PlastronicsSpec · Development of an automated digital radiography system for the inspection of plastic electronics

Plastic electronics is a general term used to describe electronic devices based on electrically conducting polymers i.e. organic electronic materials as opposed to solid state inorganic electronic materials like silicon etc. These materials hold promise of a future revolution in consumer electronics because both the devices and circuit connections based on them can be physically flexible and produced from solution by ink jet printing, coating and spraying, all far cheaper and faster processes than the etching and photolithography systems required to produce the inflexible inorganic devices and printed circuit boards which dominate the present electronics market. Furthermore Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays compared with LCD/LED displays and plasma displays provide superior images and need 70% less power.Prototype or first generation OLED display panels and various other plastic electronics devices have already appeared, and the global market is forecast to grow from the present level of €0.5bn to €96bn by 2019 and €330bn by 2029. However, many types of defect specific to plastic electronics processing arise during manufacture and as there is no online inspection, scrap rates after production are very high, keeping the costs high, which threatens the market promise.So the goal of the PlastronicsSpec project is to perform real time, online, and 100% volumetric inspection by digital, real time radiography leading to automatic and instant rejection of all defective product and instant production process corrections with minimum wastage. Novel, simultaneous multimode signal processing will be used to maximise the use of X-ray photons from a wide X-ray viewing angle, resulting in the smallest possible minimum detectable defect depths (2.5nm) with the highest spatial resolutions (100um) limited only by quantum fluctuations.It is estimated that from 2015-18 the ROI for the SMEs/EU 303:1 and the economic benefit of wide acceptance of the technology €4bn