Anaheim, CA -- March 3, 1998 -- Teradyne, Inc. (NYSE:TER) demonstrated the newest version of its AOI (Automated Optical Inspection) system at the Nepcon West show here this week. The 5339-Series AOI systems incorporate a new Framegrabber with provides 30 percent higher inspection throughput. Teradyne's AOI demonstration also featured the U.S. debut of the new PentaVision five-camera system, which was announced in November at the Productronica show in Munich.

"The Framegrabber board is the heart of the AOI system," said Dominic Haigh, Teradyne AOI business unit manager. "It digitizes the analog signal from the video camera and places the result in memory for analysis. Teradyne's Framegrabber also performs image analysis in its custom hardware, which is much faster than the standard method of performing calculations in the CPU." Each 5539 system includes four Framegrabber boards; systems shipped after March 1 of this year will include the new design. The new Framegrabber board is also available as an upgrade for earlier Teradyne AOI models. Haigh pointed out that the new Framegrabber is compatible with existing designs, requiring no program changes to take advantage of the speed improvement.

The new 5539-Series AOI system, with a five-camera head, delivers higher throughput, better defect coverage, and simpler programming than the earlier four-camera design. The systems feature one vertical camera and four angled cameras. The vertical camera is a high-speed (16 ms) progressive scan unit, specifically designed to produce high system throughput. "The combination of vertical and angled cameras is extremely powerful," said Haigh. "The full power of the angled cameras can be deployed in areas where maximum defect coverage is required for example, where J-lead or QFP-style devices are used. At the same time, straightforward inspection tasks can be carried out quickly and easily using just the vertical camera. This approach eliminates shadowing issues and simplifies programming."

Pricing of Teradyne's 5539-Series AOI system starts at $197,000. A Framegrabber upgrade can be ordered for an earlier Model 5539 or 5519 system for $23,000; for Model 5515 systems, the upgrade costs $13,500.

Teradyne is a leading manufacturer of automatic test equipment and connection systems for the electronics and telecommunications industries, with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. The AOI systems are supplied by the Assembly Test Division in Walnut Creek, California. That division also produces other circuit board test equipment for the commercial board-test market. Teradyne sales in 1997 were approximately $1.3 billion.

Spectrum is a trademark of Teradyne, Inc.