Safety electronics in cars, an application with NEW reliability problems

摘要

The number of accidents, with fatal consequences for people are incre asing every year, in spite of the fact that cars are being safer. In order to reduce accidents and save life, a new type of safety electronics are designed into the cars. This is Radar and Camera systems (both visual and IR) working together to detect people and animals and prevent collisions. Common for these type of system are that the electronics are placed into plastic houses. This cause problems in qualification of new products, as it can take long time (year) to qualify a new product. For such products in mounted cars it can take very long time, up to several years, until humldity and corrosive gases have permeated through the plastic materials and caused failures to the electronics. This is a serious problem as this kind of electronics effect the safety of the car. Therefore, legal and economical problem can be the result for both the car manufacturer and the electronic system manufacturer. Typical failure modes are discussed. One solution to the problem, which can be applied in different manufacturing steps of the electronic system, depend on the use of ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition), a Finnish invention, which in my opinion can make a revolution in the reliability of electronics in harsh environments.