Cohu Pin Inspection Automation

Increasing efficiency and improving scalability

by automating the Pogo Pin sorting and inspection process

Daniel Acosta | Dehao Lin | Igli Alivoda | Tommy Jin

University of California, San Diego

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

MAE 156 - Senior Design Project | Fall 2023 & Winter 2024

Pogo Pins are used for Semiconductors current transmission test. These pins contains internal springs and moving probs on one or both ends.

Each Pogo Pins test millions of semiconductors in their life cycle. To prevent false results, each pin is inspected as well.

Cohu Inc. currently uses a manual inspection method to inspect Pogo Pins. However, such method is time consuming and error-prone.

Our Goal

Design a working assembly that performs sorting, conveying, force testing, and camera presentation to prove the viability of replacing Cohu’s current manual sorting process of pogo pins with automation.

Bulk Sorting

5000+ pin reservoir volume
Individualized output

Part Tranportation

1 part per 2 seconds feed rate
Continuous process

Spring Inspection

± 5gf spring compression test
Initial quality check

Camera Inspection