APEX Report:
Inspection Firms Demonstrate Optical
and X-Ray Systems
Rick Nelson, Executive Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 3/1/2004
Complete APEX Coverage Optical and X-Ray Systems Products at Apex |
Inspection companies including Teradyne, Phoenix|x-ray, and Viscom made news at Apex (Anaheim, CA, February 24-26, 2004) this year.
Teradyne (www.teradyne.com), who has sold its automated optical inspection (AOI) line, was on hand to emphasize its focus on x-rays. The company highlighted its XStation HS automated x-ray inspection (AXI) systems. Those systems employ the company’s patented transmission AXI technology to provide full volumetric solder-joint inspection, including height, width, and length information. The company claims its systems can identify shorts, voids, and other defects that would fall outside the slice plane of a 3-D x-ray system.
Phoenix|x-ray Systems (www.phoenix-xray.com) debuted its nanome|x failure-analysis system to the North American market. The system, which was introduced at Productronica in Munich last November, operates in four modes, enabling users to optimize resolution and radiation power. High-resolution modes let users investigate defects such as pad-wetting failures in flip-chip solder joints or cracks in bond wires; high-power modes make it possible to see through highly absorbent materials such as tungsten alloys used in IC packages. The system employs the company’s ovhm|module technology, which, without rotation of the target device and concomitant loss of magnification, allows for 2000X magnification and 3-D-like imagery at 2-D speeds. A nanome|x system’s tube and detector rotate up to 70-degrees around a sample while providing the oblique views necessary to see minute defects in solder joints of micro BGAs and other small packages. Price is $260,000.
Viscom (www.viscomusa.com) demonstrated several new products. The S6055II automated optical inspection system offers a 0.5-m/s conveyer speed to cut board handling time to less than 4 s. Serving paste as well as pre- and post-solder inspection, the system employs a 4-Mpixel sensor. A RAID-1 hard-disk controller protects against data loss.
The company also introduced its X7055 fully automatic AOI/AXI system. The system can be equipped with two orthogonal 4-Mpixel cameras; x-ray modules are available in 120 and 160-kV versions. In a single-track mode, the system can test boards as large as 19.7x24 in.; in double-track mode, it can handle boards up to 7.9x11 in.
The company also announced that it has added support to all its x-ray systems for high-speed 2-D analysis capability for BGA packages, and it debuted a new EasyPro user interface to cut AOI programming time to as little as 30 min.
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