Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1533904
32 SMT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2025 be done either in person or on a virtual call. Knowledge is power, and we believe in trans- mitting knowledge. An informed customer tends to be a satisfied customer, in our expe- rience. Satisfied customers tend to return and tell others about us. Once the review is complete, we are oen asked to recommend process improve- ments. We are not process engineers, so we must tread carefully when asked this ques- tion. Usually, we provide a range of possible causes. If the customer pushes harder and wants to know the specific root cause of a problem, we oen refer them to an indus- tr y colleague who is a process management consultant. From your experience, what are the key dif- ferences in value between 2D and 3D X-ray technology, and how do you determine which method is best suited for a particular inspec- tion need? Boguski: 2D is conventional X-ray inspec- tion; 3D is CT scanning. e terms are con- stantly mixed up and lead to much con- fusion. Unscrupulous persons oen take advantage of this by playing on peoples' ignorance. Conventional X-ray is cheaper by the hour than CT scanning. Most of our inspection engagements begin with conven- tional X-ray, if for no better reason than as a sanity check (even if the customer wants us to go directly to CT scanning). We usu- ally take this conservative approach because it saves the customer money and arrives at the objective in a quicker and more system- atic way. Customers typically are not put out when we save them money. What advancements in X-ray inspection tech- nology have had the biggest impact on your ability to serve customers effectively, and where do you see the technology heading in the future? Boguski: e obvious answer is AI. It is remov- ing some of the drudgery from the old school method of having one person reviewing hun- dreds of images from one board, with the attendant risk that operator fatigue will set in and something crucial will be missed. Hav- ing said that, AI does not eliminate the need for skilled, experienced Xray technicians and analysts, with time-based knowledge to dis- tinguish false from true failures, and to eval- uate subtle defects and judge their potential to contribute to future catastrophic board or system failures. Also, digital detector technology in both X-ray and CT scanning systems is constantly improving, thereby enabling us to capture images, and defects, at finer resolutions (oen in the sub-micron range), that are essential for today's microelectronics failure analysis.