Leading the X-ray inspection market

According to Beat Scheurer, European marketing manager of Agilent’s manufacturing test division, the company has an installed base of worldwider more than 300 highend X-ray systems, and sees itself as the market leader with a 80% share. Besides X-ray gear, equipment for electrical testing has been introduced.

The 5DX Series 3 is designed to meet the high-speed manufacturing rates required for high-volume, high-technology assemblies. “Manufacturers are under tremendous pressure to reduce time-to-market and time-to-volume while ensuring product reliability,” said Kamran Firooz, division general manager. “The 5DX, which doubles the throughput of the fastest automated X-ray system, clearly addresses these needs and more.” The improvements in throughput are realized due to a combination of significant technology enhancements. These are, for example, faster image acquisition and analysis, improved board handling, and faster stage speeds. For smaller boards, a dual-panel loading capability has been added to maximize throughput. Board assemblers have identified SMT connectors as a primary source of difficult-to-identify solder faults. In order to meet this need, special algorithms are being released with the instrument software.

The other part of announcements is focused on the electrical board test. There is now a 3070PC board tester as counterpart to the Unix-based machine. The 3070PC system provides with the NT OS an operating environment familiar to standard PC users, and offers the same reliability, quality and speed as a Unix system. Reportedly, the company is still committed to the reliable and stable Unix platform, and will continue to sell, support and enhance the 3070 with Unix controller. “But we also recognize that some manufacturers want to standardize on NT across their manufacturing floor,” underlines KamranFirooz.

For the 3070 board test system, a Hybrid32 pin card is now available, in response to user requirements for higher digital channel count and expanded coverage in in-circuit test. The card features 32 channels, allowing lowering system costs by up to 35%. The card offers 144 nodes, full overdrive capabilities and per-pin programmability. Moreover, the latest version of the MagicTest software, designed to help users to test assemblies containing analog circuitry with limited probing access, automatically identifies, tests and diagnoses to the component level. It provides a fault coverage report for analog clusters (circuits made up of several passive analog components), and is helpful in applications where are physical limitations, whether by dense packaging, high frequency, covers or shields. (gbw)

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