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This approach doesn't scale.

Modern portable devices often have BGA packages with 0.5mm spacing. At this resolution, a relatively small 5x5 cm board would require at least 100x100 = 10k probes per side. Count increases quadratically with board size.

Far easier is a "flying probe" machine [1] with a handful of probes that can be moved quickly. This option is mentioned in the article, but dismissed due to up-front cost.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_probe



You could multiplex the probe grid along rows and columns like pixels on an LCD screen. Would make the probing take a bit longer but you'd still save time since you don't need to manually hook stuff up.




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