Apparatus for inspecting light emitting diode package and inspecting method using the same

• US 8,890,533 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2010
• Issued: 11/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Ko, Seung Gyu, Kwon, Dae Kab, Ji, Won Soo, Lim, Ssang Gun, An, Ju Hun
• Primary Examiner(s): NATALINI, JEFF WILLIAM
• Application Number:
  US12/957,931
• Publication Number:
  US 20110128004A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,448 Days
• Field of Search: 324/414
• US Class Current: 324/414
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/14 Semiconductor devices, e.g. diodes
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67259 Position monitoring, e.g. misposition detection or presence detection
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67271 Sorting devices
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67282 Marking devices
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67294 using identification means, e.g. labels on substrates or labels on containers
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/48091 Arched
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/48137 the bodies being arranged next to each other, e.g. on a common substrate
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00014 the subject-matter covered by the group, the symbol of which is combined with the symbol of this group, being disclosed without further technical details

Abstract

An apparatus for inspecting a light emitting diode (LED) package is provided to inspect an LED to determine whether or not it is defective, and discard the LED when the LED is defective. The apparatus for inspecting an LED package includes: an inspection unit inspecting an LED through a visual inspection to determine whether or not the LED is defective; and a defective product rejection unit discarding the LED when the LED is determined to be defective on the basis of inspection results from the inspection unit among LEDs supplied from the inspection unit. Because the operation of inspecting LEDs and discarding a defective LED are automated and can be rapidly processed as a sequential process, productivity can be improved.

Claims

1. An apparatus for inspecting a light emitting diode (LED) package, the apparatus comprising:

an inspection unit configured to inspect a plurality of LEDs through a visual inspection to determine whether or not the plurality of LEDs are defective; and

a defective product rejection unit including a punching pin and a discharge hole, the defective product rejection unit being configured to cause the punching pin to punch a defective LED determined to be defective on the basis of inspection results from the inspection unit among the plurality of LEDs supplied from the inspection unit and discard the defective LED punched by the punching pin into the discharge hole,

wherein the plurality of LEDs are arranged in a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns to configure an LED aggregate connected in the form of an array, and

the defective product rejection unit comprises;

a punching head driven to ascend or descend;

a plurality of punching pins arranged to correspond to the positions of the plurality of LEDs arranged in unit areas of the LED aggregate supplied by a certain number of rows in a column direction of the array, installed on the punching head so as to be driven to ascend or descend, and maintained to be selectively protruded over the defective LED among the plurality of LEDs in the unit areas when the punching head performs a punching operation; and

a punching support supporting the LED aggregate at a lower side of the plurality of punching pins and including the plurality of discharge holes into which the punching pins lowered while being maintained in the protruded state are inserted to discharge the defective LED punched by the punching pin.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the defective product rejection unit punches and discards only the defective LED determined to be defective among the LED aggregate.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein when the punching head performs the punching operation, the punching support is lowered by a pre-set distance to thus reduce an impact generated during the punching operation.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a vibration preventing unit is provided at a lower side of the punching support in order to prevent vibrations generated during the punching operation of the punching head from being transferred to the inspection unit.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a waste box is provided to collect the defective LED dropped through the discharge holes.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of LEDs is an LED package having a fluorescent material-containing resin part.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the inspection unit processes an image of the LED package to inspect a charged state of the fluorescent material-containing resin part.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a transfer guide rail allowing the LED aggregate to be mounted thereon and guiding the LED aggregate; and

a transfer unit transferring the LED aggregate mounted on the transfer guide rail to the inspection unit and the defective product rejection unit.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

an inspection unit clamping unit tightly attaching and fixing the LED aggregate situated at the inspection unit to the transfer guide rail, while the plurality of LEDs of the LED aggregate are being inspected by the inspection unit.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a loading unit loading a cassette, in which a plurality of LED aggregates are received, thereon.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the loading unit comprises:

a first supply conveyer supplying the cassette in which the plurality of LED aggregates are received in a stacked manner to a supply position of the LED aggregates;

a first elevator grasping the cassette, which has been supplied by the first supply conveyer, and lifting or lowering the cassette one step at a time;

a first pusher supplying the LED aggregates received in the cassette grasped by the first elevator one by one to the inspection unit, whenever the grasped cassette is lifted or lowered one step at a time; and

a first discharge conveyer receiving an empty cassette from the first elevator and discharging the received the empty cassette.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

an unloading unit loading a cassette for receiving the plurality of LED aggregates, of which LEDs determined to be defective have been discharged through the defective product rejection unit.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the unloading unit comprises:

a second supply conveyer supplying the cassette to a discharge position of the LED aggregates;

