Abstract
This paper presents a shape reconstruction method for automatic inspection of the solder joints on PCBs using X-ray. Shape reconstruction from X-ray radiographic image has been very important since X-ray equipment was used for improving the reliability of inspection result. For this purpose there have been lots of previous works using tomography, which reconstructs the correct shape, laminography or tomosynthesis, which are very fast algorithm. Latter two methods show outstanding performance in cross-sectional image reconstruction of lead type component, but they are also known to show some fatal limitations to some kinds of components such as BGA, because of shadow effect. Although conventional tomography does not have any shadow effect, the shape of PCB prohibits it from being applied to shape reconstruction of solder joints on PCB. This paper shows that tomography using Iterative Reconstruction Technique(IRT) can be applied to this difficult problem without any limitations. This makes conventional radiographic instrument used for shape reconstruction without shadow effect. This means that the new method makes cost down and shadow-free shape reconstruction. To verify the effectiveness of IRT, we develop three dimensional model of BGA solder ball, make projection model to obtain X-ray projection data. and perform a simulation study of shape reconstruction. To compare the performance of IRT with that of conventional laminography or tomosynthesis, reconstruction data are reorganized and error analysis between the original model are also performed.