12 February 2017 Components in Electronics www.cieonline.co.uk
Interview
Sanmina is a leading integratedmanufacturing solutions company,providing custom design,
manufacturing and global supply chainsolutions to high technology OriginalEquipment Manufacturers (OEMs).Founded in 1980, Sanmina primarilyserves OEMs in sectors such as medicaldevices, communications networks,defence and aerospace, industrial andsemiconductor systems, multimedia,computing and storage, automotive andclean technology.
Bernd Enser is the vice president ofSanmina’s Global Automotive Businessand has been with the company for 26years. He is also chairman of thetechnical community in ZVEI, anassociation for electronics manufacturersin Germany. “My team and I are primarilyfocused on technical standards andtechnical guidelines. Our goal is to makesure that the entire electronics industryhas all the necessary information andprocesses available in order to launch andmanufacture highly reliable and highquality products.”
The automotive industry is one of themost innovative industries at themoment, with innovation every day thatmakes driving safer. SanminaCorporation plays a significant role inthis sector, with over 20 years ofautomotive electronic manufacturingexperience. Sanmina also contributes torelevant industry bodies throughchairmanship positions in tradeorganisations such as ZVEI and SAE.
With driving becoming more andmore automated, the automotiveindustry is working hard to find the bestsolutions for intelligent vehicles. Thecomplex technologies needed foradvanced driver assistance systems(ADAS) and the driverless car includecommunications, sensors, multimediaand high-density electronics. In order tomeet the stringent requirements of theautomotive regulatory environment,these technologies and applications needstrong engineering, validation, andcomplex manufacturing capabilities.
More and more vehicles today havesemiconductors that were not specificallydesigned for automotive applications.Enser said that this trend is developingrapidly, and in the not to distant futurethese types of components will becomeembedded in almost everything thatmoves, and not just in premium vehicles.He said: “This trend represents aninitiative to pull many of the functionsyou have come to depend on with yoursmartphone, into vehicles in order tomake them safer, more comfortable andpart of a normal lifestyle. This will notonly support the current way we drivebut will also support future initiatives likeautonomous driving, car-to-car connect,car-to-x connect, and so on.”
Initiatives such as car-to-x connect willbe useful in many ways and can makedriving safer. Manoeuvres such asovertaking a large vehicle when drivingcan be accomplished much more safely.Enser explained, “Just imagine you aredriving behind a truck that is going40mph. If you are not on a motorway,you cannot pass because you cannot seewhat is in front of the truck or oncoming
traffic, posing a safety hazard. By havingcar-to-x connect you can connect to thecar in front of the truck to see what is infront and if there is anything coming theother way. This then allows you to passthe truck safely, preventing accidents.
“It can also be used to see if there areany road obstructions anywhere in yourpath or if there are animals or children inthe area. These capabilities will give amuch more advanced view of the road,enabling greater safety.”
However, these technologies are notready yet, and Enser explains thechallenge of integrating consumercomponents into automotiveapplications. “To get functions such ascar-to-x connect embedded into vehicles,we need components that are actuallydesigned to be used in places likesmartphones. However, the challenge isthat if you look at the mission profile ofa vehicle, it is completely different thanthe profile for devices used in consumerproducts, where you have narrowertemperature ranges, no vibration and noaccelerated stress. We need to cometogether as an industry to see whatneeds to happen to make it possible toutilise consumer electronics inautomobiles. It is not just a challenge forthe component manufacturers, it’s achallenge across the entire value chainthat services this segment.”
Sanmina works in eight differentmarket segments includingcommunications, defence and aerospace,industrial, medical amongst others. Thismeans that Sanmina can look atcomponents used in these segments tosee if they are suitable for automotiveapplications. “We learn a lot about what
components can do, what they canwithstand and what they cannot dothrough the other market segments weare involved in,” said Enser. “With thatknowledge from a manufacturing pointof view, we know how often we cansolder them, which soldering profiles wehave to use, what would damage them,how to treat them through the entiremanufacturing process, how to storethem, how to get them tested, andmuch more. This gives us valuableinformation for the automotive industry -since we know how these componentsbehave in certain environments, we areable to advise on this.”
Enser likens the componentautomotive manufacturing business to atriangle. “On one side, you have thecomponents available to the market thatare used in a specific application,” heexplained. “Another side of the trianglelooks at the components from areliability point of view. You need tohave an understanding of the missionprofile of the vehicle, and you need tobe able to break it down to componentlevel in order to predict what stress eachcomponent will see through its lifecycleand whether it can withstand it. And thethird side of the triangle, and I would saythe most ‘invisible’ side but one that isextremely important, is the legal aspect.There is a new standard on the marketcalled ISO 26262 which describesfunctional safety and the different safetylevels. It also puts everyone in theindustry in a position of being liable ifnot compliant to that standard. So byassessing all three aspects - thecomponent itself, the reliability aspect,and the legal aspect, you are able to
Sanmina taking lead role inthe automotive sectorThe automotive industry has been changing anddeveloping rapidly over the last few years and willcontinue for many years to come. CIE editor, AmyWallington talks to Bernd Enser, vice president, GlobalAutomotive Business, Sanmina about how the companyhas taken a significant role in the industry to driveinnovation in this area
Bernd Enser
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identify everything you need to do inorder to make such components usablein the automotive industry.”
Another task to make sure thesystems are safe is to detect anypotential failures that might occurthrough the products’ lifetime.Sanmina’s intelligent testing identifiesalgorithms that can produce a potentialfailure while running the initial circuit.“With these processes, we can cycle acomponent and apply certain signals. Bymeasuring in real-time the responses ofthe component, including theembedded software, we can determineup to a certain grade how long such acomponent or a specific componentfunction will last,” explains Enser.
It’s also important to have knowledgeabout the different failure modes ofcomponents and to understand theirstructure, because if anything does failthe supplier needs to run more tests tosee what has happened. “The supplierprovides you with feedback for example,on electrical over-stress,” said Enser. “Theimportant thing here is that weunderstand the particular failurephenomenon down in the event electricalover-stress occurs. So you need to knowhow it happened, and mostsemiconductor manufacturers have theability to reproduce such failures. Theycan tell you the most probable signal orsignals that were applied to drive thatelectrical over-stress, which pins havebeen loaded with voltage and current,and what time those signals were appliedto the pins.”
Considering all of these aspects, theautomotive industry still has a long way
to go before we see completelyautomated vehicles, but we can seedevelopments in ADAS and how theycan improve driving safety. Enserconcluded: “2017 and 2018 will be a
challenging time for the entire industry.But it is interesting that more and morecompanies are using EMS services, andwe want to make sure that theautomotive industry recognises the
value of these services, and learns moreabout what the EMS industry can bringto this market.”
www.sanmina.com
Interview
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