays. The news left me extremely frustrated.

Several years ago, I watched a company that owned five patents on artificially intelligent functional-test fault diagnosis go belly up because its investors got "cold feet," despite the success of the company's testers with customers. I do not want to see that happen again. Given the chance, infrared inspection can become an important tool. Photon Dynamics has expressed eagerness to sell this technology. We cannot—we must not—allow such solutions to fall away.