5DX

The 5DX was an automated X-ray inspection robot, which belonged to the set of automated test equipment robots and industrial robots utilizing machine vision. The 5DX was manufactured by Agilent Technologies. The 5DX performed a non-destructive structural test using X-ray laminography (tomography) to take 3D slices of an assembled printed circuit board. It was used in the assembled printed circuit board (PCB) electronics manufacturing industry to provide process feedback to a surface mount technology assembly line, as well as defect capture.

The 5DX was one of several tools used by many companies in the electronics manufacturing services sector to provide a means of inspecting both the visible and hidden solder connections between the printed circuit boards and components attached to those printed circuit boards. These solder connections (also known as solder joints) are referred to as PCB interconnects.

The 5DX used a gantry robot to move the assembled printed circuit board underneath an X-ray source to be able to image the components' joints that require inspection. The positioning of board was guided with the use of Computer Aided Design (CAD) data, which represented the outer layers of a printed circuit board's electrical design.

The 5DX system used classical laminography to create an x-ray image “slice”, or image plane that will be distinct from other image planes on the object to be imaged. A slice will remove obstructions above or below the plane of focus so that only the regions of interest remain. X-Ray systems that use methods such as laminography ( or the now more commonly used tomography ) are marketed as “3D” x-ray systems. X-Ray systems that do not use these methods and only produce a transmissive shadow image are marketed as “2D” systems.

Classical laminography is based on a relative motion of the x-ray source, the detector and the object. The x-ray source and the detector are moved synchronously on circles as shown in the figure.

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