阅读说明：本技术 光照射装置 (Light irradiation device ) 是由 吉村宪久 于 2019-08-29 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明尽可能减少从导光板漏出至观察手段侧的泄漏光来减少泄漏光带来的噪声分量并提高去往工件的照射光的一致性、提高检查精度。本发明的光照射装置具备：导光板,其呈平板状；以及光源体,其将光从该导光板的侧周面导入至导光板内部,并且,在所述导光板的一板面上形成有多个凹部,入射到所述导光板的光在所述凹部处以扩散的方式发生反射,从该导光板的另一板面射出至外部,该光照射装置中,所述凹部的表面由平滑的凹曲面形成,在以与所述板面垂直而且穿过所述凹部中心的方式切割所述凹部得到的截面形状中,该凹部的开口缘处的切线与所述板面所成的角度即切线角为50°以上85°以下。(The invention reduces leakage light leaking from a light guide plate to an observation means side as much as possible to reduce noise components caused by the leakage light, improve the consistency of irradiation light to a workpiece, and improve inspection accuracy. The light irradiation device of the present invention includes: a light guide plate having a flat plate shape; and a light source body that introduces light into the light guide plate from a side peripheral surface of the light guide plate, wherein a plurality of recesses are formed in one plate surface of the light guide plate, and the light incident on the light guide plate is reflected in the recesses so as to be diffused and is emitted to the outside from the other plate surface of the light guide plate.)

1. A light irradiation device is provided with: a light guide plate having a flat plate shape; and a light source body for guiding light from the side periphery of the light guide plate into the light guide plate, wherein a plurality of recesses are formed on one plate surface of the light guide plate,

the light irradiation device is configured such that light incident on the light guide plate is diffusely reflected at the concave portion, is emitted from the other plate surface of the light guide plate to the outside, and is irradiated to a predetermined object, and the object can be observed from the one plate surface side of the light guide plate through the light guide plate,

the surface of the recess is formed by a smooth concave curved surface,

in a cross-sectional shape of the recess cut perpendicularly to the plate surface and passing through the center of the recess, a tangential angle, which is an angle formed by a tangent at an opening edge of the recess and the plate surface, is 50 ° or more and 85 ° or less.

2. The light irradiation apparatus according to claim 1,

the tangent angle is less than 75 degrees.

3. The light irradiation apparatus according to claim 1,

the tangent angle is more than 55 degrees.

4. The light irradiation apparatus according to claim 1,

the concave part is partially concave spherical.

5. The light irradiation apparatus according to claim 1,

the opening diameter of the recess is 0.02mm to 0.2 mm.

6. The light irradiation apparatus according to claim 1,

the interval between the adjacent recesses is 2 to 5 times the opening diameter of the recess.

7. A light irradiation device is provided with: a light guide plate having a flat plate shape; and a light source body for guiding light from the side periphery of the light guide plate into the light guide plate, wherein a plurality of recesses are formed on one plate surface of the light guide plate,

the light incident on the light guide plate is reflected in the concave portion in a diffused manner, is emitted from the other plate surface of the light guide plate to the outside, and is irradiated to a predetermined object, and the object can be observed from the one plate surface side of the light guide plate through the light guide plate,

the concave part is a partial concave spherical surface with a central angle of less than 180 degrees.

8. A light irradiation apparatus as set forth in claim 7,

the central angle is 100 DEG to 170 deg.

9. A light irradiation apparatus as set forth in claim 7,

the central angle is 110 DEG to 150 deg.

10. An inspection system is characterized by comprising:

the light irradiation device according to claim 1; and

a camera disposed on one surface side of the light guide plate,

the inspection system is configured to inspect an object arranged on the other surface side of the light guide plate by imaging with the camera through the light guide plate.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a light irradiation apparatus that irradiates light to perform surface inspection of a product and the like.

