Intelligent soldering cartridge for automatic soldering connection validation
An intelligent soldering cartridge that includes: a housing; a solder tip; a heater for heating the solder tip; a storage device for storing information about characteristics of the cartridge; a processor for retrieving the information about characteristics of the cartridge, monitoring the power level delivered to the solder tip to detect liquidus occurrence at a solder joint, determining a thickness of an intermetallic compound (IMC) of the solder joint using some of the retrieved information, determining whether the thickness of the IMC is within a predetermined range, and generating an indication signal indicating that a reliable solder joint connection is formed when the thickness of the IMC is within the predetermined range; and an interface for transmitting the indication signal.
1. An intelligent soldering cartridge comprising:
a housing;
a solder tip;
a processor for determining a thickness of an intermetallic compound (IMC) of a solder joint being formed by the solder tip, and generating an indication signal indicating that a reliable solder joint connection is formed when the thickness of the IMC is within a predetermined range; and
an interface for transmitting the indication signal.
2. The intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 1 , further comprising a storage device for storing information about characteristics of the cartridge, wherein the processor determines the thickness of the IMC using some of the retrieved information and an amount of power delivered to the solder tip.
3. The intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 2 , wherein the storage device comprises one or more of non-volatile memory (NVM) and a radio frequency identification device (RFID).
4. The intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 2 , wherein information about characteristics of the intelligent soldering cartridge includes one or more of a part number, a serial number, an indication of time of usage of the intelligent soldering cartridge, a mass of the solder tip, a solder tip configuration, an authentication code, thermal characteristics of the solder tip, information about a change in the temperature of the solder tip over time for various load sizes, contact surface of the solder tip with solder, distance of the solder tip from the heater, number of soldering events that have already been performed by the solder tip, total usage time of the solder tip, and date of manufacturing of the intelligent soldering cartridge.
5. The intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 1 , further comprising a heater for heating the solder tip.
6. The intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 1 , wherein the processor determines the thickness of the IMC by monitoring an amount of power delivered to the solder tip.
7. The intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 1 , further comprising a temperature sensor for measuring a temperature of the solder tip.
8. The intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 7 , wherein the temperature sensor periodically measures the temperature of the solder tip and feeds the information to the processor, and wherein the processor adjusts the temperature of the solder tip when said temperature changes from a predetermined value.
9. The intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 1 , wherein the interface is one or more of a wired interface and a wireless interface.
10. A handheld soldering iron including the intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 1 for soldering work pieces.
11. An automatic soldering station including the intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 1 for soldering work pieces.
12. An intelligent soldering cartridge comprising:
a housing;
a solder tip;
a heater for heating the solder tip;
a processor for determining an amount of a dispensed solder for a solder joint from an image of the solder joint being soldered by the intelligent soldering cartridge, comparing the amount of the dispensed solder to an amount of solder needed for the solder joint to determine how much of the dispensed solder is dissipated onto the solder joint, and generating an indication signal indicating that a reliable solder joint connection is formed when the dispensed solder has filled the solder joint within a predetermined tolerance; and
an interface for transmitting the indication signal.
13. The intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 12 , wherein the image of the solder joint is a three-dimensional image generated from two or more two-dimensional images.
14. The intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 12 , wherein the storage device is one or more of non-volatile memory (NVM) and a radio frequency identification device (RFID).
15. The intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 12 , wherein information about characteristics of the cartridge includes one or more of part number, serial number, total usage of the cartridge, solder tip mass, solder tip configuration, authentication code of the cartridge, thermal characteristics of the solder tip, information about a change in the temperature of the solder tip over time for various load sizes, contact surface of the solder tip with solder, distance of the solder tip from the heater, number of soldering events that have already been performed by the solder tip, total usage time of the solder tip, and date of manufacturing of the cartridge.
16. The intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 12 , wherein the interface is one or more of a wired interface and a wireless interface.
17. The intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 12 , further comprising a temperature sensor for measuring a temperature of the solder tip.
18. The intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 17 , wherein the temperature sensor periodically measures the temperature of the solder tip and feeds the information to the processor, and wherein the processor adjusts the temperature of the solder tip when said temperature changes from a predetermined value.
19. A handheld soldering iron including the intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 12 for soldering work pieces.
20. An automatic soldering station including the intelligent soldering cartridge of claim 12 for soldering work pieces.