Custom Application - Wire Path Detection System for Microelectronic Circuit Manufacturing


Custom Application - Wire Path Detection System for Microelectronic Circuit Manufacturing

This is an application where MNEMONICS designed a special purpose vision system, the Wire Path Detection System (WPDS), to inspect wires on a hybrid microelectronic circuit. A hybrid circuit may have numerous integrated circuits as part of its functioning, and several hundred wires interconnecting the device. These wires are very small, on the order of 0.001 inches (a human hair is on the order of 0.003 to 0.005 inches in diameter).

The system software and hardware are interfaced to a standard, non-destructive automated lead puller. The lead puller is a four-axis (x, y, z, and angle) automation device that positions a small hook (about 0.005 inches in diameter) into the hybrid circuit, and then is required to grasp one of the wires and apply tension to the wire to guarantee the wire has been properly attached. The location of the wires in the hybrid circuit is not know to enough precision for the wire puller to blindly drop the hook into the package, grasp, and pull. MNEMONICS provided the WPDS that consists of vision algorithms, software implementation, interface software, and computer and vision hardware to automatically locate each wire (x, y, and angle) in the hybrid package. After each wire is located (which takes between ½ to 1 second per wire), the WPDS provides the information to the lead puller which positions the micro-hook, rotates the hook correctly, and then pulls each wire (non-destructively). On a hybrid device with several hundred wires, as long as thirty minutes may be needed to pull test the wires. Without MNEMONICS' vision automation as an integral part of the system, the inspection task would have been much more costly and far less effective.

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