The present disclosure relates to measurement of geometric parameters of through holes in substrates.
Typically, small geometric features with diameters below 100 microns are measured using a microscope or an Optical Coordinate Measuring Machine (OCMM). These systems typically use high optical magnification objective lenses to resolve small features, and because of the small depth of field of the lens, measurements are limited to features on or near the surface of the object. Microscope objective lens are designed to work at specific conjugate points, and their aberration corrections will suffer significantly if they are used at other distances, resulting in a distorted image. Commonly, object depth or shape information can be acquired using scanning electron microscopy or 3D confocal microscopy, but these methods are destructive and slow and cannot be used to inspect thousands of features quickly.
A method and system for measuring geometric parameters of through holes in thin substrates are disclosed herein. The method is non-destructive, and the method and system can be automated to provide inspection of hundreds to thousands of holes in a matter of minutes. The method and system can be used to measure geometric parameters, such as clear aperture size and the like, of all types of hole profiles, such as straight, tapered, hour glass, and the like. The term “clear aperture” refers to the clear unobstructed opening of a hole when looking through the hole under normal incidence. For a straight hole, where the diameter of the hole is uniform, the clear aperture size is the same as the diameter of the hole. For other types of holes, such as a hour glass hole or tapered hole, the clear aperture size is defined by the minimum transverse dimension of the hole. The minimum transverse dimension would be located at the narrowest point, or waist, of the hole. The method and system can measure the clear aperture size of every hole, independent of the depth at which the clear aperture occurs. Even if the clear aperture size and depth show large variations across a substrate, the method and system will not require any adjustments or refocusing during the measurement.
In a first aspect, a method of measuring geometric parameters of through holes in a substrate includes positioning a camera comprising an image sensor and a lens having a depth of field greater than the thickness of the substrate at a measuring station. The method includes positioning a select sub-volume of the substrate within a field of view of the camera and within the depth of range. The method includes illuminating the select sub-volume. The method includes capturing an image of the select sub-volume on the image sensor and processing the image to determine at least one geometric parameter of at least one through hole in the select sub-volume.
A second aspect of this disclosure includes the method as described in the first aspect, where the at least one geometric parameter is a clear aperture size of the at least one through hole.
A third aspect of this disclosure includes the method as described in the first or second aspect, where the substrate has a thickness of 1 mm or less.
A fourth aspect of this disclosure includes the method as described in any of the first to the third aspects, wherein the lens is a telecentric lens.
A fifth aspect of this disclosure includes the method as described in the fourth aspect, wherein the illuminating the select sub-volume comprises using collimated light.
A sixth aspect of this disclosure includes the method as described in any one of the first to the fifth aspects, where the select sub-volume has a front side and a back side, the front side is positioned in opposing relation to the lens, and the select sub-volume is illuminated by directing light at the front side of the select sub-volume.
A seventh aspect of this disclosure includes the method as described in the fifth aspect, where the light is directed at the front side of the select sub-volume by passing the light through the telecentric lens to the front side of the select sub-volume.
An eighth aspect of this disclosure includes the method as described in the fourth or fifth aspect, where illuminating the select sub-volume further includes reflecting the light into the select sub-volume using a mirror mounted at the back side of the select sub-volume.
A ninth aspect of this disclosure includes the method as described in any one of the first to the fifth aspects, where the select sub-volume has a front side and a back side, the front side is positioned in opposing relation to the lens, and the select sub-volume is illuminated by directing light at the back side of the select sub-volume.
A tenth aspect of this disclosure includes the method as described in any one of the first to the ninth aspects. The tenth aspect further includes effecting a relative motion between the camera and the substrate to position a new sub-volume of the substrate within the field of view of the camera and within the depth of field.
An eleventh aspect of this disclosure includes the method as described in the tenth aspect. The eleventh aspect further includes illuminating the new sub-volume with the light, capturing an image of the new sub-volume on the image sensor, and processing the image of the new sub-volume to determine at least one geometric parameter of at least one through hole in the new sub-volume.
A twelfth aspect of this disclosure includes the method as described in the eleventh aspect, where illuminating the new sub-volume includes effecting a relative motion between a source of the light and the substrate such that the new sub-volume is within an illumination volume of the light.
A thirteenth aspect of this disclosure includes the method as described in any one of the first to the twelfth aspects, where processing the image includes detecting changes in contrast in the image.
In a fourteenth aspect, a system of measuring geometric parameters of through holes in a substrate includes a camera comprising an image sensor and a lens having a depth of field greater than a thickness of the substrate. The camera is positioned relative to the substrate such that a select sub-volume of the substrate is within a field of view of the camera and within the depth of field. The system includes a lighting arrangement for illuminating the select sub-volume. The system further includes a processor configured to receive image data from the camera and determine from the image data at least one geometric parameter of at least one through hole in the select sub-volume.
A fifteenth aspect of this disclosure includes the system as described in the fourteenth aspect, wherein the lens is a telecentric lens.
A sixteenth aspect of this disclosure includes the system as described in the fourteenth or fifteenth aspect, wherein the lighting arrangement is a collimated lighting arrangement.
A seventeenth aspect of this disclosure includes the system as described in any one of the fourteenth to sixteenth aspects, where the select sub-volume has a front side and a back side, where the front side is in opposing relation relative to the lens, and where the lighting arrangement includes a light source positioned to direct a light beam at the back side of the select sub-volume.
An eighteenth aspect of this disclosure includes the system as described in any one of the twelfth to sixteenth aspects, where the select sub-volume has a front side and a back side, where the front side is in opposing relation to the lens, and where the lighting arrangement includes a coaxial light source optically coupled to the lens.
