Expert system for analysis of quality in production of electronics

Quality issues have become increasingly important in the production of electronics, especially when dealing with electronic products not assimilated to the mainstream of consumer electronics, but rather to the group of industrial electronic devices and machinery designed to last for years or even decades. In this paper, an intelligent optimization and modeling system for electronics production is demonstrated. The system exploits real production data and can be used to diagnose and optimize the manufacturing processes. It contains three modules consisting of appropriate mathematical tools specifically tailored to each task: (1) preprocessing, (2) variable selection, and (3) optimization modules. Moreover, concrete examples are presented from the latter two modules, by using a wave soldering process as a case study. Currently, the system works on the Matlab platform, but can be programmed into standalone software and automated in the future. The results illustrate that the system can offer an efficient tool for diagnostics and process optimization in the electronics industry.

Research highlights
► We present an intelligent optimization and modeling tool for electronics production.
► The system contains preprocessing, variable selection and optimization parts.
► We demonstrate the system by using real data from a wave soldering process.
► The system provides an efficient method for quality analysis of automated soldering.