Meet Andreea Vasiliu, our new Vice President of Global Sales! Andreea brings extensive international sales and leadership experience and knows Comet well from her previous roles within Plasma Control Technologies. During more than eight years with the company, she held several global and regional sales leadership positions, most recently as Director Sales EMEA and Vacuum Capacitors Global. Since 2024, she has served as General Manager Europe and RoW at VAT Group.

As electronics become more powerful and advanced packaging technologies more complex, manufacturers face the challenge of detecting ever-smaller defects without reducing throughput. Optical inspection methods cannot reveal the buried structures found in high-power electronics, chiplets, HBM, through glass vias (TGVs), and advanced 3D packages. X-ray inspection and automated X-ray inspection (AXI) provide the required visibility, but higher resolution and penetration have traditionally come at the expense of speed. Recent advances in micro and nano focus X-ray source technology are overcoming this trade-off by delivering higher photon flux, improved contrast-to-noise ratio, and faster imaging. In this post we review these developments in high-power electronics, where higher voltage and power are required to penetrate through dense structures while maintaining micro-scale imaging, and advanced packaging where increasing complexity from vertical integration and sub-micron resolution combine. We highlight how increased throughput can be achieved while maintaining reliable defect detection.

On a pipeline job, the X-ray system is chosen for the weld, not from a catalog. Pipe size and access determine how the crew can inspect it. The procedure sets what the image must show. Heat, weight and exposure time shape the working day. A poor choice can cost hours. A good one helps the crew get an image the inspector can assess without needless delay.