PCB Metrology Gap: How SCAN Labs Is Automating Microsectioning

About this episode

Geoffrey Leeds discusses the metrology gap in PCB manufacturing and how SCAN Labs is automating microsectioning to improve quality verification.

The PCB industry has long relied on manual microsectioning to verify board quality — but as densities increase and skilled labor becomes harder to retain, that process is breaking down. In this episode of the Altium OnTrack Podcast, host Zach Peterson welcomes back Geoffrey Leeds, founder of SCAN Labs, for his third appearance on the show. Geoffrey breaks down what he calls the "metrology gap" — the widening divide between the precision measurement capabilities available to semiconductor manufacturers and those available to PCB fabricators — and explains why this gap is becoming a critical problem for high-reliability industries like defense, aerospace, medical, and automotive. SCAN Labs is addressing this gap head-on with a heavily automated, third-party inspection and test laboratory that specializes in microsectioning for electronics verification. Geoffrey walks through the company's serialized grinding and imaging system, which can produce a fully analyzed IPC coupon roughly every six minutes, generating high-confidence metrology data at scale. The conversation also covers the role of AI and LLMs in electronics manufacturing, the limits of current non-destructive inspection…

People in this episode

Host: Zach Peterson

Guest: Geoffrey Leeds

Topics covered

• PCB quality verification
• microsectioning
• metrology gap
• automation in PCB
• high-reliability industries
• AI in manufacturing

Keywords

• microsectioning
• PCB design
• metrology
• automation
• inspection
• electronics verification
• AI
• IPC standards

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: SCAN Labs, IPC

Places: defense, aerospace, medical, automotive

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