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82 SMT007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2021 Resources 1. IPC-7095 Design and Assembly Process Imple- mentation for BGAs 2. IPC-A-610H Acceptability of Printed Wiring Boards Bob Wettermann is the princi- pal of BEST Inc., a contract r ework and repair facility in Chicago. For more information, contact info@solder.net. To read past columns or contact Wettermann, click here. How Far Can AI Take Us? Artificial Intelligence is more than a buzzword as- sociated with business and industrial technologies. In recent times, it has demonstrated promising po- tential across a variety of industries, from self-driv- ing vehicles to virtual doctors, and it has far-reach- ing applications within the manufacturing sector. By using the right mixture of AI technologies, manufacturers can boost their efficiency, improve flexibility, speed up processes, and even achieve self-optimizing processes. The SMT industry is no exception, and while it is facing a chronic shortage of skilled labor, AI seems a natural fit. Equipment providers are enabling the smart factory of the fu- ture by adopting AI to generate "knowledge" from "experience." Machine-to-machine communications are quick- ly changing the manufacturing process by aggre- gating process data such as first pass yield and throughput. By strengthening large-scale data sets using the highest quality data captured through industry-leading 3D metrology, AI algorithms nec- essary for smarter manufacturing processes can be trained by utilizing the data sets. Equipment manufacturers are adapting and adopting AI in the inspection technology. What Is AI? Artificial intelligence is a multidisciplinary field of science with the goal to create intelligent machines by making them "smarter." Historical applications of this goal include natural language processing and translation, visual perception, pattern recognition, and decision making, but the number and complexi- ty of applications have been quickly expanding. Out of all the advancements researchers have made, the current driver of the AI inflection point is thanks to major advances in deep learning. Deep learning is an algorithm with a hierarchy of "deep layers" of large neural networks fed by data without feature engineering. From practical solutions to improve measurement quality and inspection accuracy, equipment vendors are utilizing AI to meet the rising demand and challenges in the SMT industry. Click here to download this free I-007eBook. EXCERPT: The Printed Circuit Assembler's Guide to... SMT Inspection: Today, Tomorrow, and Beyond, Chapter 6 age, and solder shorts as well as numerous oth- er anomalies. X-ray imaging really is a neces- sity to "see" these defects and anomalies aer BGA replacement. X-ray inspection of reworked BGAs prior to the rework operation, and both far and near field analysis of the X-ray images, are impor- tant to confirm that the BGA rework process has yielded success. Without the use of X-ray imaging, it is very difficult to confirm that the inspection criteria have been satisfied. SMT007