KR100820917B1 - Apparatus and Method for inspecting shape of Flexible Printed Circuit Board - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for inspecting the appearance of a flexible printed circuit board, and more particularly, to inspect the inside and the surface and the boundary surface of a solder resist by dividing the pattern of the flexible printed circuit board into a plurality of areas. The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for inspecting appearance of a flexible printed circuit board.

According to the present invention, since the pattern of the flexible printed circuit board is photographed and inspected in a plurality of regions, the amount of data is reduced, so that the inspection time is relatively shortened, and the image data is photographed separately because the region coated with the resin layer is photographed separately. By improving the uniformity of the more precise inspection is possible.

Printed circuit board, appearance inspection

Description

Apparatus and Method for inspecting shape of Flexible Printed Circuit Board}

1 is a schematic diagram of a flexible printed circuit board inspection apparatus according to the present invention.

Figure 2 is a block diagram showing the main configuration of the flexible printed circuit board inspection apparatus according to the present invention.

Figure 3a is a flow chart showing the appearance inspection method of the Tape Automated Bonding (TAB) substrate according to the present invention.

Figure 3b is a flow chart showing the appearance inspection method of a chip on film (COF) substrate according to the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

10 ... flexible printed circuit boards

110 ... unwinding

120 ... Inspection

121 ... First Inspection Unit

122 ... Second Inspection Unit

123 ... Third Inspection Department

124 ... Fourth Inspection Department

125 ... 5th Inspection Department

130 ... Visual

140 ... bad display

150 ... winding

160 ... Dancer

170 ... control unit

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for inspecting the appearance of a flexible printed circuit board. More particularly, the present invention relates to a flexible printed circuit board, in which a pattern of the flexible printed circuit board is divided into a plurality of areas and photographed to detect foreign substances in or on a solder resist. The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for inspecting appearance of a flexible printed circuit board.

Flexible printed circuit board (Flexibel Printed Circuit Board) is one of the main materials used in the manufacturing of various semiconductor devices, such as driver integrated circuit, memory, etc. of liquid crystal display device, according to the trend of miniaturization and light weight of semiconductor devices, film, tape It is used a lot in the form of (tape).

Such flexible printed circuit boards include a tape carrier package (TCP), a chip on film (COF), a tape automated bonding (TAB) substrate, and the like, and a fine circuit pattern is formed on the substrate through an exposure, development, and etching process. However, various defects such as short circuit, open circuit, protrusion, defect bite, discoloration, foreign matter adhesion, etc. occur in the fine circuit pattern, causing a big problem, and thus effective inspection thereof. Is the key to productivity and quality control.

In this regard, Korean Patent Application No. 2003-88510 discloses "appearance inspection apparatus and method of a tape carrier package" (hereinafter referred to as "quotation example").

In the cited example, the inspection unit acquires and analyzes an image of the lead portion of the inspection film using a line scan camera, and obtains and analyzes an image of the IP hole, package portion, and resin coating cloth of the inspection film using an area scan camera. It is configured to.

However, the configuration as in the above cited example is capable of inspecting whether there is an abnormality in the circuit pattern and foreign matter adhered to the pattern. There is no problem.

The present invention is to solve the problems described above, by dividing the pattern of the flexible printed circuit board into a plurality of areas to reduce the amount of data to reduce the inspection time, to inspect the solder resist (Solder Resist) area It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for inspecting the appearance of flexible printed circuit boards.

In addition, the present invention provides an apparatus and method for inspecting the appearance of a flexible printed circuit board to improve the uniformity of image data by separately photographing a region coated with a resin layer and a region not coated.

Apparatus for inspecting the appearance of a flexible printed circuit board according to the present invention for achieving the above technical problem, the unwinding unit for continuously providing a plurality of flexible printed circuit boards, the inspection unit for inspecting the circuit pattern of the flexible printed circuit boards And a defective display unit for displaying a defective display on the flexible printed circuit board which is determined as defective through the inspection unit, a winding unit which receives and rewinds the flexible printed circuit boards after the inspection, and a control unit for controlling overall operations of the components. An apparatus for inspecting an appearance of a flexible printed circuit board, the inspecting unit comprising: a first inspecting unit photographing and inspecting a circuit pattern of a solder resist region of the flexible printed circuit board; A second inspection unit which photographs and inspects a solder resist boundary and a region outside the solder resist boundary of the flexible printed circuit board; And a third inspection unit which photographs and inspects a solder resist surface and an outer lead region of the flexible printed circuit board.

