Feasibility of Single-Shot Dual-Energy X-ray Imaging Technique for Printed-Circuit Board Inspection

인쇄회로기판 검사를 위한 단일조사 이중에너지 엑스선 영상기법의 유용성에 관한 연구

A single-shot dual-energy x-ray imaging technique has been developed using a sandwich detector by stacking two detectors, in which the front and rear detectors respectively produce relatively lower and higher x-ray energy images. Each detector layer is composed of a phosphor screen coupled with a photodiode array. The front detector layer employs a thinner phosphor screen, whereas the rear detector layer employs a thicker phosphor screen considering the quantum efficiency for x-ray photons with higher energies. We have applied the proposed method into the inspection of printed circuit boards, and obtained dual-energy images with background clutter suppressed. In addition, the single-shot dual-energy method provides sharper-edge images than the conventional radiography because of the unsharp masking effect resulting from the use of different thickness phosphors between the two detector layers. It is promising to use the single-shot dual-energy x-ray imaging for high-resolution nondestructive testing. For the reliable use of the developed method, however, more quantitative analysis is further required in comparisons with the conventional method for various types of printed circuit boards.