Background

Conventionally, a light irradiation device (hereinafter, also referred to as an omnidirectional light irradiation device) is known which can irradiate an object (hereinafter, also referred to as a workpiece) such as a product with light as uniformly as possible from all directions thereof to perform inspection. Such an omnidirectional light irradiation device is suitable for inspection of a spherical body, an R-shaped workpiece, a solder portion, and the like, because it does not generate shadows of curved surfaces or projections and depressions even when curved surfaces or projections and depressions exist at an inspection portion of the workpiece, and for example, variations in printing or colors on the surface of the workpiece can be exhibited.

Such omnidirectional light irradiation devices have a dome shape at first, but have a slightly large height, and therefore, flat-plate omnidirectional light irradiation devices made thin by using a flat light guide plate as disclosed in patent documents 1 and 2 have recently been developed.

The flat-type omnidirectional light irradiation device includes a flat-plate-shaped light guide plate and a plurality of LEDs arranged around the light guide plate, and a large number of minute diffuse reflection portions are provided on one plate surface of the light guide plate so as to leave a gap therebetween. The term "diffuse" as used herein includes, for example, a form in which light is diffused by being reflected on a spherical surface.

Accordingly, the light emitted from the LED and incident into the light guide plate from the side peripheral surface thereof travels by repeating total reflection between the opposing plate surfaces of the light guide plate, while the light impinging on the diffuse reflection portion among the light is reflected by the diffuse reflection portion in a diffused manner and emitted to the outside from the other plate surface of the light guide plate, that is, only the other plate surface of the light guide plate is made to emit light in a planar manner. The diffuse reflection portion includes a dot layer formed on one surface of the light guide plate by painting, printing, or the like (patent document 1), a V-shaped recess hollowed out in the one surface (patent document 2), for example, and the like.

When inspecting a workpiece, the other plate surface of the light guide plate is disposed facing the workpiece, and the workpiece is illuminated with diffused light emitted from the other plate surface. Then, the workpiece thus illuminated is observed and inspected by an observation means such as a camera or the naked eye from the opposite side through the light guide plate, that is, from the one plate surface side of the light guide plate via the light guide plate.

However, in such a flat-type omnidirectional light irradiation device, light guided into the light guide plate leaks slightly from the plate surface (one plate surface) on the observation means side, and this leakage light becomes a noise component, which may deteriorate the SN ratio during inspection.

In the case of the V-shaped concave portion as in patent document 2, since the light distribution of the diffused light emitted from the light guide plate toward the workpiece is not uniform, the uniformity of the light to be irradiated to the workpiece is not good as in the case of the dome-shaped device, and the inspection accuracy cannot be improved.

Documents of the prior art

Patent document

Patent document 1: japanese patent laid-open No. 2003-98093

Patent document 2: japanese patent laid-open publication No. 2016-136124

Disclosure of Invention

Problems to be solved by the invention

The present invention has been made in view of the above-described drawbacks, and an object of the present invention is to provide a light irradiation device capable of reducing leakage light leaking from a light guide plate to an observation means side as much as possible, reducing a noise component due to the leakage light, improving uniformity of irradiation light to an object, and improving inspection accuracy.

Means for solving the problems

That is, the light irradiation device of the present invention includes: a light guide plate having a flat plate shape; and a light source body that guides light from a side peripheral surface of the light guide plate into the light guide plate, wherein a plurality of recesses are formed in one surface of the light guide plate, the light incident on the light guide plate is diffused and reflected in the recesses, and is emitted from the other surface of the light guide plate to the outside to be irradiated to an inspection object, and the inspection object can be observed through the light guide plate from the side of the one surface of the light guide plate.

Further, the surface of the recess is formed by a smooth concave curved surface, and in a cross-sectional shape obtained by cutting the recess so as to pass through the center of the recess while being perpendicular to the plate surface, a tangent angle that is an angle formed by a tangent at an opening edge of the recess and the plate surface is set to 50 ° or more and 85 ° or less.

The present invention having such a configuration is an epoch-making invention made by the present inventors for the first time with attention paid to: some of the light hitting the concave portion passes through the light guide plate and is emitted as leakage light from the panel side, but the light distribution characteristics and intensity of the leakage light can be controlled by adjusting the tangent angle at the opening edge of the concave portion.

