Acoustic Microscopy for Automatic Circuit Card Component Fault Detection and Characterization

"Circuit board assemblies and onboard microelectronic devices often have physical faults that can cause costly, intermittent electrical failure, or reduce long-term reliability, particularly when subject to environmental stresses. Since the functionaleffect of the fault is sensitive to changes in environment, the electrical failure often cannot be duplicated in a benign depot environment. This leads to higher depot repair costs and suggests a need for a form of effective inspection. Scanningacoustical microscopy (SAM) is an unsurpassed technique for the detection of faults on printed circuit boards and components. Faults such as cracks, material voids, interface delaminations, and corrosion can easily be examined within components. Currentresearch using SAM has shown correlation between these detectable faults and electrical failures. While SAM is effective in the hands of a skilled Failure Analysis Engineer, ORINCON proposes to improve the existing acoustic data collection and analysis sothat SAM is an effective tool for the average field depot technician. To accomplish this objective, we will apply advanced 3D visualization tools, image enhancement techniques, and automatic fault detection and characterization processes to acoustic datacollected from various devices. In Phase II, a prototype system with these features incorporated will be developed and evaluated. The SONIXT Acoustic microscopy systems used in this project are