The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 09, 2002
Filed:
Dec. 15, 1999
Mario A. Cugini, Vista, CA (US);
Jeff Brakley, San Diego, CA (US);
Gilbert Norman Ravich, Lawndale, CA (US);
George E. Miles, III, San Diego, CA (US);
Ralph Lynn Giusti, Vista, CA (US);
Maniatech Incorporated, Santa Ana, CA (US);
Abstract
A tester for electrical traces such as on a circuit board generally comprises an electromagnetic beam source such as a laser producing an ultraviolet beam, a vacuum chamber, an electrode circuit including electrodes and corresponding electronics including ammeters for measuring photoelectron flow between traces and electrodes, a controller, laser beam optics, an image acquisition system, and a pair of broadband UV lights. The board containing traces under test is disposed in the vacuum chamber at lowered pressure with grid electrodes lying close to the trace area on each side of the board. Electrode electronics selectively maintain a known potential on each electrode. The exact location of traces are determined by an image acquisition system. The board and traces are initialized to a known voltage. Photoelectric effect using ultraviolet laser beams is used to determine continuity between two points on a trace and shorts between traces.