That is, according to the present invention, by setting the tangent angle at the opening edge of the recess to 85 ° or less, the intensity of light in the direction perpendicular to the plate surface is suppressed in the light distribution characteristic of the leakage light, and therefore, the leakage light incident on the observation means disposed in the perpendicular direction so as to face the plate surface can be reduced, and the SN ratio can be improved.

On the other hand, if the tangential angle is too small, the concave portion approaches a flat surface, and the degree of diffusion (uniformity) of light diffusely reflected toward the object (hereinafter also referred to as "irradiation light") is reduced, but the tangential angle is 50 ° or more, and therefore, appropriate illumination of the object can be secured.

Further, since the surface of the concave portion is a smooth curved surface, uniformity of light diffused and reflected toward the object side can be improved.

The upper limit of the tangent angle is preferably 80 ° or less, and more preferably 75 ° or less. The lower limit of the tangent angle is preferably 52 ° to 53 ° or more, and more preferably 55 ° or more.

Specific shapes of the concave portion include a partially concave spherical shape.

The opening diameter of the recess is preferably 0.02mm or more in order to enable processing of the recess, and is preferably 0.2mm or less in order to suppress reflection of the recess to the observation means.

The pitch between the concave portions also relates to uniformity of the irradiation light, and from this viewpoint, the average pitch between the concave portions is preferably 2 times or more and 5 times or less the diameter of the opening.

ADVANTAGEOUS EFFECTS OF INVENTION

According to the light irradiation device having such a configuration, the leakage light leaking from the light guide plate to the observation means side can be reduced as much as possible, the noise component due to the leakage light can be reduced, and the uniformity of the irradiation light to the object can be improved. Thus, for example, inspection accuracy can be improved.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing an inspection system including an inspection light irradiation device according to the present embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the inspection light irradiation device in this embodiment.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the light guide plate according to this embodiment, as viewed from one surface side of the light guide plate.

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the recess in this embodiment, the cross-sectional view being taken perpendicularly to the plate surface and passing through the center of the recess.

Fig. 5 is a partially enlarged view of the recess portion as viewed from the plane direction in the embodiment.

Fig. 6 is a diagram showing light distribution characteristics of leakage light when the tangential angle θ is 90 °, 75 °, and 72.2 °, respectively.

Fig. 7 is a diagram showing light distribution characteristics of leakage light when the tangential angle θ is 55 °, 50 °, and 45 °, respectively.

Fig. 8 is a graph showing a relationship between the tangent angle θ and the noise ratio.

Fig. 9 is a graph showing the relationship between the tangent angle θ and the noise ratio after normalization.

Fig. 10 is a diagram showing light distribution characteristics of irradiation light when the tangential angle θ is set to 90 °, 75 °, 72.2 °, 55 °, 50 °, and 45 °, respectively.

Fig. 11 is a diagram showing the differential light distribution characteristics between the light distribution characteristics of the illumination light and the lambertian light distribution characteristics when the tangential angle θ is set to 90 °, 75 °, 72.2 °, 55 °, 50 °, and 45 °, respectively.

Fig. 12 is a graph showing a change in PV value of a difference between the lambertian light distribution characteristic and the irradiation light distribution characteristic when the tangent angle θ is used as a parameter.

Fig. 13 is a plan view showing an arrangement of concave portions in another embodiment of the present invention.

Description of the symbols

100 … inspection light irradiation device

200 … inspection system

1 … light guide plate

1a … a plate surface

1b … another board surface

1c … side surface

2 … LED (luminous body)

4 … recess.

Detailed Description

Next, an embodiment of an inspection light irradiation device 100 as an example of the light irradiation device according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

As shown in fig. 1, the inspection light irradiation device 100 has a thin square flat plate shape as a whole, and has a function of irradiating a workpiece W as an inspection object with uniform diffused light from substantially all directions thereof (substantially 180 ° in the entire sky direction), thereby eliminating shadows caused by curved surfaces, slight irregularities, and the like of the surface of the workpiece W, as described in the background art.

