Keyword: PCB system design, PCB, PCB interconnect, PCB -mounted devices, PCB simple
The application of PCB -based bussed electrical circuit board 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 circuit board 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 PCB 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 circuit board with press-fit and soldered terminals and electromechanical power control devices that PCB interconnect the various subsystems within the vehicles electrical system. The relative ease in the design of the BEC PCB, 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, circuit board 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 circuit board 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 PCB 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 circuit board 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, PCB 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 vehicles circuit board 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. circuit board Now, PCB all of the leads in the wiring harness could be single leads with point-to-point connections that are PCB simple to fabricate automatically.
