Abstract: A wiring pattern inspecting method comprises irradiating a test object provided with wiring patterns formed in a plurality of layers with x-rays, obtaining a variable-density image signal corresponding to the thickness of the wiring patterns superposed in a plurality of layers including superposed sections of the wiring patterns, extracting a plurality of image signals, the number of which corresponding to that of the superposed wiring patterns, from the variable-density image signal, and comparing end point information or isolated point information about the wiring patterns obtained from image signal representing a larger number of superposed wiring patterns, and branch information about the end points or the isolated points on the wiring points, obtained from the extracted image signal representing a smaller number of superposed wiring patterns to inspect the wiring patterns for defects in the wiring patterns. The wiring pattern inspecting method is carried out by a wiring pattern inspecting system.

Abstract: An X-ray inspection apparatus and method in which an object to be inspected is irradiated with characteristic X-rays containing at least one wavelength which affords a high X-ray absorbance in the object to be inspected. A transmitted X-ray image which has passed through the object to be inspected is detected, and the object to be inspected is inspected on the basis of the transmitted X-ray image. The method and apparatus are utilized to fabricate a multi-layer printed circuit board.

Abstract: A ring rotor wherein two magnets of different polarities are disposed in an annular fashion, is supported free to rotate on a base. Two stator coils fixed on the base face these magnets inside of this rotor. Also provided are a switch fixed for selectively energizing these coils, and a mechanism for holding the ring rotor in a predetermined rotation position. Due to the use of magnets for the rotor, brushes are unnecessary, and the ring rotor can be held in a stop position by the holding mechanism.Througholes connecting the inside of the housing and the outside of the housing base are provided in a boss projecting from the base towards the inside of the housing. Grooves are formed from the opening position of the throughole in the base to the side walls of the housing. Bends are provided in these grooves. Leads running from outside into the housing are guided inside the housing via these grooves and througholes. Leads are fixed by filling the grooves and througholes with a filler.

Abstract: A ring rotor is supported free to rotate in a housing, and a plurality of magnets are provided on the inner circumference of the ring rotor having their N and S poles oriented alternately. A stator is fixed to the housing on the inner side of the ring rotor, this stator having a plurality of coils. A switch is provided in the energizing path of the coils, and a mechanism for stopping the ring rotor at a predetermined rotation position is also provided. When one of the coils is energized via the switch, the ring rotor is caused to rotate, and is then held by the stop mechanism. Since the coils are not energized after the operation, power is economized, and burning of the coils is prevented.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for detecting a circuit pattern comprise a stage for mounting an object under inspection having a circuit pattern to be detected, means of generating a signal in response to the amount of movement of the stage, a detection optical system for detecting the circuit pattern, an opto-electric transducer which receives the image of the pattern provided by the detection optical system and transforms the image into an image signal, means of calculating the amount of expansion or contraction of the object by detecting the distance between specific patterns on the object, and drive control means which produces a clock signal for the opto-electric transducer based on the stage movement signal provided by the signal generation means and varies the clock signal so as to vary the dimension of the detected image arbitrarily.

Abstract: A circuit pattern to be inspected is imaged so that an image signal representing the circuit pattern to be inspected is produced. The image signal of the circuit pattern is compared with a reference circuit pattern image signal, wherein a part of the image signal discerned to be different from the latter is detected as a candidate defect, at a rate synchronized with the rate of imaging. A local image signal corresponding to each local image covering a region including every one of detected candidate defects is extracted and stored in a memory device. Thereafter, on the basis of the local image signal read out from the memory device, whether or not the candidate defect concerned is fatally harmful with regard to electrical conductivity is examined at a rate asynchronous with the imaging rate.

Abstract: Disclosed is a pattern test apparatus for detecting a fault on the basis of comparison/collation between a test reference pattern and a test target pattern, the apparatus being arranged such that a picture element area is defined by a circle with a predetermined radius on a reference matter having at test reference pattern, and when the number of the picture elements located on the reference pattern is larger than the number of the picture elements located outside the reference pattern, a part of the reference pattern corresponding to a picture element located in the center of the circle is deleted. By such an arrangement, the test reference pattern can be made analogous to the real test target pattern regardless of the shape thereof, so that misjudgment of a normal test target pattern for a fault pattern can be prevented.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for detecting through-hole voids in a multi-layer printed circuit board. The through-hole is formed with an electrical conductor for interconnecting wiring patterns of upper layers and wiring patterns of lower layers of the printed wiring board and is illuminated with a beam having a wavelength falling within a specified wavelength band capable of exciting an luminescent beam from a layer material. The layer material is exposed by a through-hole void in the through-hole of the printed wiring board. The luminescent beam excited by the illumination beam impinging upon the layer material by way of the through-hole void in the through-hole is focussed by means of a focussing optical system and a photoelectric converter. The photoelectric converter converts the luminescent beam into an electrical signal. The presence of a through-hole void is indicated by the electrical signal.

