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Electronics Industry’s Most Widely Used Acceptability Document to Include an Automotive Addendum
 The industry association IPC, which represents printed circuit board and electronics manufacturing service companies, has announced that it will be developing an addendum for its most popular acceptability document, IPC-A-610D, Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies, that is designed specifically to meet the needs of the automotive industry.
Several times in the past year, IPC has been approached at European electronic trade shows about the possibility of developing a standard to support the automotive electronics industry. Porsche AG in Stuttgart, Germany, has been one of the leaders in making these requests. Company employees indicate that Porsche’s goal of a zero parts per million (PPM) fault rate for electronic products in their cars is not compatible with IPC-A-610’s acceptable criteria. Rather, the company requires that its suppliers meet the “target” condition.
“The term ‘target’ defines perfect solder connections in all attributes. We work towards perfection in every job we do. In actuality, perfection is seldom achievable without great cost. All IPC acceptance standards have categories for target, acceptable (the minimum requirements) and defect (less than minimum acceptability). Porsche is willing to pay the very high cost for perfection—the target condition—and pass that cost on to consumers. This isn’t typical for most industries,” says Jack Crawford, director of certification and assembly technology for IPC.
Some of Porsche’s concerns were echoed in discussions with other suppliers and manufacturers from the automotive industry, although not necessarily to require target criteria in every instance. While automotive vendors continued to use IPC-A-610, most seemed to be modifying it to meet their unique needs. An addendum would standardize the modifications across all suppliers.
To start work on the automotive addendum, IPC hosted a meeting during the November 2008 Automotive Conference held in conjunction with Electronica in Munich, Germany. This first meeting had support from more than 30 people representing automakers Porsche AG, Volkswagen AG, Volvo Car and Volvo Truck, as well as EMS companies, suppliers and test labs such as Continental Automotive Systems, Arcor GmBH, Autoliv AB, Avantec, DLS Electronic Systems, ESPEC EUROPE GmbH, Gen3 Systems Limited, Henkel AG & Co, KGaA, IEE Opto Sense, RELNETyX AG, Siegert electronic GmbH, Stannol GmbH, ViTechnology and Fraunhofer IZM. Moritz v. Holst from the U.S. Commercial Service in Munich was very helpful in facilitating the meeting.
Attendees had been provided with examples of the space electronics hardware addendum for J-STD-001, Requirements for Soldered Electrical and Electronic Assemblies, and the draft telecommunications addendum for IPC-A-610D so they would have an idea of what could be done.
As the attendees introduced themselves they provided background on their knowledge and use of IPC standards and why they felt an automotive-specific addendum would help their industry. A number of suggestions for an automotive addendum, to be identified as IPC-A-610DV, had been submitted by Porsche AG to start the project, and these were reviewed by the committee. Other attendees such as Sven-Olof Abrahamsson, Autoliv AB, Sweden, promised to submit additional recommendations for the proposed 610DV addendum.
Several other items were discussed during the meeting and it was definitely clear that the attendees were very interested in supporting development of the 610DV addendum. Interest was so high that the meeting concluded two hours later than scheduled.
Anyone else with an interest in this project is urged to submit comments or recommendations to answers@ipc.org using this format
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Clause or Reference Number in IPC-A-610D. If you have new or additional criteria, leave this blank.
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Your recommendation. Please be as specific as possible.
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Reason/justification for your recommendation. Explain why you feel this is important.
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