Detection of plated through hole defects in printed circuit board with X-ray

X-ray imaging provides direct visualization of sample's internal structures and defects. Operation principles of two-dimensional X-ray and three-dimensional X-ray computer tomography are described. Two-dimensional X-ray provides real time imaging of samples, while three-dimensional X-ray computer tomography technology can reconstruct the three-dimensional image of the sample through processing a large number of single two-dimensional X-ray images. Moreover, the virtual cross-sections provided by three-dimensional X-ray computer tomography greatly benefit failure analysis engineers for failure localization. Two case studies are presented to demonstrate the application of X-ray inspection to detection of plated through hole defects in printed circuit board.