Advancing surface mount technology quality: a computer-assisted approach for enhanced X-ray inspection of solder joints

With the constant advancement of electronic science and technology, accurate failure analysis has become crucial to meeting stringent quality standards in surface mount (SMT) products. Reflow soldering is commonly used in the SMT industry due to its efficiency and low failure rate. However, visual inspection is limited, especially for ball grid array (BGA) joints, requiring X-ray techniques for complete, non-destructive analysis. Although X-ray image analysis algorithms have been employed to improve defect detection, some still need to meet quality requirements, resulting in additional manual inspections. The high dimensionality and variations in X-ray images present additional challenges for detection algorithms. This study proposes a new computer-assisted inspection approach to accurately detect flaws in solder joints of SMD components using an X-ray scanning system. This approach aims to improve image interpretation and reduce workload manual. X-ray technology applied to BGA seeks to improve the accuracy of image analysis, enabling the detection of various faults, such as BGA ball connections, interconnections on printed circuit boards, and filling faults.