ICT In-Circuit Testers

The Application of Reed Relays in In-Circuit Testers

In-Circuit Tester (ICT) is an essential testing equipment for Printed-Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA) production in modern electronic enterprises. It is a standard testing method that checks for manufacturing defects and faulty components by testing the electrical performance and electrical connections of online components. The ICT mainly checks the open and short circuits of individual online components and various circuit networks. It has the characteristics of simple operation, fast and accurate fault location, among others.

The ICT requires high-quality reed relays because each tester may contain up to 20,000 relays under full load. One faulty relay will result in a defect rate of 50PPM. Therefore, the quality level of the relays used must be better than 50PPM; otherwise, each tester will have a faulty product. To achieve this quality level, reed relays must be produced through automated/mechanized production lines, and every production detail must be taken into consideration. In addition, the relays need to undergo dynamic testing to detect failure modes and potential problems early.

To meet these strict requirements, MiRelay company produces four series of reed relays: SIP, MSIP, VSIP, and VN series. All four series are manufactured on highly automated/mechanized production lines and have very low defect rates. These relays are tested regularly to meet the stringent requirements of the PCB testing environment. Compared to SIP products, MSIP series only takes up half of the PCB’s surface area, reducing the cost of expensive PCB boards by half. The VSIP series further reduces the PCB area compared to the MSIP series. The latest VN series only occupies an area of 4.4 * 4.4mm.