Viscom to Demonstrate Fast In-Line X-ray Inspection with the X7056 at Productronica 2011

Reliable quality assurance of modern electronic assemblies often requires an X-ray inspection. For quality assurance, this means an additional challenge, especially when dealing with a fast in-line inspection meeting the cycle time. To further accelerate the X-ray inspection for increasing demands, Viscom relies on a special control of the X-ray tube. This has resulted in a considerable speed advantage in in-line operation.

Components such as BGA, QFN and QFPs are gaining ground. Their advantages concerning electronic devices in the areas of weight, space requirements and performance are beyond dispute. Being that their connectors are mostly hidden, many solder joints can be reliably checked with an X-ray inspection. To be able to carry out this inspection, not only precisely, but also with a high throughput, Viscom has developed the X7056 inspection system.

The X-ray unit of the system is equipped with a special microfocus X-ray tube. The 5-µm resolution of the X-ray image chain ensures viewing with the highest possible detail even with automatic operation. However, for in-line operation, both image quality and speed are crucial. That is precisely the strength of the Viscom X-ray technology.

This is achieved with a so-called flash mode, which operates with an increased tube performance and reduced exposure time. The special control of the tube technology makes it possible to move the electronic assembly to the next inspection position immediately after the exposure while still transmitting the image. Thus, the speed that is so important for in-line operation is realized while maintaining a constant image quality – with a time savings of 20 - 25 percent.

Because it is not always necessary to X-ray the complete electronic assembly, the inspection system can be used both as a pure in-line X-ray inspection setup and a combined system with a full AOI. The pronounced inspection depth of the tried and tested Viscom AOI systems is achieved via the integration of the optical 8M sensor technology, orthogonal or angled. With the OnDemandHR function, the AOI resolution can be flexibly switched over from 23.4 to 11.7 µm/pixel with the full image field size. In the angled view, a range of 16.1 µm/pixel to 8.05 µm/pixel is possible.

For electronics manufacturing, this means the highest possible flexibility. The inspection can be used in a staggered manner in order to decide, depending on the electronic assembly, what is to be inspected optically or where X-ray technology is to be used.