International Business Machines Corporation

Jon R Mandeville

Frederick Yung-Fung Wu

Pieter J Kerstens

Robert S Jaffe

A confocal imaging system utilizes an opaque mask with a slit and a row of pinpoint sensors or utilizes an opaque mask with a skewed pattern of pinholes and an array of isolated pinpoint sensors in a matching pattern in order to obtain sufficient data to provide a complete image for imaging and/or inspecting an object such as electronics in a single one-dimensional scan. The system also simultaneously produces multiple images at different heights in the single one-dimensional scan of the viewed object, and also simultaneously produces images taken in different spectral bands in the same one-dimensional scan of the object to be imaged and/or inspected. The relative height or depth of the different images can be modified by simply adjusting the inclination between the confocal imaging system and a path followed by the object that is to be imaged and/or inspected during the one-dimensional scan. The optical confocal imaging system requires no moving parts and the only moving parts of the system are for motorized conveying of the object to be imaged and/or inspected along the path. In one arrangement of the confocal imaging system, color imaging and/or inspecting of the object can be performed. In another arrangement of the confocal imaging system, simultaneous brightfield and darkfield imaging and/or inspecting of an object can be performed.

Tandem linear scanning confocal imaging system with focal volumes at

A system is described which determines the characteristics of a substantially rounded feature, such as via hole in a printed circuit board. The system includes an image scanner for providing a serial flow of a raster scan image of pixels which represent the rounded feature. Tangent detecting circuits are further provided which select groups (i.e., neighborhoods) of pixels from the scan image, each group including pixels clustered about a plurality of chosen azimuths and adjacent to a tangent to a boundary of the rounded feature. Processing circuits are further provided to trim each selected group of pixels to eliminate pixels not lying on the tangent line. The pixels which remain after the trim operation are representative of the limits (e.g., diameter, radius, etc.) of the rounded feature and enable an analyzing circuit to determine the characteristics of the rounded feature by examining the relationships between the tangent line pixels. A second system is described which reduces the apparatus required for trimming the selected pixel groups. A tangent segment is fed into a plurality of parallel networks which initially identify right and left shoulders of the tangent segment. The identified shoulders are expanded and used as a mask on the original tangent segment to disconnect a central plateau thereof from its next lower and non-central plateaus. Subsequent trimming enables the central plateau to be identified.

System for detecting and analyzing rounded objects

An image is taken of a circuit layer pattern containing circuit element representations and the areas of the circuit element representations within the image are modified. The modification includes at least one modification step which consists of thinning the circuit element representations to the point where at least some features of the circuit element representations are skeletonized, to thereby emphasize distinctive features of the circuit element representations. The emphasized distinctive features are compared with previously determined design criteria for distinctive features expected from the prior steps so that any lack of correspondence indicates a defect.

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Yorktown Heights, NY, United States of America

Jon R Mandeville