Products > Thermal Imaging

Use of a Thermal Camera for PCBA thermal profiling and repair

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thermalengineer:
hi Fraser, have you ever reviewed infiray m600. I wonder if it's suitable for PCB inspection.

Fraser:
The T2S is just an Infiray S0 imaging core. It is a decent core but to call it the “King” of anything is stretching things a bit :)

I use PCB thermal analysis equipment that contains the S0 core and it is adequate for the task but not outstanding in its performance.

Fraser

Fraser:
Regarding the M600, I have not tested it.

I can state that it will use one of the new Infiray “in-house” ASIC based core designs, such as use in the Mini 640T or Micro 640T. The Mini 640T looks a good match to the specs but the temperature range 2 differs in maximum temperature. The M600 will likely use the Microbolometer and ASIC in in a format specific to the M600 application. In other words, Infiray may not just bolt a complete Mini or Micro 640 core into the camera shell.

I have no doubt that these VGA cores will perform similarly to the S0 core in terms of the technology used. That is to say, the core will produce good, if not outstanding, imagery but will suffer from Infiray’s less than ideal approach to image processing. The images are likely to suffer from somewhat heavy handed video processing to make them look ‘pretty’. That said, the images are still very good for the asking price of the cores and cameras.

Two points to note….

1. I do not see a minimum focus specification for the M600. This can be important for PCB work? The “distance” specification relates to parallax correction for the visible light camera.

2. The thermal imaging core provides an image of 640 x 512 pixels. Those pixels  are expensive but 20480 of them are not seen as the M600 uses a 640 x 480 pixel LCD panel. The full pixel count may be available in the saved images of course.

It would be worth asking Infiray what the minimum focus distance is for the M600 as you might still need a close-up lens on the front of the camera. There is no harm in asking an Infiray dealer to take some test images of PCB’s for you to assess. Whether they will be willing to provide such is another matter though !

Fraser

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