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IPC COMMUNITY 41 SPRING 2025 When residents in sleepy English villages needed a top-tier detective to solve a murder, they called on Belgian super-sleuth Hercule Poirot, author Agatha Christie's fictional detective famous for using his "lit- tle grey cells" to solve crimes. In the same way, IPC standards develop- ment committees, when creating a standard to detect defects in circuit boards using automated optical inspection (AOI), call on IPC A-Team, Hercule. AOI is an automated visual inspection of a printed circuit board in which a camera scans the device to test for failures and defects. IPC-9716, Require- ments for Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) Process Con- trol for Printed Board Assem- blies, released in January 2025, is the first automated inspec- tion standard in a series. The subject matter expert leading A-Team Hercule hails from Singapore, not Belgium, and is well known for work- ing late into the night to help detect circuit board mysteries with his fellow committee members around the globe. Meet Feng Xue, IBM, chair of 7-25A, the Automated Optical Inspection Process Control Stan- dard Task Group, A-Team Hercule, and 7-25B, AOI Process Control for IC Substrates Standard Task Group. When Feng started working at IBM, he worked closely with Matt Kelly, who also worked at IBM and is now IPC's CTO/VP of Technology Solutions, on cloud applications in IoT and AI, "on all the smart man- ufacturing stuff," Feng says. The two stayed in touch after Matt left IBM. "I still had frequent conversa- tions with Matt, and he asked me to work with him on the Factory of the Future issues, including issues like AOI," Feng says. "We realized there were no active specifications for this type of inspection and no com- mittee working on one until Matt recruited me. He thought I had the right expertise and asked me to chair a new committee, and I was happy to do it." Feng's back- ground is in microelectronics, making him ideal for the role of committee chair. "I worked in a wafer fab before joining IBM. So, basically, I'm a wafer guy. When you're dealing with wafers, you're dealing with packaging." Acclimation to Committee Work When appointed chair of 7-25A, Feng was new to IPC standards committee develop- ment. He has high praise for IPC Works, the system where the global committee mem- bers communicate when not in meetings. He also praises Chris Jorgensen, IPC director of technology transfer, and Tiberiu Baranyi, Flex, who helped him acclimate to his new role. Hunting for Clues AO I STA N DA R D Feng Xue follows the pattern of the great Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, to solve circuit board 'crimes' By Linda Stepanich, Contributing Editor, IPC Community