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ERSA scope?

LloydG

#7503

ERSA scope? | 31 July, 2001

anyone who has existing ERSA scope or has knowledge? thx! capability? advantage? advantage to X-ray? $?

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#7506

ERSA scope? | 31 July, 2001

Two places to start your search are:

1 Look at last months "SMTnet OnBoard" Forum with Gil Zweig of Glenbrook Technologies. Gil presented his thoughts on the completary capabilities of xray and whatever he called the ERSA scope.

2 Review the fine SMTnet Archives. There's 30 some posts there on ERSA, including yours.

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Mike Kennedy

#17259

ERSA scope? | 17 August, 2001

We have looked into it and were very impressed. I havn't seen another peice of equipment that can bring back visual inspection to a BGA solder joint. We havn't yet purchased one because of budget constraints, but I am keen to eventually get one for our BGA & other inspection.

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#17270

ERSA scope? | 17 August, 2001

Saw one at Apex last year, pretty cool device. Not cheap, though, as you've stated. Zarrow thinks everyone that's doing BGA should have one.

O.C. White makes an instrument that does something quite similar, although I think it uses more mirrors and such. Can't speak for the differences between them, though, including cost.

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CAL

#17271

ERSA scope? | 18 August, 2001

We at ACI have both endoscopes and xray. We have used the ERSA Scope often and it is a great machine, but the cost is hard to justify the ROI.The ERSA Scope is in the $28K to $32K range.

I had a chance to see OC Whites Endoscope and it was cool.Price is ?? Micro Square has an endoscope from a hand held or a fix mounted units. hey range in the $3k to $20k range.

The issue with endoscopes is you can really only get goos deffinition on the first two rows after that it is suspect.

Endoscopes advantage You can see solder joint in real time. Endoscope disadvantage If you have more that 6 rows it become useless. Also, $30K is a heafty price tag when you can get a right angle prism ($100)from Edmunds Scientific to use with your regular microscope. YEah, the software is nice but are yu really using it for??????? Process prove out.

Now X-ray!! I prefer x-ray. With x-ray you can see more than you can with an endoscope. X-ray can detect voids, ball symetry, shorts, cracks, wire bond breaks, ..... Glenbrook has an x-ray system for a little more than the Ersa Scope.

My reccomendation (as if it means anythng).....Buy a Glenbrok RTX Series and a MicroSquare endoscope. This will be plenty to meet your needs.

CAL

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Kevin Facinelli

#17314

ERSA scope? | 22 August, 2001

We have utilized the ERSA Scope for over one year. Our experience is that it is an excellent product in evaluation of problematic assemblies. It takes a little bit of time getting dialed in on the equipment but once you have it mastered it can see things that an X-ray has difficulty detecting. I would ask your local rep for a demo/evaluation unit. We took this road and ended up purchasing a machine due to the results we experienced.

Good luck in your evaluation. Please send an email if you would like more specifics.

Kevin Facinelli Director of Operations www.crystalpc.com/ecm ecm@crystalpc.com

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