More specifically, as shown in fig. 1 and 2, the inspection light irradiation device 100 includes: a light guide plate 1 having a flat plate shape; a plurality of LEDs 2 arranged around the light guide plate 1 as light source bodies; and a frame 3 that houses the LED 2 and supports a side peripheral portion of the light guide plate 1.

As shown in fig. 3, the light guide plate 1 is, for example, a square transparent resin plate (here, PMMA plate) having an equal thickness. Further, a large number of minute recesses 4 are formed in one plate surface 1a of the parallel plate surfaces facing each other, and the other plate surface 1b is formed as a smooth mirror surface.

As shown in fig. 4 and 5, the concave portions 4 are partially spherical concave portions dug across the one plate surface 1a of the light guide plate 1, and are arranged in a well-ordered manner at square grid points in this embodiment.

As shown in fig. 2, the LEDs 2 are, for example, of the surface mount type, and in this embodiment, a plurality of LEDs 2 are mounted in 1 row on the surface of an elongated wiring substrate 21. Further, a plurality of colors such as white, red, and blue are provided as a matrix of emission colors.

As shown in fig. 1 and 2, the housing 3 has a square frame shape including 4 side members 31, and each of the side members 31 is provided with a bottomed groove 3a which opens inward and extends end to end in the longitudinal direction. The peripheral edge of the light guide plate 1 is held in the bottomed groove 3a by fitting. The wiring board 21 is attached to the bottom of the bottomed groove 3a, and the light-emitting surface of the LED 2 mounted on the wiring board 21 faces the side peripheral surface 1c of the light guide plate 1. With this configuration, light emitted from the LEDs 2 is guided into the light guide plate 1 from the peripheral surface 1c on the four sides of the light guide plate 1.

In the inspection light irradiation device 100 having such a configuration, light emitted from the LEDs 2 enters the side peripheral surface 1c of the light guide plate 1 and travels inside the light guide plate 1 while repeating total reflection between the opposing plate surfaces of the light guide plate. Most of the light hits the concave portion 4 during traveling, is diffused and reflected in the concave portion 4, and is emitted from the other plate surface 1b of the light guide plate 1 to the outside. That is, the other plate surface 1b serves as a light-emitting surface. Light leaks from the one plate surface 1a to a small extent, but the leakage light will be described later.

In fig. 2, reference numeral 8 denotes a transparent cover plate covering the one plate surface 1a of the light guide plate 1. Reference numeral 5 denotes a viscoelastic heat conductor 5 which is interposed between the rear surface of the wiring board 21 and the housing 3, and is in close contact with both of them to conduct heat of the LED 2 to the housing 3 and dissipate the heat. In the figure, reference numeral 6 denotes a spacer 6 which is interposed between the surface of the wiring board 21 and the side peripheral surface 1c of the light guide plate 1 and keeps a constant distance therebetween.

In the present embodiment, as shown in fig. 2, the spacer 6 is biased inward (in the direction of the opening of the bottom groove 3 a) by an elastic body 7 (coil spring or leaf spring) provided on the outer side thereof, whereby the front abutment surface of the spacer 6 is brought into close contact with the side peripheral surface 1c of the light guide plate 1.

On the other hand, the wiring board 21 (and the LED 2) is biased inward (in the direction of the opening of the bottom groove 3 a) by the heat conductor 5, and thereby is brought into close contact with the rear-side contact surface of the spacer 6.

With this configuration, the spacer 6 is interposed between the surface of the wiring board 21 and the side circumferential surface 1c of the light guide plate 1 in close contact, and the distance therebetween is kept constant.

