OSLO, NORWAY -- A newly released addendum to the specification for automotive printed circuit boards contains some groundbreaking changes for the industry, the chairman says.

IPC-6012DA WAM1, "Automotive Applications Addendum to IPC-6012D, Qualification and Performance Specification for Rigid Printed Boards," creates an "automotive superclass," says chairman Jan Pedersen. “It's all about developing the standard to reflect this industry's special requirements, in this case, high-reliability products in particular.”

Pedersen, who is senior technical advisor at Elmatica, adds that while "the first addendum was related to IPC-6012D class 2 and 3, WAM1 is the automotive supplement to class 3 only. All references to IPC Class 2 have either been removed or rewritten. Why are we doing this? To meet the requirements for products with high reliability. The changes are now a realistic tool for the automotive industry, and it has elements that will impact the industry but also simplify.”

Life-critical products in the automotive sector require zero defects or 0-km failure, he said. “Considering the volume in this industry, and increased miniaturization, a 100% visual inspection by an operator is not practical. WAM1 have included a requirement to use AOI (automated optical inspection) of all layers and a recommendation to use AVI (automated visual inspection) of the finished PCB.” <p1. In the requirement for acceptance test, WAM1 have included a suggestion to implement thermal stress testing and a requirement to 100% AOI on all conductive layers.

2. The requirement to Lifted lands after thermal stress has been harmonized with IPC-A-610 and is now measurable to one pad thickness.

3. The cleanliness testing requirement has been rewritten including a recommendation of tests to be used in PPAP documentation.

“The test requirements for cleanliness or ionic contamination used today are from the 1970s and in reality only meant for process control. We gave this a good start in IPC-6012DA, and improved further in IPC-6012DA WAM1 to make it easier to understand, update and to harmonize with ongoing revisions of other IPC documents,” said Pedersen.

As further improvements and specializations of the current IPC standards will arise, a need for guidelines for how to use the standards might be necessary.

“We suggest IPC start looking into developing guidelines on how to implement the different addenda related to the 'mother-standards,' as the IPC-6012DA WAM1 toward IPC-6012. It might be challenging to understand how to use the standard, which applications apply where and which fits into which category," said Pedersen.

IPC-6012DA WAM1 will be presented at IPC Apex Expo next week, where the task group will begin reviewing potential revisions and improvements.

• Prev
• Next