Testing system and testing method for inspecting electonic devices

A testing system for inspecting electronic devices includes a first transparent disk, a first image capturing unit disposed under the first transparent disk, a second disk disposed next to the first transparent disk, a guiding unit disposed on adjacent area between the transparent disk and the second disk, and a plurality of second image capturing units disposed around the second disk. A plurality of electronic devices is continuingly supplied onto the first transparent disk and the first image capturing unit is used for capturing the images of the bottom surfaces of the electronic devices. Then, the electronic devices are guided to the second disk via the guiding unit and the second image capturing units are used for capturing the images of other surfaces of the electronic devices. A testing method for electronic devices is further disclosed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a testing system and a testing method for inspecting electronic devices. The invention in particular relates to a testing system having two disks which are used for inspecting the images of each of the electronic device's surface.

2. Description of Related Art

Mobile communication and electronic devices have been developed to be multi-functional, miniaturized, highly reliable and low cost. Therefore, different functions of circuit designs are integrated onto increasingly smaller chip size. For example, mobile phones with only voice communication function are out of date and newly designed phones commonly have many accessory functions, such that people can record important matters in the phone, transfer a text message to a friend or watch digital TV on the phone.

Take another example; electronic devices for cars represent highly sophisticated technologies such as navigation computer, global positioning system, and intelligence voice activation system. Accordingly with the development of automobile's electronics, the variety of electronic utilized by an automobile also increases.

Thus, with the increasing variety and sophistication of electronic devices, the quality and the reliability of the electronic components are crucial to the performance of the electronic devices. Generally, it is necessary for the components to be tested when the manufacturing procedure is finished. In the traditional inspection method, all the components are disposed on a large-area disk and many cameras are used for capturing the images of the components' surface appearance. For inspecting the bottom surface of each component, the large-area disk has to be transparent. One method is using a quartz glass as the large-area disk but quartz glass is an expensive material. In other words, the cost of the inspection system is extremely high. Another method is using a tempered glass as the disk. However, the hardness of the tempered glass is lower than that of the electronic components so that the surface of the tempered glass is easily scratched by the components. The scratches on the tempered glass surface influence the captured bottom surface image and the analysis for the bottom surface images will not be precise. On the other hand, there are cameras disposed on both sides of the disk (i.e., top side and bottom side) and the images may be not be in focus because of influence of light (i.e. glare or reflection) that passes though the large-area disk.

Therefore, in view of this, the inventor proposes the present invention to overcome the above problems based on his expert experience and deliberate research.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary object of the present invention is to provide for a testing system having two rotatable disks and the transparent and smaller of the two disks (a.k.a. small size disk or transparent disk) is used for inspecting the bottom surface of the electronic device.

The further object of the present invention is to improve the precision of testing system analysis. The small size disk is made by quartz glass and the high degree of hardness can prevent the disk form being scratched. Therefore, the camera can capture images through a clear disk body without any scratch, wherein the scratch would have resulted in light scattering effect, and the analysis of the images of the electronic devices are thus more precise.

In order to achieve the above objects, the present invention provides a testing system for inspecting electronic devices, comprising: a first transparent disk, wherein the electronic devices are continuously supplied on the first transparent disk; a first image capturing unit disposed under the first transparent disk for capturing bottom images of the electronic devices; a second disk (i.e. the non-transparent and bigger of the two disks) disposed adjacently to the first transparent disk; a guiding unit disposed on the adjacent area between the first transparent disk and the second disk for transferring the electronic devices on the first transparent disk to the second disk; and a plurality of second image capturing units disposed around the second disk for capturing images of other surfaces (i.e. surfaces other than the bottom surface, such as front surface, rear surface, top surface, left surface, and right surface) of the electronic devices.

In order to achieve the above objects, the present invention provides a testing method for inspecting outlooks of electronic devices using a testing apparatus, the testing apparatus including a first transparent disk, a first image capturing unit, a second disk, a guiding unit, and a plurality of second image capturing units, the testing method comprising: (a). continuously providing the electronic devices onto the rotating first transparent disk; (b) capturing a bottom surface of each electrode device via the first image capturing unit; (c) transferring the electronic devices onto the rotating second disk; and (d) capturing images of other surfaces of the electronic devices via the second image capturing unit.

The small-sized transparent disk is made by material possessing high degree of hardness and the cost of the total testing system is reduced due to the two disk approach (a.k.a. the two-step inspection method) that reduced the overall transparent disk area used for inspection. On the other hard, the two-step inspection method can collect the “bad” electronic devices right after the bottom surface inspection so that it is not necessary to inspect the other five surfaces of the electronic devices if it is already determined that the electronic devices has a defected bottom surface. Therefore, the inspection efficiency is improved.

