Grammy's job descrip

Well, I found this an interesting read and thought I'd pass it along so Lexie can read what Grammy does on a typical day at work. Actually both Grammy and Grandad have had an amazing amount of education and work experience. I wish I had a biography for the two of them. You'll have to make sure you listen good to them both. Here is a description Grammy emailed me about her basic job duties:

Grammy typed..., "Got started writing an entire little thesis on what I do but that's way beyond what you asked for soooo screeching halt on all that."

I work for Merix Corporation making printed circuit boards. Here's their url if you're curious: http://www.merix.com/

I work in the Outer Layers AOI (Automated Optical Inspection) department. Here an url for the machine I work with: http://www.orbotech.com/products_mi_vision.html . Basically the AOI scans boards with lasers to fluoresce the laminate and compares the results to cam (computer aided manufacturing) images. It captures the x,y coordinates of possible defects. The operators (me) set parameters for trace size, scan speed, space size, material type etc. to scan the particular board. We look at results to eliminate false defects and get the number of defects down below 20 per boards (if possible) Some boards with over etch problems etc. can have defects in the hundreds or thousands. The AOI's are very quirky, some work better on one type of board and others catch fewer false defects etc. Operators fiddle with settings to get the best on the first board and then run the rest of the order with some fiddling along the way. We can get quite good with our fiddling. In outer layers we're looking at the top and bottom of the finished boards. In inner layers they look at all the inside layers (there's more of them but they aren't as complicated.) After us the boards get cleaned, solder mask and nomenclature but on then finishing and final inspection. If we miss things and inspection misses what we miss, the customer gets it. Our machines have to be good and part of our job is to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to do.

I also Verify. Verifiers use the data base of x,y coordinates from the AOI machine and with a spinning table top and magnifying camera allow the verifier operator to look at each defect. We then decide 1) it's a false one skip it, 2) it's a real one but I can fix it with my exacto knife (or other tools) or 3) it's a real one but I can't fix it so send it to rework. I verified the longest so far and like it the best because time zips by and you know how I love hand work.

I also do some other jobs, some with the AOI machine (hole check, checking for debris is holes in the boards before they go on to other processes; and microvia checking.) I also can beep test with is a sort of continuity test for registration between layers of the PCB's (they can have up to 30 layers). What else can I say. We do have difficult orders to struggle thru and we have some very hot orders but there is little real stress in the jobs, they are pretty active so time flies (very important for 12 hour days) and I get along very well with the people.

That's the short version. (Sometimes I miss office work but with home computers I can still satisfy my need for clerking (which I also loved for many years.)

Smooch"

The End. Thanks Grammy/Mom.