Metal fusion bonding – Process – With condition responsive – program – or timing control
Reexamination Certificate
2002-05-03
2004-07-06
Stoner, Kiley (Department: 1725)
Metal fusion bonding
Process
With condition responsive, program, or timing control
C008S103000, C008S109000, C008S109000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06758384
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a soldering inspection apparatus and method, and more particularly to a three-dimensional soldering inspection apparatus and method, which restores a soldered surface three-dimensionally to confirm whether a defective soldering occurs.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, processes to manufacture electric and electronic boards include a process of inspecting a soldered state of each part after mounting the part to a board and executing a reflow process.
In conventional methods of inspecting the soldered states, inspection is performed in such a way that an inspector inspects the soldered states of parts with his naked eyes. Therefore, the qualities of products using the soldering process are not uniform, depending on conditions and skill of the inspectors. Further, the conventional methods are problematic in that the productivity of products is remarkably low due to their long inspection times when complicated printed circuit boards are inspected.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a three-dimensional soldering inspection apparatus and method, which restores a soldered state three-dimensionally, such that an inspector can easily inspect soldered states of boards, thus increasing the productivity and quality of products employing the boards.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
The foregoing and other objects of the present invention are achieved by providing a three-dimensional soldering inspection apparatus, comprising: a lighting module provided with a plurality of light emitting devices; a photographing unit installed at a portion of the lighting module to photograph a subject placed inside the lighting module; an image processing unit to capture each frame image from the subject photographed by the photographing unit; a storage unit to store data of each frame image; a control unit to extract three-dimensional features from each frame image and restore the extracted features as a three-dimensional image; and a display unit to display the three-dimensional image under the control of the control unit.
The foregoing and other objects of the present invention are also achieved by providing a method of controlling a three-dimensional soldering inspection apparatus, comprising: obtaining frame images by turning on light emitting devices in a direction of a subject, photographing said light emitted from said light emitting devices and reflected off of the subject, dividing and computing each obtained frame image, extracting three-dimensional features from each divided and computed frame image, and restoring the extracted three-dimensional features as a three-dimensional image.
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Choi Tae-Sun
Kim Chang-Hyo
Staas & Halsey , LLP
Stoner Kiley
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