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Code: EP103

Description

Automotive applications will prove to be very demanding of the performance, size and reliability of electronics hardware to an extent considered comparable with aerospace applications, but to be achieved at low cost! The analysis undertaken can therefore impact on a wide range of future electronics applications. Market analyses and the Prometheus study indicate the growth and increasing complexity of automotive electronics. The reliability requirement is identified and then the options of ASICs versus Surface Mount Technology (SMT) are described. The lecture then considers the vulnerability of soldered joints, as used in SMT, from various aspects, concluding that they are indeed undesirably vulnerable. The benefits of the preferred alternative, namely ASICs and standard ICs in MCMs, are then addressed, also covering the availability of built-in self-test to solve testability.

An extensive statistical analysis of the probability of operation, using practical data for ASICs and SMT, supported by graphical illustrations shows the considerable benefit, by orders of magnitude, of the use of ASICs and standard chip Multi-chip Modules protected by a plastic gel (see Part I, lectures 1 - 3) in preference to SMT for future automotive (and other?) electronics.