How Does 3D AOI Increase Manufacturing Quality?

AOI and Manufacturing Quality PCB suppliers within the automotive space are vastly accelerating their time to plug by using aut...

AOI and Manufacturing Quality

PCB suppliers within the automotive space are vastly accelerating their time to plug by using automated optical inspection (AOI) systems during PCB assembly. However, this next-generation technique isn't limited in scope to the automotive industry - it's powerful implications for the whole PCB industry.

What is 3D AOI?

To best understand the advantages that 3D AOI offers, it's useful to match it to its predecessor, 2D AOI. within the past, automated optical inspection processes allowed electronics manufacturers to spot workmanship defects and other issues during the ultimate stages of PCB assembly.

In a typical AOI setting, a top-mounted camera takes precisely measured photographs of finished circuit boards and compares the results to a highly detailed schematic file. Parameter differences that pass a particular threshold get flagged, and a person's operator inspects the merchandise in question.

The upshot of this process is that human operators not got to manually verify every parameter of a finished circuit card - for contemporary PCBs, that might take far too long. Now, alittle team of operators can verify a really large volume of PCBs and detect the defective ones with great accuracy.

3D AOI builds on this premise by using two cameras to develop a three-dimensional image of the PCB. this enables the AOI process to verify smaller components than ever before. In some cases, the addition of a side-mounted stereo camera set lets the optical image technology build an entire render of the PCB, allowing unprecedented precision and internal control .

Who Uses 3D AOI for PCB Inspection?

As of mid-2017, this technology is nearly exclusively utilized in the autonomous vehicles industry. the power to quickly identify and measure panel defects when handling extremely small components is a crucial factor contributing towards making autonomous vehicles an everyday reality.

However, as time goes on, this inspection process will become more commonplace, vastly reducing the time and energy spent on PCB inspection. Manufacturers are continually trying to find better, more efficient test methods that provide real-time feedback. This way, PCB defects are often identified early within the manufacturing process, saving customer grief and company reputation by preventing potential recalls or, in some industry sectors, lawsuits.

When combined with laser direct imaging (DI) technology, AOI improves yield by minimizing expensive material waste. the mixture increases the traceability of the availability chain and helps manufacturers identify the factors that generate production failures.