Considerations for the Contact Interface in Tomorrow's Automotive Electronics

Increasing customer demand for higher levels of quality and reliability presents new challenges for automobile manufacturers and their suppliers alike, if they're to remain competitive.

Being competitive requires that the capabilities of every component employed in producing the end product efficiently and effectively ensures customer satisfaction.

This paper presents an approach for determining whether or not a component (i.e. the electrical connection) is capable of satisfying the requirements for a successful end product. Furthermore, this determination can be made during the design phase of a project.

The content follows the thought process that might be involved in making such a determination, and can be grouped as follows:

1. 1
   Identifying the challenge, describing a cooperative strategy between the user and supplier of the part or product, and considering applicable principles that are useful in determining a successful product;
2. 2
   Material selection considerations, establishing boundary conditions of operation, determining the limits, and evaluating the product capability based on these boundary limits; and
3. 3
   Considering implementation factors based on a performance related capability index, Cpk.