Enhancement of Visualization of Circuit Card Electromagnetic Fields

Clearly the purpose of this proposal is to provide a vehicle for scoping and identifying the parameters for eventual provision of an EM visualization technique to assess (inspect) a volume of printed circuit cards in operation. An enhanced starting point for the effort, using a commercial EM visualization device, EMSCAN, is envisioned. The device is essentially non-inasive (does not significantly alter fields by its presence), but in its present form is slow and requires considerable judgement to evaluate a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA). The phase 1 effort will concentrate on ways to simplify and automate the EMSCAN output to increase the speed and reliability of the resultant inspection. Solution elements identified at this time include: - EMSCAN capabilities to compare the characteristics of two PCBA's (one being known as good) both in spatial and spectral scan modes. This is accomplished by taking ratios or substracting the results of the two boards. - Progammable Fourier transform modeling (simplifying) of spectral scans with selectable figures of merit. - Preparation for selection of neural network paradigms.