A nineteenth aspect of this disclosure includes the system as described in the eighteenth aspect, where the lighting arrangement further includes a mirror mounted in contact with a backside of the select sub-volume.
A twentieth aspect of this disclosure includes the system as described in the nineteenth aspect, where the mirror extends across a back side of the substrate including the back side of the select sub-volume.
A twenty-first aspect of this disclosure includes the system as described in any one of the fourteenth to the twentieth aspects. The twenty-first aspect further includes a translation mechanism coupled to the substrate and operable to translate the substrate relative to the camera.
A twenty-second aspect of this disclosure includes the system as described in any one of the fourteenth to the twenty-first aspects, where the processor is configured to determine a clear aperture size of the at least one through hole from the image data.
The following is a description of the figures in the accompanying drawings. The figures are not necessarily to scale, and certain figures and certain views of the figures may be shown exaggerated in scale or in schematic in the interest of clarity and conciseness.
To provide a context for the method and system disclosed herein,
In one embodiment, the imaging apparatus 104 includes a camera 106 and a backlight illuminator 108 arranged on opposite sides of the substrate 100, and particularly on opposite sides of a target sub-volume 109 of the substrate 100. The target sub-volume 109 includes one or more through holes 102 whose geometric parameters are to be measured. In one embodiment, the camera 106 includes an image sensor 110 and an objective lens 112 optically coupled to the image sensor 110. In one embodiment, the image sensor 110 has a pixel count of at least 10 megapixels (MP), allowing the camera 106 to capture high resolution images. However, the size of the image sensor 110 will generally be dictated by the desired accuracy of the measurement. For example, if a 100 micron geometric feature is to be measured with 1 micron accuracy, the image pixel size should be close to 1 micron. Image pixel size is a function of the physical size of the image sensor pixel and the magnification of the objective lens. In some embodiments, the objective lens 112 is a telecentric lens. Reasons for selecting a telecentric lens as the objective lens 112 are discussed below.
Conventional lenses have angular fields of view, which means that as the distance between the lens and object increases, the magnification decreases. This angular field of view results in parallax error, also known as perspective error. Telecentric lenses eliminate this parallax error by having a constant, non-angular field of view. With telecentric lenses, magnification remains constant with object displacement, provided the object stays within the telecentric range. The term “telecentric range” or “telecentric depth” or “depth of field (DOF)”, as used with telecentric lenses, refers to the total distance above and below an object that remains in focus and at constant magnification. Telecentric range may be defined as a range of axial displacements causing a variation in image size of less than 1 micron. The telecentric range (or telecentric depth or DOF) of a telecentric lens can be obtained from the lens manufacturer or may be included in the specification of the telecentric lens.
By using a telecentric lens as the objective lens 112, according to one embodiment, virtually distortion free images can be acquired and used to accurately determine the desired geometric parameters of the through holes in the substrate 100. In one embodiment, the telecentric objective lens 112 has a telecentric range (TR in
In one embodiment, the backlight illuminator 108 is used to produce a sharp silhouetted image of the holes to be measured. For the telecentric lens 112, the backlight illuminator 108 can be a telecentric illuminator, which is a collimated illuminator that is designed to work specifically with telecentric lenses. Telecentric illuminators are available commercially (for example, from Opto Engineering). The telecentric illuminator 108 will uniformly illuminate the target sub-volume 109 of the substrate 100 with a collimated light beam. The illumination volume must be the size of the target sub-volume 109 or bigger to assure illumination of the entire field of view. For the arrangement shown in
Both the lighting arrangements shown in
Returning to
A controller 140 may be coupled to the camera 106 (106′ in
Table 1 below shows examples of telecentric lens options for acquiring images of through holes in thin substrates.
A procedure for measuring one or more geometric parameters of through holes in a substrate may include selecting the lens objective for a particular substrate thickness. Examples of lens objectives are given in Table 1. After the lens objective has been selected, the desired geometric parameters, such as clear aperture size, of holes in the substrate can be measured quickly in a few simple steps, as outlined below.
The substrate is moved in between the backlight illuminator 108 and the camera 106 for the system shown in
The target sub-volume is illuminated, and an image of the illuminated target sub-volume is acquired.
The acquired image is processed to determine at least one geometric parameter of each through hole in the target sub-volume. Processing involves detecting changes in light levels, or contrast, in the acquired image. Changes in contrast can define boundaries, or lines, within the image. These lines can be extended to create objects like segments, circles, ellipses, and the like, and then parameters such as diameter or distance can be extracted. The acquired image is typically processed on a computer using commercially available image analysis software. Examples of suitable commercial imaging processing software packages include, but are not limited to, HALCON by MVTec Software GmbH, MATLAB by MathWorks, Matrox Inspector with Matrox Imaging Library by Matrox, and NI Vision by National Instrument.
The geometric parameter values for each hole are recorded. The acquired image may be discarded after recording the geometric parameter values to save storage space since the high-resolution images can be quite large.
The substrate is then translated relative to the camera and lighting arrangement to place another target sub-volume of the substrate in the field of view of the camera and within the illumination volume provided by the lighting arrangement. The acquiring of the image of the target sub-volume, processing of the image, and recording of geometric parameter values for each hole in the target sub-volume are repeated for the new target sub-volume.
The procedure described above can be automated to scan an entire substrate or a small area within the substrate. The duration of a measurement run is determined predominantly by how fast the substrate can be translated and how fast the images can be acquired and processed and not by the number of holes in the field of view. A substrate with holes ranging from hundreds to thousands can be quickly measured using an automated procedure and any of the setups described in
While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art of, having benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised which do not depart from the scope of the invention as disclosed herein. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by the accompanying claims.
This application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/356,091 filed on Jun. 29, 2016, the content of which is relied upon and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62356091 | Jun 2016 | US |