Flex - Maintaining Yields while Deploying New Technology
Taking advantage of new technologies need not impact quality. Judicious use of process control equipment and solder joint inspection allows maximum visibility of process flaws and maximized yields.
The increasingly wide spread use of smaller and smaller passive devices (such as 0201s) and the density of them means that manual inspection and manual rework have become all but impossible. Using robust automated optical inspection is practically a necessity either to detect errors post-placement, where they can be rectified quickly and easily, or post-reflow where defects can be caught before product is shipped.
Lead-free solder is one of the largest challenges the SMT industry has faced. Mandates from Japan and Europe dictate that lead-free solder is an issue that must be addressed in the very near term. In addition to the many chemical, rheological, mechanical and physical variables that all change when using lead-free solder, there is a lesser considered variable. The appearance of lead-free solder is significantly different to conventional leaded solder in terms of coloration, reflectivity and physical appearance (due to the change in wetting angles). Most existing solder joint inspection systems were specifically designed with an ideal solder fillet in mind, a fillet that will no longer exist in the lead-free world. CyberOptics is uniquely positioned to help in solder inspection; being a third generation knowledge based system, the SAM™ software doesn't look for idealized joints, it simply looks as existing good joints and models how they should appear.
Recent competitive evaluations have proven the Flex system to outperform other systems in solder inspection on:
False accepts (escapes)
False negatives (false calls)
Programming and tuning time
Ease of programming
Flex is capable of detecting the most subtle of defects, in one case catching an hair that had found its way into a 0402 solder joint, in any solder application (reflow or wave).
Flex used with CyberOptics Process Advisor™ provides the ultimate tool for managing your SMT lines with maximum visibility of defect rates, yields and real time SPC information.
