The wave of smart cars has driven innovation in the PCBA industry, and the demand for high-density interconnected boards has surged
2026-01-14
As the competition in the global smart electric vehicle market enters a fierce stage, its core "brain" and "nervous system", the on-board electronic system, are undergoing an unprecedented upgrade. This trend has directly triggered technological innovation and market demand in the PCBA industry, which is the cornerstone of its hardware. Recently, the financial reports and industry reports of a number of leading PCBA manufacturers have shown that the number of high-end PCBA orders used in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), intelligent cockpits, domain controllers and other fields has surged by more than 40% year-on-year, and the industry has ushered in a new round of development.
Unlike consumer PCBA, automotive electronics, especially PCBA requirements for intelligent driving-related components, are extremely stringent. "It's not just about simple circuit assembly, it's about the ultimate quest for high reliability, ultra-miniaturization, superior thermal management, and signal integrity." The technical director of industry-leading Schindler Precision Circuit Technology Co., Ltd. said at a recent industry forum. He pointed out that the current mainstream ADAS domain controller PCBA generally adopts advanced processes such as arbitrary layer HDI (high-density interconnection) boards, thick copper power boards and embedded components, and the line width and line spacing have been precise to less than 50 microns to meet the needs of massive data processing and high-speed transmission.
The surge in market demand has also brought about deep changes in the supply chain. The traditional low-cost consumer electronics PCBA production capacity is partially shifting to high-value fields such as automotive electronics. However, the threshold for this transformation is extremely high. Automotive-grade PCBA must pass IATF 16949 quality system certification and meet AEC-Q100 and other series of reliability standards, and put forward military-grade requirements for the cleanliness of the production environment, process traceability, and raw material selection. Domestic listed companies such as Shennan Circuit and Jingwang Electronics have made advance layouts to increase capital investment in high-end automotive PCB and SMT (surface mount technology) production lines.
At the same time, the technical challenges are also prominent. The integration of smart automotive electronic components is getting higher and higher, resulting in smaller chip spacing, greater power consumption, and heat dissipation problems on PCBA. How to solve electromagnetic interference (EMI) under high-density wiring and ensure stable operation in the extreme temperature range of -40°C to 125°C has become a technical fortress that all suppliers must overcome. Some manufacturers have begun to introduce PCBA technology for 3D packaging and active resin copper foil (RCC) materials to seek breakthroughs.
This PCBA industry upgrade driven by smart cars has not only brought a huge blue ocean of profits to supply chain enterprises, but is also reshaping the competitive landscape in the global electronics manufacturing field, and technological leadership and quality reliability have become the core keys to competing for the future.
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