PCB News - Opened up a greater imagination for the PCB printed circuit industry

The general trend of automotive electronics has driven the rapid growth of automotive PCBs. With the continuous advancement of the automobile industry, automobiles have evolved from a complete mechanical device in the past to a combination of machinery and electronics. The use of electronic technology in automobiles has continued to increase, which has improved the comfort, safety, and entertainment of automobiles. Meet the diverse needs of people. Automobiles have been transformed from a simple means of transportation into a comprehensive platform with multiple functions such as transportation, entertainment, and office. The proportion of automotive electronics in the manufacturing cost of the vehicle is increasing, and the market scale of automotive electronics is also expanding. .

The combination of automotive industry machinery and electronics

Due to the complex working environment of automobiles, automobile PCBs have extremely high requirements for reliability. Secondly, the automobile industry has a recall system. Manufacturers need to bear the risk of product errors. Small-scale manufacturers cannot afford it, so they will be excluded. Moreover, the entry barriers for automotive PCBs are high, and they must undergo a series of verification tests. The certification cycle is long. Once certified, manufacturers generally will not easily change suppliers, and orders are relatively stable.

China's automotive electronics market scale and forecast

Automotive electronics can be divided into two main categories: vehicle body electronic control system and vehicle electronic control system. The car body control system can be divided into engine control system, body control system and chassis control system. The car body control system combines the mechanical system of the car with the electronic device, giving full play to the advantages of electronic products, improving the performance of the mechanical system, and ensuring the integration of electromechanics The driving of the car is safer and more stable. The on-board electronic control system mainly includes multimedia systems, navigation systems, driving recorders, reversing radar and other systems, which increase the convenience and entertainment of the car, and enhance the car's use experience.

Classification of automotive electronic systems

Intelligent driving has opened up greater imagination space for the automobile economy, and the penetration rate in the automobile market is currently increasing. The ADAS system (advanced driver assistance system) market is growing rapidly, from the original high-end market gradually infiltrating the mid-range market, and improved new sensor technology is also creating new opportunities for system deployment. At present, the penetration rate of ADAS is less than 5%. With the further expansion and improvement of functions, and policy encouragement and even mandatory requirements, it is expected to grow at a rate of more than 20% in the future. By 2020, the market size is expected to be close to 30 billion US dollars. ADAS stipulates that a variety of operation control, safety control, and peripheral control functions need to be implemented by PCBs. It is expected that in the future, fully autonomous vehicles will be equipped with more PCBs to meet driving needs.

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China's smart driving market scale and forecast

The demand for PCBs from new energy vehicles is also huge. With the support of industrial policies, the domestic new energy vehicle market has maintained rapid growth since 2014. BMS in new energy vehicles is one of the core components, and as one of the basic components of BMS, PCB boards will also benefit from the development of new energy vehicles.

new energy vehicles

Compared with traditional vehicles, new energy vehicles are more electronic. New energy vehicles are represented by electric vehicles. Compared with traditional fuel vehicles, the main difference lies in the four major components: drive motor, speed controller, power battery, and on-board charger. The on-board battery is mainly used as the energy source and the motor is used as the power source. The source drives the vehicle. Compared with traditional cars, new energy vehicles have higher requirements for the degree of electronization. The cost of electronic devices in traditional high-end cars accounts for about 25%, and in new energy vehicles it reaches 45%-65%.

New energy vehicle BMS: a new growth point for automotive PCB. Lithium battery is the core energy of new energy vehicles. In order to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the battery, it is necessary to monitor the battery in real time through the battery management system (BMS). BMS is also known as the brain of the electric vehicle battery system, and it controls the battery and body. The systems together constitute the three core technologies of electric vehicles. PCB is the hardware foundation of BMS. Large buses have 12-24 boards, small cars have 8-12 boards, the main control circuit is about 0.24 square meters, and the single management unit is 2 to 3 square meters. Automotive PCB will usher in heavy volume as the market size of new energy vehicles grows.

ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System: Advanced Driver Assistance System) is a transition before the realization of a fully autonomous car. It uses a variety of sensors installed on the car to collect environmental data inside and outside the car at the first time. Performing technical processing such as identification, detection and tracking of static and dynamic objects, so that the driver can detect possible dangers in the fastest time, so as to attract attention and improve safety. Active safety technology, ADAS technology principle and The human reaction mechanism is similar. The surrounding information is obtained through the perception layer, the information is processed by the decision-making link, and finally the calculation result is transmitted to the execution device to complete the driving operation.

ADAS technology principle

Millimeter wave radar is the core sensor of the ADAS system. Millimeter wave radar refers to a radar that works in the millimeter wave band. It uses radar to transmit radio to the surrounding area, and calculates the distance, direction and size of obstacles by measuring and analyzing the reflected waves. Millimeter wave radar can be divided into 24GHz radar and 77GHz radar. The 77GHz millimeter wave radar can measure the speed of the vehicle ahead and the distance between the two vehicles, and can monitor the speed and distance of the own vehicle. The 24GHz millimeter wave radar is mainly used to monitor objects near the vehicle.

Working principle of automotive millimeter wave radar

The high volume of millimeter-wave radar will bring huge demand to automotive high-frequency PCBs. At present, automotive millimeter-wave radars are under rapid development. The next two years will be in the heavy-duty period of automotive millimeter-wave radars. Generally, cars that support ADAS function will use at least four millimeter-wave radars. The new Audi A4 uses five millimeter-wave radars. Class-class cars use 7 millimeter-wave radars. It is expected that the average number of millimeter-wave radars used by bicycles in the future will continue to grow, and the demand for automotive radar PCBs will also grow rapidly.

Millimeter-wave radar products are about to enter the heavy-duty period, and high-frequency PCB boards are needed to realize the function of the antenna. To maintain sufficient signal strength of the antenna in a small integration space. The high-frequency PCB board of the 77Ghz radar with higher specifications and the large-scale application will bring about a huge demand for the corresponding high-frequency PCB board.