Industries · Automotive & EV
Assembly for BMS, traction inverter, motor-drive, DC-DC, PDU, ADAS and onboard-charger boards. Our IATF 16949:2016 registration scope reads Manufacturing of Circuit Board Components, and the permitted exclusion for product design is declared — we do not take design responsibility. Components are controlled to AEC-Q100 for ICs, AEC-Q101 for discretes and AEC-Q200 for passives under approved-manufacturer control. PPAP Level 3 is submitted when you do not specify a level; Cpk ≥1.33 is the minimum and ≥1.67 applies to critical and safety-regulatory characteristics, with gauge R&R below 10%. Those are your PPAP acceptance criteria, not a factory index we publish. Assembly lead time ex-components.
Judged against
These are the numbers your quality team will test us against before price is discussed. The first three are your acceptance criteria applied to our process data; the fourth is the component qualification ladder.
Applied when the customer does not specify a level: part submission warrant, samples and complete supporting data.
Minimum for significant characteristics, and the higher threshold for critical or safety-regulatory characteristics. Capability is calculated per characteristic and per project.
Measurement-system variation limit; above 30% the capability data itself is treated as invalid.
Grade 1 covers −40…+125 °C and Grade 0 extends to −40…+150 °C; AEC-Q101 covers discretes and AEC-Q200 passives.
Supplier approval
Automotive approval is a document audit before it is a factory visit. This table sets out what each gate asks for and the scope, parameter or record we answer it with — including the entries where the honest answer is a process rather than a number.
| Gate | What the buyer specifies | VOLTCIRCUIT scope |
|---|---|---|
| System scopeRegistration, not a product certificate | IATF 16949 registration whose scope names circuit board components, with the design exclusion declared | IATF 16949:2016 certified since 2024, scope Manufacturing of Circuit Board Components, with product design declared as a permitted exclusion. We assemble to your design and take no design responsibility. |
| PPAP submission | A defined submission level with the supporting documentation set, usually Level 3 unless specified otherwise | Level 3 submitted by default — part submission warrant, samples and complete supporting data. Higher or lower levels are quoted on request, and capability is calculated per characteristic rather than published as a single plant-wide figure. |
| Component and manufacturer control | AEC-Q qualified parts under approved-manufacturer control, with no unapproved substitution | AEC-Q100 for ICs, AEC-Q101 for discretes and AEC-Q200 for passives, sourced against your approved vendor list. No automatic substitution: every alternate is compared on datasheet parameters and needs your written approval. |
| Failure response | An 8D channel with defined containment and root-cause timing for 0-km and field failures | A 24-hour containment and 10-day root-cause expectation is the usual industry timing and we plan the channel around it; those intervals are stated as typical practice, not as a contractual commitment. Traceability lets a suspect lot be isolated fast. |
| Traceability and data retention | Lot or serial traceability plus retained inspection and process data for the production life of the part | Lot-level traceability on every shipment, SPI and AOI data retained per build, and first-article inspection reports carrying the acceptance criteria applied. The buyer audit right is written into the quality agreement. |
| Temperature and power assembly | Assemblies qualified for −40…+125 °C cycling with heavy-copper, high-current joints | Assembly qualified for temperature cycling at −40…+125 °C with AEC-Q graded components; heavy-copper boards sourced from audited partner fabs with incoming inspection and full lot traceability, assembled with robotic selective soldering and void criteria to IPC-7095. |
What failure costs
Automotive is the vertical where the paperwork is easiest to justify with money. The numbers below explain why a Tier 1 will spend months on a PPAP file for a board that costs less than the documentation.
A Level 3 submission bundles a part submission warrant, samples and the complete supporting data set. The work sits in dimensional and functional results, process flow, FMEA, control plan and measurement-system studies — and every one of those documents has to be current for the revision you are buying.
Capability is a per-characteristic calculation against your print, and it is only valid if the measurement system behind it holds. Gauge R&R above 10% weakens the result and above 30% invalidates it, which is why the measurement study is reviewed before the capability number is accepted. We calculate capability per characteristic and submit the data rather than publishing a plant-wide figure.
