COGNEX INTRODUCES LOW COST, AUTOMATIC ALIGNMENT SYSTEM

New VP50 Vision System Provides Low Cost, High Performance, Pattern
Location Technology For Automatic Alignment

Natick, MA, January 5, 1995--Cognex Corporation, the world's leading
supplier of machine vision systems to the semiconductor and electronics
industries, today introduced a low cost, vision system for automatic
alignment.

The Cognex VP50 alignment system, which is priced under $4,500 with
software, enables manufacturers of semiconductor and electronics equipment
such as epoxy dispensers, wafer mounters, probers, routers, drillers, and
screen printers, to take advantage of low-cost advanced, grey-scale
alignment technology from the industry leader. In the manufacture of a
semiconductor wafer, for example, the Cognex VP50 will be incorporated
into a wafer prober to align the wafer prior to probe testing the
individual die, or into a wafer dicer to align the wafer prior to sawing
it into individual

"Cognex has recognized the need for a low cost vision system for basic
alignment and guidance tasks, " said Justin Testa, Director of Marketing
at Cognex. "To meet the needs of this market, we have developed the Cognex
VP50. This system has many advantages for the user, yet is competitively
priced. "

The Cognex VP50 finds any pattern, simple or complex, using a 256 level
grey-scale template matching algorithm invented by Cognex called
Normalized Correlation Search. This algorithm works by scanning an image
for a match to a pre-trained grey-level "photograph"--or model--of the
object of interest. VP50 uses Search to reliably and repeatably locate
patterns despite changes to the appearance of the pattern caused by
lighting, process, and surface degradations.

With traditional vision systems, customers must learn a proprietary
application development environment. With the Cognex VP50, the vision
software function calls are provided as a Windows 3.1 (3.1J) Dynamic Link
Library (DLL). OEMs can now develop their application using
industry-standard development environments--Microsoft Visual C++ or
Borland C++ using either C or C++ and Visual Basic 3.0--resulting in
significant savings in application development time.

The Cognex VP50 consists of a single ISA bus compatible board and all
software needed to acquire images, train and locate alignment patterns and
fiducials, and display real-time images. The VP50 can acquire from up to
four RS170 or CCIR cameras and includes on-board circuitry to provide a
real time image display "mixed" into the PC's VGA monitor. This eliminates
the need for a second vision system monitor.

The VP50 can locate a pattern in milliseconds, however this time depends on
many variables, including the size of the model, the search range, and the
power of the PC processor being used. For example, VP50 can locate a
typical fiducial mark on a printed circuit board in less than 60 ms on a
486 class PC, and in less than 30 ms on a Pentium class PC.

The Cognex VP50 low cost alignment system includes hardware, software, and
on-line documentation and is available for immediate delivery. Prices
range from $3,000 to $4,500 in OEM quantities.

Cognex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and markets machine
vision systems, or computers that can "see," which are used to automate a
wide range of manufacturing processes where vision is required. Having
shipped more than 22,000 machine vision systems to date, Cognex is the
world's leader in the machine vision industry. In addition to its
headquarters in Natick, Massachusetts, the company has offices throughout
the United States and Europe, and in Japan and Singapore.

Cognex Corp
One Vision Drive
Natick, MA 01760-2059
508-650-3000,  fax 508-650-3333

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