Technical Library | 2023-11-14 02:36:41.0
Understanding In-Circuit Testing (ICT) with PCBA ICT Testing Machine In-Circuit Testing, commonly known as ICT, stands as a sophisticated and precise method within electronics manufacturing. It serves to evaluate the functionality and integrity of individual electronic components on a Printed Circuit Board (PCB). The process employs specialized equipment called ICT Testers, meticulously designed to pinpoint defects, shorts, opens, and other potential issues within the PCB assembly. The Crucial Role of PCBA ICT Testing Machine 1. Quality Assurance ICT is pivotal in ensuring the overall quality and reliability of electronic products. Early identification and rectification of defects in the production process help manufacturers avoid costly recalls, rework, and post-production issues. 2. Cost-Efficiency ICT significantly reduces manufacturing costs by identifying defects at an early stage. This results in fewer defective units reaching the end of the production line, minimizing waste and rework. 3. Faster Time-to-Market Manufacturers can expedite the production process with ICT by swiftly identifying and resolving issues. This leads to faster product launches, providing a competitive edge in the market. Unveiling the Functions of PCBA ICT Testing Machine The ICT Tester, the core of the In-Circuit Testing process, conducts a battery of tests on each PCB, including: 1. Continuity Testing Checks for open circuits, ensuring all connections are properly established. 2. Component Verification Verifies the presence and orientation of components, ensuring alignment with the PCB design. 3. Functional Testing Some ICT Testers execute functional tests, assessing electronic components' performance as per specifications. 4. Short Testing Identifies unintended connections or shorts between different components on the PCB. 5. Insulation Testing Checks for isolation between different circuits, ensuring no undesired connections or paths. 6. Programming and Configuration In some cases, ICT Testers are used to program and configure specific components on the PCB. Advantages of PCBA ICT Testing Machine 1. High Precision ICT offers unparalleled accuracy in defect detection, making it crucial in modern electronics manufacturing. 2. Speed and Efficiency ICT Testers enable rapid testing, allowing manufacturers to assess a large number of PCBs in a short time. 3. Customization ICT Tests can be tailored to suit specific PCB requirements, ensuring thorough evaluation of every design aspect. 4. Data Collection ICT Testers gather valuable data for process optimization and quality control. In-Circuit Testing (ICT) is fundamental in electronics manufacturing, safeguarding product quality, reducing costs, and accelerating time-to-market. The ICT Tester, with its precision and efficiency, positions manufacturers at the forefront of the highly competitive electronics industry. Embracing ICT is not just a choice; it's a necessity for manufacturers striving for excellence in their products. I.C.T is a leading manufacturer of full SMT line machines in the electronic manufacturing industry. Discover how we can enhance product quality, boost performance, and reduce costs. Contact us at info@smt11.com for reliable global supply, unparalleled efficiency, and superior technical service.
Technical Library | 2024-02-06 14:36:04.0
Quality monitoring for verifiable, high-precision application of adhesives and sealants now begins with detecting the position of the component. Dispensing systems are in continuous use and have to work with 100 percent accuracy. And this level of accuracy must be verifiable. Demands on electronic components continue to escalate as these components also need to operate continuously and flawlessly, especially in the automotive and medical sectors. At the same time, there is increasing pressure to automate as companies are looking to achieve the shortest possible cycle times and maximum output.
Technical Library | 2013-04-25 11:42:01.0
Specification and control of surface roughness of copper conductors within printed circuit boards (PCBs) are increasingly desirable in multi-GHz designs as a part of signal-integrity failure analysis on high-speed PCBs. The development of a quality-assurance method to verify the use of foils with specified roughness grade during the PCB manufacturing process is also important... First published in the 2012 IPC APEX EXPO technical conference proceedings.
Technical Library | 2021-08-11 00:55:44.0
In this article, the influence of shrinkage tensile stress in potting materials on the anti-overload performance of a circuit board was studied. Firstly, the phenomenon of shrinkage tensile stress in common potting materials was analyzed, and it was found that the commonly used potting adhesives displayed large shrinkage characteristics. Secondly, a small experiment was set up to verify that the shrinkage tensile stress of potting adhesives would lead to printed circuit board (PCB) deformation, and the shrinkage stress was contrary to the acceleration direction of overload. Thirdly, the influence of potting adhesives on the overload resistance of the PCB was analyzed.
Technical Library | 2016-06-23 13:24:56.0
Proper assembly of components is critical in the manufacturing industry as it affects functionality and reliability. In a heat sink assembly, a detailed manual process is often utilized. However, an automated fixture is used whenever applicable.This paper will illustrate the use of strain gauge testing and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) as a simulation tool to evaluate and optimize the heat sink assembly process by manual and automated methods. Several PCBAs in the production line were subjected to the manual and automated assembly process. Strain gauge testing was performed and FEA models were built and run. Results were compared with the goal of improving the FEA model. The updated FEA model will be used in simulating different conditions in assembly. Proposed improvement solutions to some issues can also be verified through FEA.
