Why does everyone want to x-ray BGA?

Hello Ya'll, I've got what may be a silly question, but why does it seem so important to everybody that you have x-ray capability if you're thinking about doing BGA? I know what most people will tell me; "Steve, that's a pretty silly question, it's because ya' can't see the solder joints ya' big boomerang!" Is that the only reason? Because if you stop and think about it, we were building boards with hidden solder joints a long time ago on SIMM's (the caps beneath the DRAM's), it never seemed like a big deal back then...and nobody was rushing out to spend $200,000 on a x-ray machine back then either... So what's the real reason? -Steve Gregory-

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Steve: It's a matter of economics! Let face it "there's a butt for every seat" In the real world the more we build in inspection the more failures we seem to report, the more rework we have to do, the less amount of product we send to the marketplace, all helping the economy slow down so we do not have to pay so much in taxes. I feel that we have to always work on the process and design inspection out, but there are those that wait until they mount all of their dollars on the board and then want to inspect it to make sure it is right. just my two cents Wayne

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