Computer controlled, multiple angle illumination system

An illumination system for the inspection of the surface of a workpiece, comprising:

• a. multiple sources of light for impinging at multiple angles incident to the surface of a workpiece;
• b. illumination control electronics for maintaining constant intensity of each of the multiple light sources, said illumination control electronics comprising:
• i. a fused power supply input for limiting the series pass regulator input current;
• ii. a series pass regulator, the output for which powers the system light sources;
• iii. an output voltage control and a zero voltage reference for driving an output power transistor in the series pass regulator between cutoff and saturation;
• iv. a computer for controlling the intensity of and setting incidence angles of each lamp and for storing data derived from prior knowledge of optical properties of the workpiece and analyzing lamp decay;
• v. an output current sense for monitoring the decay of each lamp and sending the information to the computer;
• and
• vi. a means for regulating the output of a single DC power supply to make it operate as multiple variable voltage supplies, one to each lamp of the illumination system;;
• c. multiple fiber optic line converter for coupling the light from each of the multiple sources into a fiber optic bundle;
• and
• d. a multiple lens light collection system for focusing light on the surface of a workpiece.

An illumination system for the inspection of the surface of a workpiece, comprising:

• a. multiple sources of light comprised of a plurality of quartz halogen lamps for impinging at multiple angles incident to the surface of a workpiece;
• b. illumination control electronics for maintaining constant intensity of each of the multiple light sources, said illumination control electronics including:
• i. a computer for calculating the percent lamp voltage from OV to maximum and sending the result to a digital-to-analog converter by way of a communication interface for controlling and for calculating and storing voltage data representing the intensity of each lamp;
• ii. A digital-to-analog converter for receiving from the computer the digital data representing the calculated intensities and converting the data to a scaled analog control voltage;
• and
• iii. A constant DC voltage supply for operating each source of light within the scaled analog control voltage range in response to information received from the DAC;
• c. multiple fiber optic line converter for coupling the light from each of the multiple sources into a fiber optic bundle;
• and
• d. a multiple lens light collection system for focusing light on the surface of a workpiece.

An illumination system for the inspection of the surface of a workpiece, comprising:

• a. multiple sources of light comprised of a plurality of quartz halogen lamps for impinging at multiple angles incident to the surface of a workpiece;
• b. illumination control electronics for maintaining constant intensity of each of the multiple light sources, said illumination control electronics including:
• i. a computer for calculating the percent lamp voltage from 0 V to maximum and sending the result to a digital-to-analog converter by way of a communications interface for controlling and for calculating and storing voltage data representing the intensity of each lamp;
• ii. a digital-to-analog converter for receiving from the computer the digital data representing the calculated intensities and converting the data to a scaled analog control voltage range from V=0 to about 10 V;
• and
• iii. A constant DC voltage supply for operating each source of light within the scaled analog control voltage range in response to information received from the DAC;
• c. multiple fiber optic line converter for coupling the light from each of the multiple sources into a fiber optic bundle;
• and
• d. a multiple lens light collection system for focusing light on the surface of a workpiece.