BANNOCKBURN, IL — A new automotive addendum to the industry standard for printed circuit board qualification addresses the reliability of boards that must survive vibration and thermal cycling environments of automotive applications.

IPC-6012DA, "Automotive Applications Addendum to IPC-6012D Qualification and Performance Specification for Rigid Printed Boards," identifies automotive performance classes, recommendations for sustainability and reliability testing identification, and solder mask thickness coverage over conductors, planes, and adjacent surface mount devices.

The addendum also provides requirements for hole size, hole pattern accuracy, and pattern feature accuracy requirements.       

The addendum is the first to specifically address automotive requirements.

“This is an important step toward a standardized level in a complicated field of suppliers and demands,” said Jan Pedersen, chairman of the IPC-6012DA Automotive Addendum to IPC-6012D committee and senior technical advisor at Elmatica. “IPC-6012DA addresses the specific requirements and parameters for building and supplying printed circuit boards for the automotive industry, which are not covered in the base standard IPC-6012D.”

Later this year, a task group will be established to prepare the standard for the medical sector.