Abstract: A printed wiring board circuit-pattern inspection system including a two-dimensionally movable table on which a reference printed wiring board and a printed wiring board to be inspected are placed one after another; an image pickup unit which picks up an image of a circuit-pattern on a printed wiring board by scanning the circuit-pattern in two dimensions, and converting the image into a video signal, a binary pixel forming unit which transforms the video signal into binary pattern data, synchronous signal generator which generates a synchronous signal in synchronism with the scanning operation, a first buffer memory which stores binary pattern data, compressed pattern data memory which stores compressed binary pattern data of a whole reference printed wiring board, data compander which compresses and expands binary pattern, in accordance with the synchronous signal, a second buffer memory which stores, binary pattern data compressed by the data compander and the binary data retrieved from the compressed patt

Abstract: Method and apparatus for detecting wiring patterns wherein a printed circuit board is irradiated with a light ray which excites a substrate of the printed circuit board to generate a fluorescent radiation from the substrate, the fluorescent radiation generated from portions other than a wiring pattern of the printed circuit board is imaged by means of an image detector, and a negative pattern of the wiring pattern is detected on the basis of an image signal generated from the image detector.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for testing the pattern of a printed circuit board, comprising a stroboscope for emitting intermittent light synchronously with the feed velocity of the printed circuit board; a condenser lens for gathering the intermittent light emitted from the stroboscope and irradiating the gathered light to the printed circuit board; a filter for converting the light of the stroboscope to exciting light; a half mirror for reflecting the exciting light gathered by the condenser lens and converted by the filter, then projecting the reflected light upon the printed circuit board perpendicularly thereto, and passing the excited fluorescent light from the substrate of the printed circuit board; an imaging lens for forming an image of the fluorescent light passed through the half mirror; another filter for eliminating any other light than the fluorescent light out of the entire light passed through the half mirror; a TV camera for picking up the fluorescent image formed by the imaging lens; a memory f

Abstract: A pattern detecting apparatus for inspecting a printed wiring board is disclosed in which a fluorescent image formed by the fluorescent light from the substrate of the printed wiring board and an image formed by the reflected light from the wiring pattern of the printed wiring board are both used because a wiring material which is left on an undesired portion of the substrate and has low reflectivity, is detected only at the fluorescent image and a defective portion of the wiring pattern where a surface layer thereof peels off, is detected only at the image formed by the reflected light, the image used for detecting the above defective portion is preferably formed by the reflected infrared light from the wiring pattern for the reason that infrared light is insensitive to a shallow flaw in the surface of the wiring pattern, and the fluorescent image and the infrared image are processed by a detection circuit, and then compared with each other to detect a pattern defect on the basis of a difference between the

Abstract: A method for the alignment of electronic components to be mounted on a printed board. The alignment is accomplished by illuminating the surface of the printed board to cause emission of fluorescent light from the substrate of the printed board, detecting the fluorescent light by optical means to detect an image of the conductor pattern of the printed board as a negative picture, taking an image of leads of an electronic component by optical means as a positive or negative picture, and correcting the deviation of the leads of the electronic component from the conductor pattern on the basis of picture data obtained from both images.

Abstract: A pattern defect is detected in accordance with the difference between a pair of patterns. The patterns are scanned and imaged to obtain first and second binary signals. A positioning error between the patterns is two-dimensionally detected during the scanning with respective first and second binary signals delayed by a prescribed amount so that each of the picture elements in a prescribed area of a two-dimensional image, delayed and cut out two-dimensionally, corresponding to one pattern, is compared with a specified picture element in a predetermined area of an image delayed and cut out two-dimensionally corresponding to another pattern. The result of the comparison is statistically summed to derive a positioning error by detecting the position shown as an extreme value from the summed values. The positioning error is corrected by two-dimensionally shifting at least one of the delayed binary signals. The corrected binary signals are then two-dimensionally compared with each other.

Abstract: An apparatus for the alignment of electronic components to be mounted on a printed board. The alignment is accomplished by illuminating the surface of the printed board to cause emission of a fluorescent light from the substrate of the printed board, detecting the fluorescent light by optical means to detect an image of the conductor pattern of the printed board as a negative picture, taking an image of the electronic component leads through a different optical route and calculating the amount of deviation in position of the leads of an electronic component in accordance with the picture data obtained by both images, in order to correct the deviation.

Abstract: A pattern detection system for inspecting defects in fine or minute patterns such as photomask patterns at a fast speed is disclosed. The system comprises an illuminator, a device for moving objects with the patterns to be inspected with being illuminated by the illuminator, an optical system for imaging the objects, a scanner for scanning the objects in a direction intersected at a given angle with respect to direction of the objects moved by the moving device and arrays of photosensors arranged linearly in a direction perpendicular to that of images on the objects scanned by the scanner, on the surface of which the images are formed by the optical system and for producing respective outputs parallelly on the time basis.

Abstract: In order that a slight positional deviation of a plated through hole such as having no substantial effect on the function of wiring should not be optically detected as a defect in a printed wiring board, the plated through hole is recognized as a part of the wiring pattern by making light representative of the plated through hole nearly equal in intensity to reflected light from the wiring pattern. This is achieved by illuminating the printed wiring board with light from the back side or by placing a reflector on the back side of the printed wiring board.

Abstract: An apparatus of the invention for inspecting bottles for detecting flaws or contamination in the bottles relies upon the light converging function performed by one open-sided elliptic cylinder having reflective inner surface and two foci. The point or line to be inspected of the bottle is positioned at one of the two foci, while at least one light receiving element is disposed at the other focus. A beam of light is applied to the point or line to be inspected of the bottle, so that, if there is any defect such as flaw or contamination, the light is reflected irregularly by the bottle in indefinite direction. The irregularly reflected fractions of light are reflected by the inner surface of the elliptic cylinder and converge on the light receiving element disposed at the other focus, so as to be effectively received by the same element. the presence of the defect, if any, is detected from the output of the light receiving element.

Abstract: A pair of chromium masks of similar pattern are optically read out to generate video signals corresponding to the patterns thereon. Comparison of the pair of masks is carried out in binary signals converted from the video signals using different recognition thresholds, thereby discriminating defects in the masks. Defect information is recorded in a recording medium and used for identifying and positioning the defects in the correction process.