A board behind a windscreen, under a bonnet or inside a battery pack is approved as part of the vehicle, so the supplier is judged on two things long after the drawing is signed: whether the part stays the same, and whether the record of how it was built can be produced. Both are process questions, which is why they are what this page answers.
What automotive boards have to survive
Heat, current and vibration arrive together. A motor drive, a DC-DC converter or a battery management board runs hot and carries real current; a camera or radar front end has to hold a defined impedance while the cabin temperature swings; a lighting board has to move LED junction heat into the chassis instead of leaving it in the board. Each case pushes the design towards a different substrate, copper weight and finish, and that choice is settled with engineering before the stack-up is frozen. The published limits are on the capability page, because they are the same for every industry and do not need repeating page by page.
Where a programme starts
Most vehicle programmes arrive as a prototype lot before there is a series order: one to fifty boards, built on the production lines with the production inspection rather than on a separate sample line. That is also the cheapest way to find a footprint, clearance or test-access problem.
- Prototype and pilot — MOQ 1 pc, fastest 1–3 days, and 2 working days expedited at a premium.
- Series production — medium volume in 4–10 days, quoted from the data package for the actual quantity.
- Assembly and box build — the populated board, harness and enclosure can leave as one part.
Once the first article is approved, the stack-up, finish and placement programme carry into volume, so the series order is not a second development project.
What engineering changes on the line
The faults that stop an automotive build are rarely electrical. They are a pad that cannot hold a fine-pitch part next to a heavy-copper bus, a connector orientation that will not wave solder, a part on the BOM that becomes obsolete between prototype and series, or a panel that wastes half its area because the assembly outline was drawn for a different board. DFM, DFA and DFT review look for those before quotation, and the reply comes from the engineer who priced the job.
On the line, the checks that matter are the ones that leave a record: SPI before placement, AOI on both sides after reflow, X-ray on hidden joints, first-article inspection against the CAD data, and 100 % electrical test before packing. BGA rework and re-balling are done in-house and re-checked by X-ray, so a reworked joint does not leave without an image.
Records, confidentiality and visits
Because fabrication and assembly share one plant, a single lot record covers the bare board, the material batch and the assembled unit without a supplier handover where responsibility changes hands. The certificates behind that record — IATF 16949:2016, ISO 9001:2015, ISO 13485:2016, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and UL file E354070 — are scanned on the certifications page, and the inspection sequence is described on quality assurance.
Programmes that cannot share drawings openly can work under a mutual NDA from the first exchange, and a visit to the Shenzhen or Meizhou plant can be arranged around the processes the programme would use. Payment is by bank transfer (T/T), with goods quoted EXW Shenzhen or DDP.
Next step
Send the Gerber set, the BOM and pick-and-place file if assembly is included, the annual quantity and the target date; a complete package is quoted within 24 to 48 hours. Board families used in vehicle work have their own pages — heavy copper, high-frequency, rigid-flex and aluminium metal-core — and turnkey assembly covers the build after the board. Lighting sections are covered under LED lighting PCBs, the rest of the industries we serve are on the industries page, and a quote can be requested on the contact page.
