Digital X-ray system is first in Europe

Whitchurch based electronics design and contract manufacture company Custom Interconnect has taken delivery of the first Dage XD7600 XiDAT digital X-ray system to be installed in the Europe.

Whitchurch based electronics design and contract manufacture company Custom Interconnect has taken delivery of the first Dage XD7600 XiDAT digital X-ray system to be installed in the Europe.

The state-of-the-art system will be used both in-house and offered as a subcontract service to other manufacturers to provide a diagnostic tool that allows high accuracy, nondestructive integrity analysis.

With resolution down to 600nm (0.6 microns), it is the most accurate system available in the UK.

In addition to inspecting BGA and uBGA devices it will also be used to analyse voiding under semiconductor die because when attaching LED/laser die or power devices such as MOSFETs, it is vital that the die attach is void-free for good thermal management.

CIL Managing Director, John Boston said: "The simple truth of the matter is that you cannot undertake BGA assembly with any confidence without X-ray".

"A number of our customers who are selling to Japan are demanding better than five sigma (1 fault in 100,000 assemblies)".

"In these cases it is not just a question of having accurate SMT placement equipment and providing high reliability, it is necessary to provide statistical proof of the process control".

"This will be even more important when switching to lead-free as there is bound to be issues arising over soldering".

"In addition to providing a subcontract service for our customers this investment will enable us to improve and control our own internal processes".

"We reviewed four other systems but the Dage XD7600 was substantially better than all the others in terms of specification and performance".

The Dage XD7600 XiDAT digital X-ray inspection system provides single image and/or video with resolution down to 600nm for assemblies up to 458 x 407mm in size.

It can therefore cope with almost any PCB in manufacture.

The purchase of this system brings CIL's outlay in capital equipment to just over GBP 1 million in the past two years and it completes an impressive array of the latest electronic manufacturing equipment at CIL.

"This is the final piece in the jigsaw adding to the three fully automated SMT lines (one of which is processing lead-free), two aluminium wire bonders, Dage Series 4000 pull/shear test and the Opus 3 selective soldering machine that have been installed over the past couple of years".

"This, added to the our new design department running the latest circuit simulation and PCB layout software package leads me to believe that we now have a facility that is second to none in the UK".

added Boston.

He also reports on a change of emphasis recently, saying: "Customers no longer come to us just to manufacture their product; but to get their next generation of products developed and manufactured on state-of-the-art facilities in terms of both manufacturing and diagnostic tools".

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