Case Study: Consumer Electronics Manufacturing Company achieves accurate SMT connector solder‑failure detection despite no‑probe access with Keysight Mini ICT (U9403A) + VTEP

Mini ICT with VTEP Accurately Detects Solder Failure on SMT Connector Despite No Probe Access

Consumer Electronics Manufacturing Company struggled with ever‑shrinking PCBA boards that left few test access nodes, causing their Manufacturing Defect Analyzers and Functional Testers to report open failures on a PCI SMT connector without identifying which pin was faulty. X‑ray inspection was prohibitively expensive, forcing the customer to scrap many failed boards. Keysight proposed the U9403A Mini In‑Circuit Test System (Mini ICT) with VTEP to address the “no probe access” limitation.

Keysight worked with the customer and a fixture vendor to move test points and place VTEP sensors outside the DUT; evaluations on both good and known‑defect boards showed the Mini ICT with VTEP reliably pinpointed open solder joints despite no probe access. The customer purchased six Keysight Mini ICT systems since 2016, enabling effective fault isolation, higher throughput and functional test yield, and significant reductions in bone‑pile scrap and associated costs.