a second elevator grasping the cassette supplied by the second supply conveyer and lifting or lowering the cassette one step at a time;

a second pusher pushing the LED aggregates, which are discharged from the defective product rejection unit, into an empty receiving space of the cassette grasped by the second elevator each time the grasped is lifted or lowered one step at a time; and

a second discharge conveyer receiving the cassette in which the LED aggregates are accommodated therein from the second elevator and discharging the received cassette.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a defective product marking unit marking the defective LED.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein:

a transfer guide rail is provided to allow the LED aggregate to be mounted thereon and guide the the LED aggregate, and

a defective product marking unit clamping unit is provided to tightly fix the LED aggregate situated at the defective product marking unit to the transfer guide rail, while the defective product marking unit marks the defective LED.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the defective product marking unit irradiates a laser beam to the surface of the defective LED to carve a stamp of a defect mark thereon, or jets ink to the surface of the defective LED to print a defect mark thereon.

17. A method for inspecting a light emitting diode (LED) package by using an LED inspection apparatus including a punching pin and a discharge hole, the method comprising:

inspecting a plurality of LEDs through a visual inspection to determine whether or not the plurality of LEDs are defective; and

causing the punching pin to punch a defective LED determined to be defective according to results of the inspection such that the defective LED is discarded into the discharge hole, wherein;

the plurality of LEDs are arranged in a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns to configure an LED aggregate connected in the form of an array, and in the discarding of the defective LED determined to be defective, only the defective LED determined to be defective among the LED aggregate is punched and discarded, and

the discarding of the defective LED is performed by a defective product rejection unit comprising;

a punching head driven to ascend or descend, a plurality of punching pins arranged to correspond to the positions of the plurality of LEDs arranged in unit areas of the LED aggregate supplied by a certain number of rows in a column direction of the array, installed on the punching head so as to be driven to ascend or descend, and maintained to be selectively protruded over the defective LED determined to be defective among the plurality of LEDs in the unit areas when the punching head performs a punching operation, and a punching support supporting the LED aggregate at a lower side of the plurality of punching pins and including a plurality of discharge holes into which the punching pins lowered while being maintained in the protruded state are inserted to discharge the defective LED punched by the punching pin.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein when the punching head performs the punching operation, the punching support is lowered by a pre-set distance to thus reduce an impact generated during the punching operation.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein a vibration preventing unit is provided at a lower side of the punching support in order to prevent vibrations generated during the punching operation of the punching head from being transferred to the inspection unit.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein a waste box is provided to collect the defective LED dropped through the discharge holes.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein each of the plurality of LEDs is an LED package having a fluorescent material-containing resin part.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein in the inspecting of the LED packages, a charged state of a fluorescent material-containing resin part is inspected by processing a captured images of each of the LED packages.

23. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

loading a cassette, in which a plurality of LED aggregates are received, before the inspecting operation; and

supplying the plurality of LED aggregates from the cassette to an area for the visual inspection.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the supplying of the LED aggregates to the area for a visual inspection is performed by a loading unit which comprises:

a first supply conveyer supplying the cassette in which the plurality of LED aggregates are received in a stacked manner to a supply position of the LED aggregates;

a first elevator grasping the cassette, which has been supplied by the first supply conveyer, and lifting or lowering the cassette one step at a time;

a first pusher supplying the LED aggregates received in the cassette grasped by the first elevator one by one to the inspection unit, whenever the grasped cassette is lifted or lowered one step at a time; and

a first discharge conveyer receiving an empty cassette from the first elevator and discharging the empty cassette.

25. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

unloading the LED aggregate, of which the defective LED determined to be defective has been discarded, to a cassette.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the unloading of the LED aggregate to the cassette is performed by an unloading unit which comprises:

a second supply conveyer supplying the cassette to a discharge position of the LED aggregate;

a second elevator grasping the cassette supplied by the second supply conveyer and lifting or lowering the cassette one step at a time;

a second pusher pushing the LED aggregate, which is discharged from the defective product rejection unit, into an empty receiving space of the cassette grasped by the second elevator each time the grasped is lifted or lowered one step at a time; and

a second discharge conveyer receiving the cassette in which the LED aggregate is accommodated therein from the second elevator and discharging the received cassette.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

marking the defective LED, which has been determined to be defective on the basis of inspection results from the inspection unit, among the plurality of LEDs of the LED aggregate supplied from the inspection unit, defective.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein in the marking of the defective LED, laser beam is irradiated to the surface of the defective LED to carve a stamp of a defect mark thereon, or ink is jetted to the surface of the defective LED print a defect mark thereon.