Meanwhile, in order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method for inspecting the appearance of a plurality of flexible printed circuit boards that are continuously provided, and photographing a circuit pattern in a solder resist area of the flexible printed circuit board by a first inspection unit and failing. A first inspection step of determining whether or not; A second inspection step of photographing the solder resist boundary surface and the solder resist boundary region of the flexible printed circuit board by the second inspection unit and determining whether the defect is defective; And a third inspection step of photographing the solder resist surface and the external lead region of the flexible printed circuit board by the third inspection unit and determining whether the defect is defective.

Hereinafter will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings an embodiment of the present invention.

1 is a schematic diagram of a flexible printed circuit board visual inspection apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of the flexible printed circuit board inspection apparatus according to the present invention.

1 and 2, the appearance inspection apparatus of the flexible printed circuit board according to the present invention through the unwinding unit 110, the unwinding unit 110, which provides a plurality of flexible printed circuit boards 10 continuously The inspector directly checks the dancer unit 160 for adjusting the tension of the flexible printed circuit boards provided therein, an inspection unit 120 for inspecting circuit patterns of the flexible printed circuit boards, and a flexible printed circuit board passing through the inspection unit 120. The visual unit 130 for observation, the defect display unit 140 for displaying a defect on the flexible printed circuit board that is determined to be defective through the inspection unit 120, the winding unit to receive and rewind the inspected flexible printed circuit boards 150, and a controller 170 for controlling all operations of the components.

The inspection unit 120 may include a first inspection unit 121 photographing and inspecting a circuit pattern of a solder resist region of the flexible printed circuit board; A second inspection unit 122 photographing and inspecting a solder resist boundary and a region outside the solder resist boundary of the flexible printed circuit board; And a third inspection unit 123 photographing and inspecting a solder resist surface and an outer lead region of the flexible printed circuit board. In addition, a fourth inspection unit which photographs and inspects a pattern of an inner lead area of the flexible printed circuit board and a fifth inspection unit which finally determines whether or not a defect by re-photographing a defective portion recognized by the first to fourth inspection units. An inspection unit is provided.

The operation of the flexible printed circuit board visual inspection apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1.

First, the flexible printed circuit boards 10 in a film form are continuously provided to the inspection unit 120 by the unwinding unit 110.

The first inspector 121 photographs a circuit pattern of a solder resist region of the flexible printed circuit board to inspect for defects, and the second inspector 122 inspects a solder resist boundary and a solder resist boundary of the flexible printed circuit board. The external region is photographed to determine whether the defect is inferior, and the third inspection unit 123 photographs the solder resist surface and the outer lead area of the flexible printed circuit board to inspect the defect.

Here, when the test target substrate is tape automated bonding (TAB), the pattern of the inner lead region is additionally photographed and inspected through the fourth inspection unit 124. The reason is that in the case of a TAB substrate, unlike a COF (Chip On Film) substrate, there is no film layer supporting an inner lead, which may cause deformation of the pattern. That is, the TAB substrate forms a pattern on the film, but since the hole is formed in the portion where the chip is mounted, the inner lead protrudes into the hole and there is no inner lead support layer.

On the other hand, since the COF substrate forms a pattern on the film and the film supports the inner lead portion on which the chip is mounted, the COF substrate is generally inspected only when necessary, without inspecting the pattern of the inner lead region.

The fifth inspector 125 retakes the defective part recognized by the first inspector to the fourth inspector to finally determine whether the inspector is defective. At this time, if any one of the areas is abnormal, the flexible printed circuit board is treated as defective, and if there is no abnormality, it is treated as good quality.

The flexible printed circuit board determined as defective by the fifth inspection unit 125 is displayed as defective by the failure display unit 140, and the inspection process is completed by winding the winding unit 150.

Here, a visual part 130 is provided between the inspecting unit 120 and the defective display unit 140 to inspect the inspected flexible printed circuit board directly by the inspector. Preferably, the defective display unit 140 is provided. ) And the winding unit 150 may be installed.

