Automatic repair of electric circuits

Abstract

An apparatus and method for automatically inspecting and repairing printed circuit boards includes an inspection functionality automatically inspecting printed circuit boards and providing a machine readable indication of regions thereon requiring repair. An automatic repair functionality employs the machine readable indication to repair the printed circuit boards at some of the regions thereon requiring repair. An automatic repair reformulation functionality automatically reinspects the printed circuit boards following an initial automatic repair operation, and provides to the automatic repair functionality a reformulated machine readable indication of regions thereon requiring repair.

1 . An apparatus, intended for use in automatically marking electrical circuits, comprising:
 an inspection means for automatically inspecting a plurality of electrical circuits and providing a machine readable indication of a repairability of each of the plurality of electrical circuits; and   an automatic marking means for automatically marking a faulty electrical circuit of the plurality of electrical circuits indicated, by said machine readable indication, as being not repairable, wherein the automatic marking means ablates at least one conductor of the faulty electrical circuit based on the machine readable indication that the faulty electrical circuit is not reparable.   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the automatic marking means comprises a laser ablation device. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the automatic marking means ablates the at least one conductor, thereby forming a cut in the at least one conductor. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus as claimed in  claim 3 , wherein the cut in the at least one conductor ensures that the faulty electrical circuit is discarded. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein said electrical circuits are printed circuit boards. 
     
     
         6 . An apparatus, intended for use in automatically marking electrical circuits, comprising:
 an inspection means for automatically inspecting a plurality of electrical circuits and providing a machine readable indication of a repairability of each of the plurality of electrical circuits; and   an automatic marking means for automatically marking a faulty electrical circuit of the plurality of electrical circuits indicated, by said machine readable indication, as being not repairable, wherein the automatic marking means marks the faulty electrical circuit based on the machine readable indication that the faulty electrical circuit is not reparable.   
     
     
         7 . The apparatus as claimed in  claim 6 , wherein the automatic marking means comprises a laser ablation device. 
     
     
         8 . The apparatus as claimed in  claim 7 , wherein the automatic marking means is operative to ablate a portion of the faulty electrical circuit. 
     
     
         9 . The apparatus as claimed in  claim 8 , wherein the automatic marking means forms an ablation marking visible to a human operator. 
     
     
         10 . The apparatus as claimed in  claim 6 , wherein the plurality of electrical circuits are printed circuit boards.