Reading time ( words)
I’ve always been a wet processing person, if not always in a PCB shop, at least at heart. My undergraduate degree is in chemistry and I cut my teeth working on electroless copper processes (just a metaphor, mind you!). Testing, testing and more testing in R&D can be sooo boring and repetitive. I’ve done my fair share of cross-sections and titrations and the myriad other tests required, as well as a fair amount of time peering into a microscope.
When I got into a real PCB shop and worked on all the wet processes, the quick test-on-theline approach appealed to me. I continually wondered at the inspectors who could sit hour after hour and inspect finished product, and the lab personnel who could happily test the same bath over and over day after day.
So it was with trepidation that I approached our topic this month. What was there to talk about but the latest, greatest AOI and electrical test equipment? Ah, but there is so much more to this topic. What about all the other testing that goes on to ensure great product? And so we’re off and running with one heck of a lineup for you and it isn’t all about fancy test/inspect equipment.
That being said, we do start out with a great little article by Orbotech’s Micha Perlman, in which he discusses the latest abilities of AOI equipment.
Click here to read the full column.
Editor's Note: This column originally appeared in the July 2016 issue of The PCB Magazine
