Real time inspection and correction techniques for direct writing systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10596754-B2
Application number	US-201615364204-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 29, 2016
Priority date	Jun 3, 2016
Publication date	Mar 24, 2020
Grant date	Mar 24, 2020

Abstract

A real time inspection and correction system and method for additive manufacturing process is described. The method may include operating a direct writing device configured to deposit material on a substrate through a tip to provide a portion of a product according to initial parameter values, receiving a hyperspectral image frame including a plurality of spectral images of the deposited material, processing the received hyperspectral image frame to determine a characteristic of the deposited material comparing the determined characteristic with a target characteristic determining at least one corrective parameter value to conform the determined characteristic to the target characteristic updating at least one of the initial parameter values with the corrective parameter values, and operating the direct writing device to deposit additional material on the substrate according to the corrective parameter value.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
operating a direct writing device configured to deposit material on a substrate through a tip to provide a portion of a product according to initial parameter values;
receiving a hyperspectral image frame comprising a plurality of spectral images of the deposited material and the tip;
processing the received hyperspectral image frame to determine a characteristic of the deposited material, wherein the characteristic comprises at least one of width or height of the deposited material, and wherein the at least one of the width or height is determined by comparing the deposited material shown within the image to the tip;
comparing the determined characteristic with a target characteristic, wherein the comparing comprises comparing the measured at least one of width and height with a predetermined target value stored in a dimensional database;
determining at least one corrective parameter value to conform the determined characteristic to the target characteristic;
updating at least one of the initial parameter values with the corrective parameter values; and
operating the direct writing device to deposit additional material on the substrate according to the corrective parameter value.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the direct writing device is an additive manufacturing device.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the processing comprises performing edge detection and line segment detection on the one or more of the spectral images to measure the at least one of width or height of the deposited material, wherein the determining the characteristic of the deposited material further comprises:
detecting line segments corresponding to the tip within the hyperspectral image frame; and
determining the width or height of the deposited material based on a comparison with the detected line segments corresponding to the tip.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the corrective parameter value corresponds to at least one of a height of the tip, a flow rate of source material through the tip, and a translation speed of the tip, to adjust at least one of a width or a height of the additional deposited material.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the processing comprises performing an arithmetic operation with two or more of the spectral images to generate at least one of a porosity profile and surface roughness profile of the deposited material; and
the comparing comprises comparing the generated porosity profile and surface roughness profile with at least one of a porosity profile and surface roughness profile stored in at least one of a porosity database and surface roughness database.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the arithmetic operation comprises overlaying a plurality of spectral images associated with different spectral bands and subtracting differences between the two or more spectral images captured at the different spectral bands.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the corrective parameter value corresponds to at least one of a flow rate of the additional material through the tip and a temperature of the substrate, to adjust a surface roughness of the additional deposited material.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the corrective parameter value corresponds to one or more selected from the group consisting of: a flow rate of the additional material through the tip, an air pressure, solvent content, chemical release rate, plasmonic resonance, optical refractive index, measurable height, mechanical stress, and surface tension, to adjust a porosity of the additional deposited material.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating an absorbance profile of the deposited material based on one or more of the spectral images;
comparing the generated absorbance profile with an absorbance profile stored in an absorbance profile database; and
performing a chemical analysis of the deposited material based on the absorbance profile to identify a chemical composition of the deposited material.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving at least an additional hyperspectral image frame captured at a different time from the hyperspectral image frame, the additional hyperspectral image comprising a plurality of additional spectral images of the deposited material at the different time, wherein:
the processing comprises generating a plurality of absorbance profiles of the deposited material at different times based on the spectral images and the additional spectral images;
the comparing comprises comparing each of the absorbance profiles with reference absorbance profiles stored in an absorbance database to determine solvent content in the deposited material; and
the corrective parameter value corresponds to at least one of a temperature of a substrate and flow rate of the additional material through the tip, to adjust a drying time of the deposited material.

11. A system comprising:
a memory comprising instructions; and
a processor configured to execute the instructions to perform operations comprising:
operating a direct writing device configured to deposit material on a substrate through a tip to provide a portion of a product according to initial parameter values,
receiving a hyperspectral image frame comprising a plurality of spectral images of the deposited material and the tip,
processing the received hyperspectral image frame to determine a characteristic of the deposited material, wherein the characteristic comprises at least one of width or height of the deposited material, and wherein the at least one of the width or height is determined by comparing the deposited material shown within the image to the tip,
comparing the determined characteristic with a target characteristic, wherein the comparing comprises comparing the measured at least one of width and height with a predetermined target value stored in a dimensional database,
determining at least one corrective parameter value to conform the determined characteristic to the target characteristic,
updating at least one of the initial parameter value with the corrective parameter values, and
operating the direct writing device to deposit additional material on the substrate according to the corrective parameter value.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the direct writing device is an additive manufacturing device.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein:
the processing comprises performing edge detection and line segment detection on the one or more of the spectral images to measure the at least one of width or height of the deposited material, wherein the determining the characteristic of the deposited material further comprises:
detecting line segments corresponding to the tip within the hyperspectral image frame; and
determining the width or height of the deposited material based on a comparison with the detected line segments corresponding to the tip.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the corrective parameter value corresponds to at least one of a height of the tip, a flow rate of source material through the tip, and a translation speed of the tip, to adjust at least one of a width or a height of the additional deposited material.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein:
the processing comprises performing an arithmetic operation with two or more of the spectral images to generate at least one of a porosity profile and surface roughness profile of the deposited material; and
the comparing comprises comparing the generated porosity profile and surface roughness profile with at least one of a porosity profile and surface roughness profile stored in at least

Assignees

• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Williams John Dalton
• Mosher Aaron Yi
• Bushey Preston Tyler

Classifications

• B33Y50/02 Primary

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title

• B29C64/106 Primary

  using only liquids or viscous materials, e.g. depositing a continuous bead of viscous material · CPC title

• B29C64/393

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title

• B33Y30/00

  Apparatus for additive manufacturing; Details thereof or accessories therefor · CPC title

• G03F7/70416

  2.5D lithography · CPC title