3A is a flowchart illustrating a method of inspecting an appearance of a tape automated bonding (TAB) substrate according to the present invention.

Referring to the drawings, the first inspection unit 121 performs a first inspection step (S400) of photographing a circuit pattern in the solder resist area of the flexible printed circuit board by irradiating the reflected light and determining whether or not the second inspection unit ( In step 122), the second inspection step S402 is performed to photograph the solder resist boundary surface and the solder resist boundary region of the flexible printed circuit board and determine whether the defect is defective by irradiating the transmitted light. The third test step (S404) of photographing the solder resist surface and the external lead region of the flexible printed circuit board and determining whether the defect is performed by irradiating the reflected light is performed.

Since the solder resist of the TAB substrate is thicker than that of the COF substrate, it is preferable to use a color camera in the first inspection step.

After the third inspection step (S404), the fourth inspection unit 124 is irradiated with reflected light or transmitted light to photograph the inner lead (Inner Lead) area of the flexible printed circuit board and determine whether or not defective Further passes through (S406).

The first inspection step (S400) to the fourth inspection step (S406) may change the order as necessary.

Finally, the fifth inspection unit 125 performs a fifth inspection step S408 in which the defective portion determined by the first inspection unit 121 to the fourth inspection unit 124 is rephotographed and inspected. If there is an abnormality (S410), the flexible printed circuit board is treated as defective (S412), and if there is no abnormality, it is treated as good quality (S414).

In each inspection step, the brightness and color of the light can be changed to suit the characteristics of the foreign material to be inspected.

Figure 3b is a flow chart showing the appearance inspection method of a chip on film (COF) substrate according to the present invention.

As described above, since the COF substrate forms a pattern on the film and the film supports the internal lead portion where the chip is mounted, there is no need to inspect the pattern of the internal lead region, and the inspection is performed only when necessary. do.

 Therefore, after the third inspection step S404, the process proceeds directly to the fifth inspection step S408 without taking a fourth inspection step of photographing an inner lead area of the flexible printed circuit board and determining whether there is a defect. In general, the fourth inspection step is performed only when necessary.

Since other processes are the same as those of the TAB substrate described with reference to FIG. 3A, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

As described above, although the present invention has been described by way of limited embodiments and drawings, the terms or words used in the present specification and claims are not to be construed as being limited to ordinary or dictionary meanings, and are consistent with the technical spirit of the present invention. It must be interpreted as meaning and concept. Therefore, the embodiments described in the specification and the drawings shown in the drawings are only one of the most preferred embodiments of the present invention and do not represent all of the technical idea of the present invention, various modifications that can be replaced at the time of the present application It should be understood that there may be equivalents and variations.

According to the apparatus and method for inspecting the appearance of a flexible printed circuit board according to the present invention, by capturing and inspecting a pattern in a plurality of areas, the amount of data is reduced, thereby providing an effect of relatively improving an inspection speed.

In addition, the inside and the surface of the solder resist (Solder Resist), and even the interface can be inspected, and the area where the resin layer is applied and the uncoated area is taken separately to improve the uniformity of the image data to enable a more precise inspection do.

Claims (8)

delete delete delete In the method for inspecting the appearance of a plurality of flexible printed circuit boards provided in series, A first inspection step of photographing a circuit pattern in a solder resist area of the flexible printed circuit board using reflection light and determining whether there is a defect; A second inspection step of photographing a solder resist boundary surface and an area outside the solder resist boundary of the flexible printed circuit board using transmission light and determining whether there is a defect; And And a third inspection step of photographing the solder resist surface and the external lead region of the flexible printed circuit board by using reflected light and determining whether there is a defect. The method of claim 4, wherein And after the third inspection step, further comprising a fourth inspection step of photographing an internal lead region of the flexible printed circuit board and determining whether there is a defect. The method according to claim 4 or 5, After the third inspection step or the fourth inspection step, the defective parts determined in the first to fourth inspection steps are rephotographed to treat the flexible printed circuit board as defective if any of the areas are abnormal. If not there is a visual inspection method of the flexible printed circuit board, characterized in that it further comprises a fifth inspection step of processing as good. delete The method of claim 5, In the fourth inspection step, the appearance inspection method of the flexible printed circuit board, characterized in that using the reflected light or transmitted light.

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