Mark:

I don't have experience in your particular application, but I have
similar experience performing failure analysis on flex assemblies.  My
task was complicated by the presence of the coverlay.  You may find that
a flourescent ring light rather than the normal focused light will
reduce glare.  You might also experiment with varying amounts of top and
bottom lighting.

As a side thought, have you experimented with polarized filters?  They
are used in metallographic evaluations.  Another feature on
metallographic microscopes is a lighting technique called dark field.  I
believe that a metallographic microscope transmits light through the
center of the lens and gathers the image around the preriphery (bright
field).  Dark field appears to transmit the light around the periphery
of the lens and gather the light through the center.  The resulting
image has considerably less glare and improved color rendition.  (I'm
not certain of the bright field versus dark field technique, but the
image enhancement is dramatic.)

I hope some of this may be of use.

Don Vischulis
[log in to unmask]

[log in to unmask] wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I work with an area that inspects flex circuitry.  The product is
> gold or tin-plated copper circuitry on a polyimid substrate.  The
> inspection is done with microscopes at stations which accomodate
> roll-to-roll processing.  Many of our inspectors complain of the
> glare from the product when inspecting the product with top lighting
> from the scopes - especially when inspecting with top lighting several
> hours a day.
> 
> Has anyone else dealt successfully with this issue?  I'd like to
> improve the inspection conditions, if at all possible.  Any ideas
> would be appreciated.
> --
> Mark M. Lettang       Opinions expressed herein are my own and may
> [log in to unmask]     not represent those of my employer.
>

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