When electronic components are mounted onto a printed circuit board, they are subsequently visually inspected to ensure they are mounted correctly. Historically, these boards were photographed with a CCD camera to inspect the condition of the mounting.
A printed circuit board with mounted components.
One issue with this approach is that light from the camera is prone to reflecting off the solder, meaning it can be challenging to capture clear images of these mounted components. To compensate for this problem, inspectors will often fine-tune the illumination for each individual board being photographed. However, this fine-tuning is slow and has the potential for human error.
These camera issues mean that visual inspection via microscope is also essential to ensure the final product’s quality, but even this can be challenging due to halation caused by solder.
Acquiring Images with Minimal Halation
The Evident BX53M industrial microscope provides simultaneous darkfield and brightfield illumination, enabling you to capture images without halation. In addition, the microscope can be used with EVIDENT Stream™ image analysis software, which offers leading-edge image analysis tools.
Inspecting the Leads of Mounted Components
To inspect the leads of mounted components, the BX53M microscope’s ability to combine brightfield and darkfield images, called MIX illumination, enable you to capture images with minimal halation. In addition, the BX53M microscope also has simple polarization and fluorescent illumination capabilities, providing outstanding imaging flexibility.
Using MIX illumination with EVIDENT Stream software enables halation to be effectively eliminated. With halation removed, it is much easier to inspect the leads of mounted components that have been soldered.
A microscope image captured using darkfield illumination.
A microscope image captured using simultaneous brightfield and darkfield MIX illumination.
Products Used for This Application
BX53M Microscope
Designed to be modular, the BX3M series are versatile microscopes suitable for a diverse array of industrial and materials science applications.
Image Credit: Evident Corporation - Industrial Microscopy
EVIDENT Stream
EVIDENT Stream image analysis software provides fast, efficient inspection workflows, making it ideal for image acquisition, quantitative measurements, and image analysis and reporting, as well as inspection tasks related to advanced materials science.
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Evident Corporation - Industrial Microscopy.
For more information on this source, please visit Evident Corporation - Industrial Microscopy