Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Iwao Ichikawa

Hideaki Kawamura

Hidehiko Kawakami

Yuji Maruyama

Atsuharu Yamamoto

Katsuhiro Kondoh

Shigetoshi Negishi

Manabu Morioka

Takayuki Fujita

Shigeki Nakatsuka

Kenji Kato

Kazuhiro Shiga

A laser beams inspection apparatus suitable for inspecting electronic components such as ICs mounted on a substrate. The inspection apparatus includes a scan mechanism. The scan mechanism works to move a laser beam emitted from a laser emitter to scan a target one of electronic components in a given scan range. The scan mechanism is designed to change orientation of emission of the laser beam to change the scan range as a function of the type (e.g., the size) of the target electronic component, thereby minimizing inspection errors regardless of the type of the electronic components to be inspected.

Laser beam inspection apparatus

A wiring pattern inspection apparatus for inspecting an abnormality of a wiring pattern formed on a printed circuit board, which is equipped with an optical image pickup device for optically illuminating a surface of the printed circuit board including the wiring pattern to photoelectrically convert optical information of the printed circuit board surface due to the optical illumination into a grey level image. This grey level image is converted into a bi-level image which separates the grey level image into the wiring pattern side and a background side of the wiring pattern. Thereafter, the bi-level image is once contracted by a first size and then expanded by a second size so as to eliminate a micro conductive portion left on the printed circuit board or a micro pinhole which can be disregarded in the abnormality inspection, thereby preventing the excessive detection.

Wiring pattern inspection apparatus for printed circuit board

The exterior view inspecting apparatus for circuit board of the invention including a sensor unit for emitting a laser beam to an object to be inspected, and detecting the displacement of the object by focusing the reflected light on a photoelectric transducer by using a receiving lens; an optical path converter unit for refracting the optical path of the laser beam; a sensor head unit incorporating the sensor unit and optical path converter unit; a control unit for moving the sensor head unit along a specified scanning route; a correction unit for correcting the displacement data of the object to be inspected as detected by the sensor unit, and a judging unit for judging the existence and position of an electronic component on a circuit board from the corrected displacement data. The optical path converter unit includes a flat sheet glass inclined relative to the optical path of the laser beam, rotating about the axial center parallel to the optical path. By this optical path converter unit, the optical path of the laser beam is refracted so that the laser beam scans the circuit board drawing a small circular trace. As the trace draws a small circle, the trace detects the end portion of the electronic component on the circuit board multiple times. Consequently, the existence and position of the electronic component on the circuit board can be detected accurately.

Exterior view inspecting apparatus for circuit board

Growing community of inventors

Nishinomiya, Japan

Iwao Ichikawa