Improvement on defect detection performance of PCB inspection based on ECT technique with multi-SV-GMR sensor

This paper describes the improvement on the defect detection performance of printed circuit board (PCB) inspection based on the eddy-current testing (ECT) technique with the multispin-valve giant magnetoresistance (SV-GMR) sensor. To obtain the ECT signal in the same scanning line, SV-GMR sensors are mounted on the exciting coil in the same column parallel with the scanning direction. Harmonic analysis based on the Fourier transform is used to analyze the signal from the SV-GMR sensor in order to increase scanning speed. Then signal averaging is applied to the ECT signal in order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. Experimental results are performed to verify the inspection performance.