Technical Library | 2015-02-27 17:06:01.0
The drive towards fine pitch technology also affects the soldering processes. Selective soldering is a reliable soldering process for THT (through hole) connectors and offers a wide process window for designers. THT connectors can be soldered on the top and bottom side of boards, board in board, PCBs to metal shields or housing out of plastic or aluminum are today's state of the art. The materials that are used to make the solder connections require higher temperatures. Due to the introduction of lead-free alloys, the boards need more heat to get the barrels filled with solder. This not only affects the properties of the flux and components, but the operation temperatures of solder machines become higher (...)First the impact of temperature will be discussed for the separate process steps and for machine tooling. In the experimental part measurements are done to verify the accuracy that can be achieved using today's selective soldering machines. Dedicated tooling is designed to achieve special requirements with respect to component position accuracy.
Technical Library | 2019-12-26 19:13:52.0
Plated through hole (PTH) plays a critical role in printed circuit board (PCB) reliability. Thermal fatigue deformation of the PTH material is regarded as the primary factor affecting the lifetime of electrical devices. Numerous research efforts have focused on the failure mechanism model of PTH. However, most of the existing models were based on the one-dimensional structure hypothesis without taking the multilayered structure and external pad into consideration.In this paper, the constitutive relation of multilayered PTH is developed to establish the stress equation, and finite element analysis (FEA) is performed to locate the maximum stress and simulate the influence of the material properties. Finally, thermal cycle tests are conducted to verify the accuracy of the life prediction results. This model could be used in fatigue failure portable diagnosis and for life prediction of multilayered PCB.
Technical Library | 2016-11-30 15:53:15.0
The use of microvias in Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) for military hardware is increasing as technology drives us toward smaller pitches and denser circuitry. Along with the changes in technology, the industry has changed and captive manufacturing lines are few and far between. As PCBs get more complicated, the testing we perform to verify the material was manufactured to our requirements before they are used in an assembly needs to be reviewed to ensure that it is sufficient for the technology and meets industry needs to better screen for long-term reliability. The Interconnect Stress Testing (IST) protocol currently used to identify manufacturing issues in plated through holes, blind, or buried vias are not necessarily sufficient to identify problems with microvias. There is a need to review the current IST protocol to determine if it is adequate for finding bad microvias or if there is a more reliable test that will screen out manufacturing inconsistencies. The objective of this research is to analyze a large population of PCB IST coupons to determine if there is a more effective IST test to find less reliable microvias in electrically passing PCB product and to screen for manufacturing deficiencies. The proposed IST test procedure will be supported with visual inspection of corresponding microvia cross sections and Printed Wiring Assembly (PWA) acceptance test results. The proposed screening will be shown to only slightly affect PCB yield while showing a large benefit to screening before PCBs are used in an assembly.
Technical Library | 2021-11-22 20:39:44.0
Quality control is a key activity performed by manufacturing companies to verify product conformance to the requirements and specifications. Standardized quality control ensures that all the products are evaluated under the same criteria. The decreased cost of sensors and connectivity enabled an increasing digitalization of manufacturing and provided greater data availability. Such data availability has spurred the development of artificial intelligence models, which allow higher degrees of automation and reduced bias when inspecting the products. Furthermore, the increased speed of inspection reduces overall costs and time required for defect inspection. In this research, we compare five streaming machine learning algorithms applied to visual defect inspection with real world data provided by Philips Consumer Lifestyle BV. Furthermore, we compare them in a streaming active learning context, which reduces the data labeling effort in a real-world context. Our results show that active learning reduces the data labeling effort by almost 15% on average for the worst case, while keeping an acceptable classification performance. The use of machine learning models for automated visual inspection are expected to speed up the quality inspection up to 40%.
Technical Library | 2023-11-20 18:10:20.0
The electronics production is prone to a multitude of possible failures along the production process. Therefore, the manufacturing process of surface-mounted electronics devices (SMD) includes visual quality inspection processes for defect detection. The detection of certain error patterns like solder voids and head in pillow defects require radioscopic inspection. These high-end inspection machines, like the X-ray inspection, rely on static checking routines, programmed manually by the expert user of the machine, to verify the quality. The utilization of the implicit knowledge of domain expert(s), based on soldering guidelines, allows the evaluation of the quality. The distinctive dependence on the individual qualification significantly influences false call rates of the inbuilt computer vision routines. In this contribution, we present a novel framework for the automatic solder joint classification based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), flexibly reclassifying insufficient X-ray inspection results. We utilize existing deep learning network architectures for a region of interest detection on 2D grayscale images. The comparison with product-related meta-data ensures the presence of relevant areas and results in a subsequent classification based on a CNN. Subsequent data augmentation ensures sufficient input features. The results indicate a significant reduction of the false call rate compared to commercial X-ray machines, combined with reduced product-related optimization iterations.
