Medalist x6000 AXI 3D X-Ray PCB Inspection System - Agilent

Agilent announced a new technology to detect PCB assembly solder and manufacturing assembly defects.  The Agilent Medalist x6000 AXI with its in-line 3D X-ray inspection systems, delivers reduced conversion costs with high defect coverage at throughput rates that match line rates of most medium to high complexity boards.

Medalist x6000 AXI 3D X-Ray PCB Inspection System

Benefits of the Agilent Medalist x6000 AXI includes:

• Industry leading 3D inspection delivering reduced conversion costs, reduced capital expenditure and up to 95% defect coverage
• Total panel test time, feature detection, false call rates, etc. to handle industry printed circuit board needs. Full details found in the product Datasheet.
• Offers extensive simultaneous 3D X-ray Inspection of double-sided panels at throughput rates that match most line rates of medium to high complexity printed circuit boards
• Enables successful implementations through easy-to-learn and easy-to-use development environment providing faster time-to-market with high quality results
• Designed for in-line or off-line automated X-ray process testing of lead or lead-free solder joints of PCBA’s, with user configurable pass-thru or pass-back loading

Kent Dinkel, Agilent, said:

The de facto standard for 3D X-ray inspection has been the Agilent Medalist 5DX system, with more than 800 systems installed…

The next-generation Medalist x6000 leverages that X-ray expertise to provide the uncompromised 3D throughput and fault detection necessary for today's complex PCBAs…

The increased throughput of the Medalist x6000 has two clear benefits. First, it directly reduces the number of systems required to meet manufacturing volumes by cutting in half the required capital expenditures. Secondly, it enables complete 3D inspection of the entire PCBA at in-line speeds for the highest defect detection possible.

In the past, high-throughput 2D solutions have been used in limited applications where the PCBAs under test are predominately single-sided. However, today's and future double-sided PCBAs require uncompromised 3D inspection so that users can discriminate between the top and bottom sides of boards where there is a high-density of solder joints. Typical communication and computation products can have 35-percent overlap or more between the solder joints, which severely compromises the test coverage effectiveness of in-line 2D solutions for these products. Alternative systems attempt to address this coverage gap by adding slow 3D inspection to a 2D machine. While this might appear to be a good solution, overall throughput is often compromised. Only the Agilent Medalist x6000 delivers high-throughput 3D coverage that can be used to inspect the entire board.

The Agilent Medalist x6000 will start shipping in May 2007.

Source: Agilent Medalist Automated X-ray Inspection Family