In order to better understand the characteristics and technical contents of the present invention, a detailed description thereof will be made with reference to accompanying drawings. However, it should be understood that the drawings and the description are illustrative only and are not used to limit the scope of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer toFIG. 1, the present invention discloses a testing system for inspecting the outlooks of a plurality of electronic devices200. The testing system includes a first transparent disk10(a.k.a. small size disk), a first image capturing unit11, a second disk12, a guiding unit13and a plurality of second image capturing units14. The first transparent disk10and the second disk12are used for carrying the electronic devices200thereon in order to inspect the surface images of each electronic device200. Therein the first transparent disk10is used to inspect the bottom surface of the electronic devices200, and the second disk12is used to inspect the other surfaces of the electronic devices200. Therein, the other surfaces includes front surface F, rear surface R, top surface T, left surface LS, and right surface RS

Please refer toFIG. 2, the first transparent disk10is made of quartz glass so that the first transparent disk10has a high degree of hardness. The first image capturing unit11is disposed under the first transparent disk10. When the electronic devices200are continuously supplied on the rotating first transparent disk10, each of the electronic devices200are then sequentially moving to a position which is above the first image capturing unit11so that the first image capturing unit11can capture the image of bottom surface B of each electronic device200(please refer toFIG. 3for surface designation) though the first transparent disk10. Therefore, the testing system can determine the quality of the electronic devices200by analyzing the bottom surface image of each electronic device200. As mentioned above, the first transparent disk10made of quartz glass material and the high degree of hardness of the quartz glass prevents the first transparent disk10from being scratched by the electronic devices200. However, the material applied for manufacturing the first transparent disk10is not restricted to quartz glass, but materials preferably have a high degree of hardness and transparency. A feeding unit15is used for sequentially and, continuously supplying the electronic devices200on the first transparent disk10. The feeding unit15has a feeding disk151and at least one feeding track152. The electronic devices200are lined up on the feeding disk151and then transferred onto the first transparent disk10via the feeding track152.

The testing system has a second disk12disposed adjacently to the first transparent disk10and a guiding unit13disposed on the adjacent area between the first transparent disk10and the second disk12. The electronic devices200whose bottom surface images are captured by the first image capturing unit11then moves onto the rotating first transparent disk10, and then the electronic devices200are guided to be transferred onto the second disk12for inspecting their other surfaces (i.e. non-bottom surfaces). Because the two disks10,12have circular arc-edge, there is a critical position on which the two disks10,12are nearest yet still allows for the two disks10,12to rotate, i.e., the distance W1between the first transparent disk10and the second disk12on the critical position is smaller than distance on any other position provided that disks10and12are still free to rotate, and this W1distance is also referred as smallest adjacent width. If W1is preferably smaller than the width W of the electronic device200(shown inFIG. 3), and the guiding surface131of the guiding unit13is preferably located on the critical position with smallest adjacent width W1, then the electronic devices200will not fall though the gap between the first transparent disk10and the second disk12when the electronic devices200is being transferred form the first transparent disk10to the second disk12via the guiding surface131of the guiding unit13. On the other hand, the distance W1can be zero provided that the two disks can still rotate, i.e., the first transparent disk10contacts with the second disk12but both can still rotate. Preferably, the top surface of the second disk12is not higher than the top surface of the first transparent disk10so that the electronic devices200can be smoothly transferred from the first transparent disk10to the second disk12. The second disk12is made of metal and the size of the second disk12is larger than the size of the first transparent disk10. Due to the high price of quartz glass, the smaller size of the first transparent disk10is used for reducing the cost of manufacturing the testing system.

The second image capturing units14are applied for capturing the surface images including the images of front surface F, rear surface R, top surface T, left surface LS, and right surface RS. In the embodiment, the testing system has five second image capturing units14disposed around the second disk12and each second image capturing unit14can capture the corresponding image of the surfaces. Therefore, the testing system can determine the quality of the electronic devices200by analyzing the images of the above-described surfaces of each electronic device200.

The first and second image capturing units11,14respectively have a camera and a plurality of lighting units cooperating with the camera. Please refer toFIG. 2, the first image capturing unit11is disposed under the first transparent disk10and has a first camera111and a first lighting units112. The second image capturing units14are disposed above the second disk12(only one second image capturing unit14is shown inFIG. 2). Similarly, each second image capturing unit14has a second camera141and second lighting units142. The first and the second lighting units112and142are, for example, light emitting diodes (LEDs) and they can project different lights with different intensity for different inspecting devices, or can adjust the angles of the light according to the position of the inspecting devices.