Incidentally, with this configuration, the light guide plate 1 is held in a direction parallel to the plate surface thereof by being sandwiched between the opposing spacers 6 that are elastically biased toward the inside, and with this configuration, the expansion of the light guide plate 1 due to the heat generated by the lighting of the LEDs 2 can be absorbed by the contraction of the elastic members 7. Therefore, the maximum shrinkage margin of the elastic body 7 is set to be equal to or more than the maximum elongation margin of the light guide plate 1 due to the expected heat generation.

On the other hand, although the LED 2 and the wiring board 21 are also pushed and moved outward by the extension of the light guide plate 1 via the spacer 6, the maximum shrinkage margin of the heat conductor 5 from room temperature is set to be equal to or more than the maximum extension margin of the light guide plate 1, and the movement of the LED 2 and the wiring board 21 due to the extension of the light guide plate 1 can be absorbed by the shrinkage of the heat conductor 5.

Next, an inspection system 200 using the inspection light irradiation device 100 having such a configuration will be briefly described. As shown in fig. 1 and 2, the inspection system 200 includes a camera C in addition to the inspection light irradiation device 100. The other plate surface 1b of the light guide plate 1 is disposed to face the workpiece W, the workpiece W is irradiated with diffused light emitted from the other plate surface 1b, and the workpiece W thus illuminated is photographed by the camera C from the opposite side, that is, from the one plate surface 1a side of the light guide plate 1 through the light guide plate 1, and the photographed image is used for inspection.

In the above-described configuration, the recess 4 is configured as follows in the present embodiment.

That is, as shown in fig. 4 and 5, in the cross-sectional shape obtained by cutting a plane that passes through the center of the recess 4 and is perpendicular to the plate surface 1a, the angle θ of the tangent line at the opening edge of the recess 4 to the plate surface (or 1/2 of the central angle α of the recess 4) is set to 55 ° to 75 °, the opening diameter Φ of the recess 4 is set to 0.02mm to 0.2mm, and the pitch p between the recesses 4 is set to 2 times to 5 times the opening diameter Φ.

In such a configuration, since the intensity of light in the direction perpendicular to the plate surface 1a is suppressed in the light distribution characteristics of the leakage light emitted to the camera C side among the light incident on the light guide plate 1, the leakage light incident on the camera C disposed so as to face the plate surface 1a and face the perpendicular direction is reduced, and the SN ratio in the captured image is improved.

On the other hand, if the tangent angle θ is too small, the concave portion 4 approaches a flat surface, and the degree of diffusion (uniformity) of the irradiation light diffused and reflected toward the workpiece W side is reduced, but since the tangent angle is set to 55 ° or more, such a disadvantage can be eliminated, and appropriate illumination of the workpiece W can be secured.

And then, displaying a specific simulation result obtained by verifying the effect.

First, the characteristics of the leakage light leaking to the camera C side will be described.

Fig. 6 and 7 show the respective light distribution characteristics of the leakage light when the tangential angle θ is 90 °, 75 °, 72.2 °, 55 °, 50 °, and 45 °. Here, the light distribution characteristics are light distribution characteristics when viewed from a position sufficiently far away to the extent that the inspection light irradiation device 100 can be regarded as a point light source.

As is clear from this figure, it is found that the smaller the tangent angle θ, the larger the angular range of low light intensity centered on the vertical direction.

Here, since the leakage light that comes out at most in the range of ± 20 ° in the direction perpendicular to the one plate surface 1a enters the camera C, the relationship between the tangent angle θ and the noise ratio is examined by taking the ratio of the light energy of the leakage light in this angle range to the light energy emitted toward the workpiece W as the noise ratio (the inverse of the SN ratio). The results are shown in FIG. 8.

As is clear from fig. 8, when the tangent angle θ is 75 °, the noise ratio has a distinct inflection point, and when the tangent angle θ exceeds the inflection point, the noise ratio sharply increases.

On the other hand, when the tangent angle θ is decreased from 75 °, the noise ratio is substantially the same until about 60 °, and when the angle becomes 60 ° or less, the noise ratio gradually decreases. Fig. 9 shows a graph obtained by normalizing with the noise ratio at 75 ° set to 1.

