Abstract
Printed Circuit Board (PCB) electromechanical reliability analysis has become almost inevitable in all automotive applications because of PCB’s presence in many sections of the vehicle. PCB usage has benefits related to quality, compactness, cost, suitability for bulk production, ease of installation and robustness. In electric and hybrid electric vehicles, a lot of critical electric circuitry like hybrid & motor control circuit, gate drive and power supply circuit and battery system manager circuits are integral parts of the electric drive systems. Such circuit boards must sustain various disturbances in terms of thermal and mechanical events characterized by propulsion and charging mode operations of the vehicle. PCB durability depends on intensity, duration and frequency of occurrences of these disturbances. During design stage, an estimate of reliability is needed which gives confidence to go ahead with the development and enables to manage the changes in design before going to production phase. In this paper, reliability definition, reliability prediction methodologies, life cycle events (Structural and thermal), accelerated testing in simulation environment, finite element analysis of electric and hybrid electric vehicle applications are discussed. Various challenges that are encountered during various phases of reliability analysis are also addressed.