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PCB Technology and Automotive Power Distribution System Design
November 4, 2013 |Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
The application of PCB-based bussed electrical centers (BECs) technology is just one of many steps in the evolution of automotive electrical architecture. It enables improvement in vehicle safety, reduces product over-design and waste and enables the diversity of electrical system connectivity while maintaining cost. BECs are the “fuse blocks” or “relay centers” where the electrical circuit switching, control and protection devices for the automotive electrical system are centrally located for ease of installation and service. The BEC concept provides a number of electrical system designs and electrical harness segmentation advantages over the hardwired or “on-harness” electrical centers. In the last 10 years, the BEC itself has evolved into a stand-alone device, which uses heavy copper (thicker than 70 microns), multilayer printed circuit boards with press-fit and soldered terminals and electromechanical power control devices that interconnect the various subsystems within the vehicle’s electrical system. The relative ease in the design of the BEC PCBs, with available computer-aided design and engineering tools, has shortened design lead times and made engineering changes faster and easier to implement. The PCB itself and its structure provide a foundation for PCB-mounted devices that rarely, if ever, require servicing. This removes the relays from the wiring harness, or separate custom pluggable devices, thereby reducing system complexity and cost.
Early Architecture
A major leap in the vehicle wiring architecture was made with the Saturn vehicle in the early 1980s. The wiring harness design changed drastically from a common circuit wire methodology with in-line connectors and devices incorporated into the harness with individual and some localized relay and fuse connections structures, to a segregated harness structure where several compartmentalized harnesses plug into a central device. This device allows connectivity to the harnesses while providing a central location for pluggable devices: relays, fuses, circuit breakers and electrical transient suppression devices. The result was the creation of the BEC. The architecture provided a single-point attachment for the segmented, forward lamp harness, engine harness, body harness and instrument panel harness that greatly improved the build-ability of the vehicle. Major subassemblies of the vehicle could be easily prewired offline, tested and brought to the vehicle assembly line and mated to the rest of the vehicle’s electric system with one or two interconnections within the BEC. The interconnecting of several leads within a single harness, such as grounds, could be done in the BEC, thereby eliminating the complex fabrications of splices within the wiring harness. Now, all of the leads in the wiring harness could be single leads with point-to-point connections that are simple to fabricate automatically.Read the full article here.Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the October 2013 issue of The PCB Magazine.