Please refer toFIG. 4, the testing system further comprises an analysis and control unit16electrically connected to the first image capturing unit11and the second image capturing unit14and the analysis and control unit16is used for receiving and analyzing the bottom images of the electronic devices200captured by the first image capturing unit11and for receiving and analyzing the images of other surfaces of the electronic devices200captured by the second image capturing units14. The analysis and control unit16also controls a first collection unit17and the second collection unit18to respectively collect the electronic devices200on the first transparent disk10and the second disk12. In other words, the present invention provides a two-step inspection procedure with high testing efficiency. The high efficiency is due to the fact that once a defect is found on the bottom surface B of an electronic device200, the electronic device200is deemed un-qualified, and the collection unit17would proceed and extract the un-qualified electronic device200, which eliminated scanning and examination of the other surfaces of the un-qualified electronic device200. The first step of the two-step inspection procedure includes that when the bottom image of the electronic devices200is captured by the first image capturing unit11and then analyzed and classified into un-qualified specie by the analysis and control unit16, the un-qualified electronic devices200are removed form the first transparent disk10and collected by the first collection unit17. Therefore, the un-qualified electronic devices200are not sent to the second disk12and the inspection efficiency is improved. Only qualified electronic devices200on the first transparent disk10are sent to the second disk12to inspect other surface images (i.e., the second step). Moreover, the electronic devices200are classified into qualified and un-qualified species by the second collection unit18controlled by the analysis and control unit16.

Please refer toFIG. 5, the second embodiment is shown. The feeding unit15can has a feeding disk151and two feeding tracks152and, the electronic devices200can be arranged in two lines to continue the inspection (i.e. 5 e second image capturing units14covering 5 surfaces of electronics devices200on one line, and the other 5 second image capturing units14covering 5 surface of electronics devices200on the other line). The number of image capturing units is different from the first embodiment, for example, there are ten second image capturing units14disposed near the second disk12for capturing the images of front surface F, rear surface R, top surface T, left surface LS, and right surface RS of the two lines of electronic devices200.

Also, the positions of the first transparent disk10and the second disk12may be changed in another embodiment. In other words, the electronic devices200are first supplied on the second disk12for inspecting the images of front surface F, rear surface R, top surface T, left surface LS, and right surface RS of the electronic devices200and then be guided by the guiding unit13to transfer onto the first transparent disk10for analyzing the bottom surface image. Then finally, the electronic devices200are classified into qualified and un-qualified species.

Furthermore, the second disk12can have a plurality of surfaces in co-circle form, i.e., a multi-layer cake, and each of the surfaces is in accordance with a first transparent disk10and a guiding unit13to form as an inspection module. Thus, the inspection module can be used for inspecting the electronic devices200individually so that the testing system can used for inspecting many lines of the electronic devices200at the same time.

Accordingly, a testing method is disclosed for the testing system mentioned above. The testing method includes the following steps. Step (a) is continuously providing the electronic devices200on the first transparent disk. Step (b) using the first image capturing unit11to capture the bottom surface images of the electronic devices200. Step (c) is transferring the electronic devices200from the first transparent disk10onto the second disk12via the guiding unit13. Step (d) is using the second image capturing units14to capture the surface images including the images of front surface F, rear surface R, top surface T, left surface LS, and right surface RS of the electronic devices200. A feeding step is provided before step (a) for sequentially and continuously supplying the electronic devices200on the first transparent disk10. A first analyzing step for analyzing the bottom surface of each electronic device200after step (b) by an analysis and control unit16is further disclosed, and the analysis and control unit16is connected electrically to the first image capturing unit11. Furthermore, a first collection step is executed after the first analyzing step for collecting the un-qualified electronic devices200by a first collection unit17which is controlled by the analysis and control unit16. A second analyzing step for analyzing the image of the top surface T, the front surface F, the rear surface R, the right surface RS, and the left surface LS of each electronic device200is executed after step (d) and then the electronic devices200are collected in a second collection step by the second collection unit18which is controlled by the analysis and control unit16.

To sum up, the present invention has following advantages.

1. The cost of the testing system is reduced. The first transparent disk10is made of quartz glass and is in smaller size; therefore, the problem of high price of quartz glass is solved.

2. Quartz glass and metal material both have a high degree of hardness so that the first transparent disk and the second disk are prevented from being scratched by the electronic devices. Therefore, the captured images are prevented from scattering effect of light resulting from the scratch so that the image analysis can be more precise.

3. A two-step inspection method is disclosed and the testing efficiency is improved.