In the past few years, machine-vision technology has become a vital component in the inspection and test arsenal. Frame grabbers and analysis hardware have gotten faster. Resolution has increased enormously. Memory has soared.
Yet if you look closely, most of the vision features and capabilities that we take for granted did not start here. Bar code readers that keep track of board serial numbers and firmware versions in high-throughput production began in supermarkets and retail stores as handheld and stationary devices to improve sales volumes and inventory control. Ditto optical character readers that today read labels on the tops of devices on assembled PCBs.
The trend continues. Dr. Stein's toll-enforcement vision system for German motorways requires high-speed high-resolution imaging that can also address high-throughput electronic component production. Developed to inspect aluminum ingots in Australia in real time, parallel-camera 3-D imaging systems can examine the "flatness" of PCB substrates. State-of-the-art vision systems may also come from the pharmaceutical or medical-imaging industries.
As electronics manufacturers face ever greater challenges, we should look beyond our own narrow applications to find solutions. Our universe is too small to support innovative development for us alone. We can adapt engineering cleverness from elsewhere to our own advantage.
Contact Steve Scheiber at sscheiber@aol.com .