Internet-based electronics manufacturing troubleshooting tool for surface mount PCB assembly

Abstract

Increasing product complexity, decreasing component size, and using double-sided boards have made surface mount technology (SMT) based electronics manufacturing (EM) components more difficult to assemble. This has resulted in the economic troubleshooting of EM defects being one of the main problems facing all manufacturers. Although the authors have made significant improvements in the EM process, it has been shown that the implemented changes in the automated lines have not yet produced a high enough percentage of reliable finished products. The objective of this current development is to make a contribution towards these EM processes by creating an Internet-based intelligent system of circuit board defect detection so that EM process flaws that necessitate rework operations can be identified prior to manufacturing runs. With the development of this system, the need to rework the defective components will be minimized for any assembly line and assembly line process parameters, which cause some reliability problems (such as solder balls, insufficient solder at joints, burnt joint connections, bridged leads, voids, skewed leads, and unformed joints) will be troubleshot directly, and the rework will be greatly reduced from the EM assembly line. This paper reports the current development and its structure.