When a 0-km or field failure appears, the clock starts immediately: containment is expected within roughly 24 hours and root cause within about 10 days. That timing only works when the suspect population can be identified from production records, so traceability depth is set by the 8D requirement rather than by preference.
Grade 1 covers −40…+125 °C and Grade 0 −40…+150 °C, which pulls the whole component selection and the coating chemistry with it: silicone systems rated to +200 °C are common where a standard acrylic coating would not survive the mission profile. Cycling from −40…+125 °C also stresses solder joints and laminate far harder than a consumer profile.
Warranty claims paid worldwide in 2022 reached USD 43.1bn at a 2.1% claims rate, with roughly USD 670 accrued per vehicle sold. A supplier whose process drifts quietly is contributing to that accrual long before the first claim arrives, which is why retained process data matters more than a passing audit.
The widely repeated line-stoppage number — about USD 10,000 per minute — is vendor-published and is an industry illustration, not a standard requirement and not a target we are measured against. It is useful only as context for why a containment report is expected inside a day rather than inside a week.
From your files to volume release
Every step below ends in a deliverable you sign off. Nothing moves to the next milestone on our own authority.
Gerbers, BOM and assembly drawings are reviewed for land pattern mismatches, solder-mask bridges, via treatment, panel process edges and component spacing. A first-round DFM report is returned within 24 hours on prototype boards.
Laser-cut stainless stencils with nanocoatings and an area ratio of at least 0.66 for fine-pitch work, plus ICT or functional-test fixture design where the programme calls for it. Fixture NRE is quoted separately and approved before build.
An FAI report containing SPI and AOI data alongside the visual acceptance criteria applied to the assembly, so the first article is evidence rather than a sample you have to interpret.
A small production run with process parameters frozen: stencil, print settings, reflow profile, selective-solder programme and inspection limits. The pilot is what the PPAP submission is built from.
Level 3 by default where the customer does not specify otherwise: part submission warrant, samples and complete supporting data. Capability data is supplied per characteristic against your print.
Production runs against the frozen process with retained records, and the 8D channel stays open — a typical 24-hour containment and 10-day root cause expectation applies to any 0-km or field failure.
Power board assembly
Heavy-copper bare boards are sourced from audited partner fabs, with incoming inspection and full lot traceability. We do not operate a bare-board press; our contribution starts at incoming inspection and runs through assembly, soldering and test of the populated board.
Through-hole power joints are filled by robotic selective soldering with a single nozzle, which replaces hand touch-up and keeps thermal load away from adjacent surface-mount devices. Board thickness spans 0.4–4.0 mm, and the assembly supports 3 oz heavy-copper power boards alongside mixed-technology control sections on the same panel.
BGA and thermal-pad voiding is accepted to IPC-7095 criteria — Class 2 at single voids up to 25% of pad area and total voiding up to 40%, Class 3 at 10% and 25%. Conformal coating follows IPC-CC-830 chemistry families, and X-ray coverage is configured per project rather than applied as a blanket rule.
Record
A Nordic EV charging module brand was building a six-layer power board with 3 oz copper, and the through-hole joints on the high-current path were being hand-soldered and reworked. We moved the joints to robotic selective soldering with a programmed nozzle path and per-joint parameters, applied IPC-7095 void acceptance, and fixed the profile per part number so repeat orders reproduce the joint rather than re-approximating it. Board thickness and heavy-copper construction stayed as designed, with the bare boards sourced from an audited partner fab under incoming inspection.
Next step
Include the drawing revision each characteristic refers to, the submission level you expect, and the temperature grade the programme is qualified to. We will confirm the scope we are registered for, the data we can supply per characteristic, and where the design responsibility sits. Assembly lead time ex-components; long-lead semiconductors can add 12–26 weeks.
Reply within one business day
Automotive programmes are quoted from a PPAP Level 3 submission. Volume pricing starts at 100 pcs plus 50 spares for most packages; 0603–2225, SOT, SOD and MELF parts start lower, at 50 pcs plus 30 spares.
Related reading: quality and inspection scope, all six industry pages, and energy and power.