he Automatic Phototool Registration Unit is a microprocessor controlled vision system that automatically aligns phototool film to multilayer panels. Outerlayer and soldermask artwork for multilayer boards are typically eye aligned for registration. This process is extremely tedious. Consistency and accuracy is highly dependent upon the skill of the operator. Visual alignment of phototools precludes the use of first generation silver halide film. Therefore diazo must be used because of its transparency. Prepunching film and pinning it to the punched or drilled holes in the multilayer panel causes production and registration problems.Without a cut sheet laminator, it is necessary to remove the dry film from the pinning positions in the board. Even if a cutsheet laminator is used, the concern with debris generated in the clean room when pinning is still present. With repeated use, pinning distorts the tooling holes in the film. Plated drilled holes have a diameter variation that will also introduce additional registration problems. The Automatic Phototool Registration Unit avoids these problems. Using two CCD cameras, the unit sights on two target holes which are drilled as part of the drill program and are subsequently dry film-coated. It then aligns the corresponding targets in the artwork to the drilled holes with a vacuum manipulator. Any error between the location of the drilled target in the board and the imaged target on the phototool is compensated by splitting the error. When best fit is achieved, a signal is generated to the operator to secure the artwork to the panel. This process is repeated for the second side and the board is ready for exposure. Any accumulative error in drilling is minimized as the drilled targets in the panel become the system reference. Once the panel is placed in field of view of CCD cameras, the Automatic Target Acquisition software calculates the centers of the panel targets. These become the reference fiducials to which the phototool image targets are aligned. Soldermask alignment is achieved in a similar manner by automatically aligning the imaged targets on the phototool to the etched targets which are part of the outerlayer pattern. The Automatic Phototool Registration Unit eliminates operator to operator inconsistencies in outerlayer and soldermask registration, increases thruput and improves yields. Home | About Us | Staff | Directions | Products | News | Trade Shows | Literature | Employment | Contact Us © 2002 Multiline Technology