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AssigneeHitachi Techno Engineering Co., Ltd.
InventorsNarihito Okubo, Masao Tsuji, Tomoya Tomita, Tadaaki Kadoya, Hiroyasu Kato, Shingo Fujioka
Estimating the term…
Electronic components such as integrated circuit components have rows of parallel leads extending from the sides of their bodies. In detecting bent leads of an electronic component, at least two measuring lines are set along each row of leads. The intersections between the measuring lines and the leads are extracted and processed to detect a bend in leads. The electronic component is photographed to produce image data which is stored in a memory. At least two measuring lines are virtually set along the row of leads of the image data stored in the memory. An intersection extractor extracts, from the image data, the intersections between the measuring lines and predetermined leads in the row of leads. A detector then uses the extracted intersections to detect bent leads.
A method of detecting vertical bent leads, in a length direction of the leads, of an electronic component which has rows of parallel leads extending three-dimensionally from sides of a body of the electronic component, tips of the leads being aligned straight in each row, the method comprising the steps of:
A method of detecting vertical bent leads, in a length direction of the leads, of an electronic component which has rows of parallel leads extending three-dimensionally from sides of a body of the electronic component, tips of said leads being aligned straight for each row, the method comprising the steps of:
A method of detecting vertical bent leads, in a length direction of the leads, of an electronic component which has rows of parallel leads extending three-dimensionally from sides of a body of the electronic component, tips of the leads being aligned straight in each row, the method comprising the steps of:
An apparatus for detecting vertical bent leads, in a length direction of the leads, of an electronic component which has rows of parallel leads extending three-dimensionally from sides of a body of the electronic component, tips of the leads being aligned straight in each row, the apparatus comprising:
An apparatus for detecting vertical bent leads, in a length direction of the leads, of an electronic component which has rows of parallel leads extending three-dimensionally from sides of a body of the electronic component, tips of the leads being aligned straight in each row, the apparatus comprising:
An apparatus for detecting vertical bent leads, in a length direction of the leads, of an electronic component which has rows of parallel leads extending three-dimensionally from sides of a body of the electronic component, tips of said leads being aligned straight in each row, the apparatus comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Characterised by the properties tested or measured, e.g. structural or electrical properties: structural properties, e.g. testing or measuring…
Generic processes or apparatus for the manufacture or treatment of devices covered
Term ended 6 Feb 2013 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
This invention relates to a technique of detecting bent leads as in integrated circuit components of surface-mounting flat package type and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for detecting bent leads in electronic components, which are suitably used in combination with a visual sensor for automatically mounting electronic components on printed circuit cards.
A wide range of electronic circuits employ printed circuit cards. These printed circuit cards in general have come to be manufactured by automatic fabrication machines in recent years. A variety of automatic IC component mounting apparatuses or automatic assemblers have been proposed and put to practical use.
The electronic components mounted on the printed circuit cards have many parallel leads arranged on all sides. If an integrated circuit component has any bent leads, current connection between the IC component and the wiring pattern on the card cannot be obtained. To avoid this, inspection must be made to detect any deformed leads so that only those IC components with correct leads can be brought onto the printed circuit card.
FIG. 1 is an explanatory drawing showing the principle of the IC lead bend detecting apparatus according to this invention;
FIGS. 2(a), 2(b) are explanatory views showing bent leads in a flat package IC;
FIG. 3 is a photographing system configuration as one embodiment of the invention;
The method of detecting IC leads according to this invention will be described in detail by referring to the embodiments illustrated in the drawings.
FIG. 3 shows one embodiment of the invention, in which reference numeral 1 represents a flat package type IC component, 3 a suction hand, 4 a chuck for rough positioning, 5 a TV camera, 6 a lens, 7 an image plate, and 8 an illuminating device.
This embodiment is the automatic IC component assembler to which the present invention is applied. The suction hand has a chuck 4 and holds by suction an IC component 1 placed at a predetermined location, carries it to a specified position where a printed circuit card is located, and then positions the IC component. The chuck 4 roughly adjusts the attitude of the IC component 1 with respect to the suction hand 3.