Automated inspection of through hole solder joints utilizing X-ray imaging

This paper describes a preliminary, automated inspection system that finds the solder joints in a X-ray image and inspects them using an artificial neural network (ANN). The identification of solder joints in the gray-scale image is done using image processing techniques; CAD data or manual registration of the solder joints is not required. The image processing techniques also yield binary maps (i.e. black and white images) showing the locations of ICs and other components, which is useful for other diagnostics.<
>