X-Ray Tomography

Aircraft fleets in the U.S. and around the world are aging. With this age, electronic components are wearing out and in need of replacement. Oftentimes OEMs for electrical components, and the printed circuit boards (PCBs) on which they are placed, no longer exist or have halted production on the parts that are now failing. In many cases, these are parts that have been reliable for decades and original designs are no longer available. To maintain fleet readiness in the face of stringent validation and certification requirements, it is often cost-effective re-engineer these parts. Current re-engineering best practices are destructive, meaning at least one component must be lost to obtain the required designs. This destructive approach also expends extensive man-hours and is prone to human error. A technology solution which enables reverse engineering in a more robust, automated way could save the Air Force millions of dollars each year. This project will effectively meld and improve two existing technologies, X-Ray tomography (XRT) and image-based PCB re-engineering software, to solve this crucial problem and yield and a more robust and automated XRT-based PCB re-engineering framework.