MIRTEC Achieves Double Awards with Overwhelming Technological Prowess 

- MIRTEC’s ‘ART’ 3D AOI System Wins Prestigious Awards in Germany and the U.S.

Consecutive Awards Recognizing Innovative 3D AOI Technology

As a pioneer in 3D inspection technology, MIRTEC has secured two prestigious international awards for its innovative 3D AOI system, ‘ART,’ solidifying its position as a leader in the field. In November 2023, MIRTEC was honored with the productronica innovation award 2023 in the Inspection & Quality category at productronica 2023, the world’s largest electronics manufacturing industry exhibition held in Munich, Germany.

Furthermore, in October 2024, at SMTA International 2024, a premier SMT industry exhibition held in Illinois, USA, MIRTEC’s ‘ART’ system was named the Best AOI System in the Global Technology Award 2024, reaffirming its cutting-edge capabilities.

Notably, these awards hold even greater significance as ‘ART’ received global recognition just six months after its official market launch, underscoring its industry-leading technological excellence.

MIRTEC’s ‘ART’ will be showcased at IPC APEX EXPO 2025 in Anaheim, USA from March 18, 2025. During the exhibition, visitors will have the opportunity to witness live demonstrations of this unparalleled 3D AOI system ‘ART’, in action.

                                                                                        Figure 1·2. productronica innovation award 2023 · 2024 Global Technology Award

MIRTEC Leading the Evolving Electronics Manufacturing Industry

MIRTEC’s consecutive awards are a testament to its differentiated technological capabilities that meet the needs of both customers and the market. Across the global electronics manufacturing industry, the proportion of high-performance electronic products is steadily increasing. As a result, PCB components are becoming more densely packed, and new design requirements are emerging simultaneously—trends that are particularly pronounced in the automotive electronics sector.

Global automobile manufacturers are formulating next-generation vehicle strategies focused on electric and hybrid vehicles, marking a shift toward cutting-edge technology. This transition is shaping the future direction of the automotive electronics industry.

As the electronics manufacturing industry advances, demand for high-tech, high-value products continues to grow. Additionally, companies are placing greater emphasis on product stability to ensure customer satisfaction and safety, leading to increasingly stringent inspection standards. In particular, the automotive electronics industry is evolving by integrating SMT and THT processes, revealing the limitations of conventional inspection equipment.

In response to these challenges, MIRTEC is setting new industry standards with the innovative technology of ‘ART’, addressing the limitations of existing inspection systems and paving the way for the future of electronics manufacturing.

Innovative Technology of ART (Anti-Reflection Technology)

In advanced technology applications such as automotive electronics, defects in solder joints can lead to critical failures, making rigorous inspection essential. However, before the introduction of the ‘ART’, conventional inspection methods faced significant challenges in accurately inspecting solder joints due to their high reflectivity and irregular surface shapes.

To make matters worse, reflected light from solder joints interfered with 3D pattern image recognition, often resulting in measurement failures. Overcoming this obstacle required increasing the number of cameras used for 3D pattern image capture. At the same time, it became necessary to diversify the pattern image capture methods by utilizing multi-camera systems and multi-directional pattern projectors.

Until now, both domestic and international competitors struggled to achieve perfect inspection of solder joints due to specular reflection issues caused by high surface reflectivity and blind spots created by structural characteristics. However, MIRTEC has revolutionized optical inspection with its groundbreaking 3D AOI system featuring the ‘ART’ (Anti-Reflection Technology), effectively overcoming these challenges and setting a new industry benchmark.

MIRTEC’s ART optical system comprises a total of 75-megapixel color cameras, with five 15-megapixel CoaXpress color cameras, and four Full HD digital projectors. Among the five cameras, one is positioned in a top-down direction, while the remaining four are angled cameras toward the center, functioning as the main cameras.

In conventional top-down camera-based inspection systems, measurement failures due to specular reflection-induced optical noise and blind spots had to be compensated using algorithms that reconstructed the missing data. However, the ART overcomes these limitations through an innovative multi-camera approach.

If the top-down camera is unable to capture 3D data due to reflection issues, the angled cameras detect the sides of the solder joints, where reflections are less intense, effectively mitigating specular reflection problems. Furthermore, areas that are not visible from the top-down camera due to angle constraints can be supplemented using angled cameras, eliminating blind spots through the same principle that resolves reflection issues.

Additionally, each time one of the Full HD digital projectors projects a patterned light, the cameras simultaneously capture the 3D pattern images, ensuring that inspection time does not increase—a significant advantage for manufacturing environments. This inspection method is uniformly applied to all four Full HD projectors, optimizing the process without compromising efficiency.

Since the ART has demonstrated clear advantages in inspecting reflective surfaces such as solder joints, its application extends beyond solder joints to other reflective materials, including Si-Cap and CSP components. While one might argue that the ART is limited to inspecting reflective objects, this is not a restriction of the inspection method. The combination of multi-cameras technology and multi-directional projectors allows the ART to capture pattern data from multiple angles, even when there are no reflective surfaces present. This capability makes the ART more versatile than any other vision inspection system, as it can acquire a wider range of pattern data from various perspectives, regardless of the inspection target's material properties.

One might assume that the large number of cameras and vast amounts of data in the ART could lead to slower processing speeds. However, MIRTEC has developed an innovative solution to address this concern. By optimizing the image capture sequence and enhancing its image processing algorithms, MIRTEC assigns different reliability values to each camera. These reliability values are dynamically adjusted based on the inspection conditions.

The ART system’s processor then utilizes these images to calculate the 3D height of the inspection target. Since each image has a different level of reliability, the processor does not need to process all of the data. If the system successfully reconstructs the 3D height and shape of the target from previous data, the remaining data becomes unnecessary, significantly improving processing efficiency.

Precision Inspection Meeting International Standards

One of the key advantages of the ART is that it analyzes inspection results based on actual measurement data, ensuring compliance with international standards such as IPC Class 3. This allows users to meet stricter inspection criteria while creating an environment for producing high-quality products.

Chanwha Pak, CEO of MIRTEC stated, “With the ‘ART,’ which introduces a new paradigm in 3D AOI systems, we will continue to overcome the industry's limitations and meet the increasingly stringent standards of the electronics manufacturing sector. Furthermore, we will accelerate our research and development efforts to ensure that our customers receive reliable inspection results in any environment.”

Experience the Future of AOI Technology

MIRTEC’s ‘ART’, which has redefined the 3D AOI market with its cutting-edge technology, will be showcased at IPC APEX EXPO 2025 in Anaheim, USA, from March 18, 2025.