Integrated Circuit Package Inspection

In the case of integrated circuit (IC) package inspection, the products are generally derivatives of general purpose machine vision products; that is, the product is typically based on a commercially available product that has been adapted to one or more of the applications. The adaptation generally consists of application engineering related to the lighting, camera, and optics; configuring the graphic user interface (GUI) so both operator and engineering interfaces are application-related (this may include "personalization" of the GUI), and integrating the interfaces. In some cases the manufacturer of the general purpose machine vision system has developed these "canned" packages; in other cases the application adaptation has been done by a system integrator or original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of one or more pieces of equipment.

The specific applications associated with IC package inspection include verifying component orientation mark and position, mark verification and print quality inspection, lead straightness and implied co-planarity, package surface inspection, and true 3D co-planarity. Acuity Imaging, Applied Intelligent Systems, Inc., Cognex, ESI, Texas Instruments, and ICOS offer general purpose machine vision products with some level of application-specific adaptation for these applications. Vistech is a relatively new company that offers a personal-computer-based system that would appear to give it a general purpose character. This approach appears to have been developed specifically with these applications in mind.

Companies such as August Technology, Eberts, Ismeca, Synergistech, Systemation, and Trigon are equipment suppliers that offer this capability as a value adder to their equipment or as an integral function of their equipment. Often, but not always, these companies offer one or more of the above mentioned general purpose machine vision systems, leaving it to their customer to decide. In some cases these companies have actually developed their own systems based on personal computers and intelligent image processing boards. The third class of suppliers delivers turnkey systems, typically for true co-planarity measurements; these include Eberts, CyberOptics, ICOS, RVSI, and View Engineering. Generally these systems are more of an off-line system making measurements on packages that are physically presented in trays.

Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Inspection

Applications related to populated PCB inspection are based on proprietary vision engine designs in order to optimize performance without adding the cost of functionality that would not be enabled. The specific applications found in the board assembly shop include solder paste verification and measurement, component verification before reflow solder (involves both SMD and LTH verification), post-reflow solder verification, and post-wave solder. The four generically competing approaches are 2D machine vision, laser/thermal, 3D machine vision, and x-ray-based machine vision.

Most of the companies offering optical-based approaches (as opposed to x-ray-based approaches) currently offer a family of products that appear similar but have software adapted to each specific application. None of these products have fully satisfied the expectations of the market. Concerns include the typical high incidence of false rejects, no matter how much attention is paid to fine tuning the system, and the time it takes to train the system to inspect a new board. The applications related to populated boards are very challenging involving many variables.

The companies offering these products include Control Automation, CR Technology, CyberOptics, Electronic Packaging, Hewlett Packard, Itochu, Machine Vision Products, Nicolet, Panasonic, Philips, The Theta Group, Vanzetti Instruments, and View Engineering.

Guideline's Opinion

One of the challenges of this business is reaching the threshold of economic viability. As suggested elsewhere in this report, large corporations, such as Intel, give preference to dealing with companies whose sales exceed $50M. Notwithstanding this threshold, there is a need for sufficient revenues to establish one's credibility via astute marketing: press releases, advertising, trade shows. Furthermore, there is a need for sufficient revenues to continue to engineer the product and/or adapt the product to newer emerging related applications in the specific market niche. This is essential to expand the business within the market segment selected.

Guideline expects the market for products to inspect both IC packages and populated PCBs to grow. In both cases, the technology is just now becoming sufficient to provide the comprehensive solutions the market wants in reasonably cost effective implementations. We note that the most successful machine vision companies have been those that by design or by serendipity have tied themselves to the electronic and semiconductor industry coat tails.

Given the continued expansion of the influence of electronics in our lives there is little reason to believe that the demand for machine vision in the production of electronic and semiconductor products will not also increase. As the economies of the emerging countries develop, one can only expect that electronic-based products will also become important there. If even a small percent of the population of a country such as India or China becomes middle class, the pent-up demand for electronic-based products can be substantial. Given these expectations, any company that offers cost effective, solution-based machine vision products for the semiconductor and electronic industry should be able to succeed and grow in the machine vision market.
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This is a summary of Integrated Circuit Package Inspection technology written by Guideline staff and experts. Guideline provides product realization, expert witness and consulting services. Learn more at http://www.intota.com.