Kopin Corporation, a provider of application-specific optical systems and high performance microdisplays for defense, enterprise, industrial, consumer and medical products, today announced that it received the first production purchase order for its high resolution, 4 Megapixel 2K-R11 FLCoS Spatial Light Modulator (“SLM”) system for use within 3D AOI (“3-Dimensional Automated Optical Inspection”) machines.
For over 10 years Kopin has produced application specific optical solutions for the 3D AOI market, which remains an important part of Kopin’s Industrial business. 3D AOI solutions are essential tools in contemporary manufacturing facilities focused on semiconductors, printed circuit boards (“PCB”) and other high-tech manufacturing. While 2D AOI systems can only capture and analyze the top surface of an object, 3D AOI systems measure and evaluate the height and depth of components and quickly inspect and measure deformations, defects or misplaced components, which equates to maintaining essential quality at high speeds. Most existing 3D AOI structured light projection systems typically offer a resolution of 1K x 1K (1 Megapixel); but the 2K-R11 elevates this standard by providing four times the resolution, which means expanding the applications for 3D AOI into the measurement of new, smaller feature size components and connectors.
Speaking about the opportunity, Greg Truman, Vice President of Business Development in Europe and Asia, said, “3D AOI systems are expanding in use in sophisticated electronics manufacturing environments, such as for electric vehicle components, because they offer fast and precise identification of flaws that might be overlooked by human inspectors. This provides better quality and saves time and money. We believe that as the world continues to evolve to a digital environment the need for high quality manufacturing of complex circuit boards will continue to increase. It is estimated that the market for 3D AOI systems will increase from $700 million a few years ago to $3 billion by 2030.”
Kopin’s 2K-R11 (2048 x 2048 pixels) is a sub-assembly composed of a reflective ferroelectric liquid crystal on silicon (FLCoS) microdisplay (spatial light modulator), drive board and software. Manufacturers of 3D AOI inspection systems can build this “drop-in” solution into the design of their systems. The 2K-R11 is engineered to deliver exceptional high-speed, high-resolution and high-fidelity performance. We believe this enhanced resolution paves the way for advanced 3D AOI applications, including the precise measurement of Land Grid Arrays (LGA), Wafer Level Packaging (WLP) and other integrated circuits.