As can be seen from fig. 8 and 9, even when the opening diameter of the concave portions 4, the pitch of the concave portions 4, the thickness of the light guide plate 1, or the material of the light guide plate 1 is changed, such tendency is similar.

As can be seen from fig. 8 and 9, it is preferable that the tangential angle θ is set to 75 ° or less with respect to the leakage light.

Next, the characteristics of the irradiation light emitted to the workpiece W side will be described.

For inspection purposes, the light distribution characteristics of the irradiation light (here, the light distribution characteristics when viewed from a position sufficiently far away to the extent that the present inspection light irradiation device 100 can be regarded as a point light source) are preferably as equal as possible to the light distribution characteristics following the lambert cosine law (hereinafter, referred to as lambert light distribution characteristics).

Here, the light distribution characteristics of the irradiation light when the tangential angle θ is 90 °, 75 °, 72.2 °, 55 °, 50 °, and 45 °, respectively, were examined. Fig. 10 shows the results. Fig. 11 shows the difference between the light distribution characteristic of the irradiation light and the lambertian light distribution characteristic at each tangential angle θ. It was found that when the tangential angle θ was 72.2 °, the light distribution characteristics of the irradiated light were substantially equal to the lambertian light distribution characteristics, and slightly varied around 72.2 °.

From these results, it was examined how the PV value of the difference between the lambertian light distribution characteristic and the irradiation light distribution characteristic changes using the tangent angle θ as a parameter, and the PV value was graphed. FIG. 12 was obtained. As can be seen from this figure, the light distribution characteristics are most similar to the lambertian light distribution characteristics at about 72 °, and the PV value starts to deteriorate rapidly at less than 55 °. As can be seen from the figure, the same applies to the opening diameter of the concave portions 4, the pitch of the concave portions 4, the thickness of the light guide plate 1, or the material of the light guide plate 1.

Therefore, as described above, when the tangent angle θ is set to 55 ° or more and 75 ° or less, the leakage light incident on the camera C can be reduced as much as possible, and the light distribution characteristics of the irradiation light can be made to fall within the predetermined range of the lambertian light distribution characteristics which are ideal for the inspection.

Further, if the opening diameter Φ of the concave portion 4 is 0.02mm or more, there is no case where the manufacturing becomes significantly difficult, and if the opening diameter Φ is 0.2mm or less, the reflection to the camera can be greatly reduced. Further, when the pitch p between the concave portions 4 is 2 times or more and 5 times or less the opening diameter Φ, the light distribution characteristics of the irradiation light can be maintained.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments.

For example, the tangent angle θ is not limited to 75 ° or less. As shown in fig. 9, for example, if the angle is 85 ° or less, the leakage light is reduced by about 10% as compared with 90 ° (hemispherical surface), and if the angle is 80 ° or less, the leakage light is reduced by about 20% as compared with 90 ° (hemispherical surface), so that depending on the required accuracy of the inspection, sufficient effects can be obtained even if the upper limit of the tangent angle is 85 ° or 80 °.

For the same reason, the tangent angle θ is not limited to 55 ° or more, but may be about 50 ° or more, or about 52 ° or more.

Further, the shape of the concave portion may be not only a partially concave spherical surface but also a form in which the surface is smooth and the tangential angle is gradually increased (or gradually decreased) as it goes toward the circumferential direction. For example, a partially elliptical spherical surface or a partially elliptical spherical surface may be used.

The arrangement of the concave portions may be not only square grid points but also regular triangular grid points as shown in fig. 13, or may be a random arrangement or rectangular grid points. The pitch (interval) in the random case is defined by taking the interval to the nearest recess as a single pitch and taking the average of these pitches as the pitch. Further, in the case of rectangular grid points, an average of long pitches and short pitches is adopted.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Industrial applicability

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a light irradiation device capable of reducing leakage light leaking from a light guide plate to an observation means side as much as possible, reducing a noise component due to the leakage light, improving uniformity of irradiation light to an object, and improving inspection accuracy.