Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1350598
16 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2021 Matties: e big issue is the recharge cycle time, right? You can pull into a fuel station and fill up your car in about three or four minutes, but for me to fully charge my e-bike, it takes seven hours. Klein: Yes. I agree the charging times are essen- tial and here big progress was made. e es- sential point is that the infrastructure for these charging stations has to be provided. Here in Germany at the moment, hybrid cars are very popular because they combine the electrical drive in the city and the conventional combus- tion drive—in the future perhaps with synthet- ic fuels—on the highway. We at Bosch are ap- plying IoT principles to this challenge with so- lutions like Battery in the Cloud to help im- prove performance and service life. Matties: You were mentioning synthetic fuel, what's the reality of that, do you think? Klein: Achieving climate targets calls for more than electro mobility. Bosch is committed to the use of renewable and synthetic fuels so that the existing vehicle fleet can also make a sig- nificant contribution to reducing CO₂. e se- cret lies in synthetic, or carbon-neutral, fuels, whose manufacturing process captures CO₂. e greenhouse gas thus becomes a raw mate- rial and can be used to produce gasoline, die- sel, or gas with the help of renewably generat- ed electricity. Matties: Are you manufacturing your own bat- teries as well under your brand? Klein: For Bosch, it's important to have a technical understanding of cells. Howev- er, in-house cell manufacturing is not deci- sive for our success in the field of electro mo- bility. Bosch is relying on its systems exper- tise and the development and manufacture of key components of the electrical powertrain, such as the electric motor, power electronics, and battery systems. Johnson: Christian, is there anything technical- ly that concerns you as an engineer in the auto- motive and transportation space? Klein: From a quality point of view the big- gest challenge is the high voltage in combi- nation with humidity in the cars as this can happen in a tropic climate. We really have to avoid malfunctioning or creeping currents. We have to think about electronics as a sys- tem because the PCB will not solve it by itself. As an example, we have to be very careful in combining fine pitch components like QFP04 with high voltages on neighboring pins. e electrochemical interaction between other materials is a relevant factor as well. We need these materials as thermal interface for cool- ing the electronics. We see new high voltage effects at high humidity. Perhaps you know the standard 85°C/85 relative humidity test. It is not really field relevant, but it is used in the market as an indicator test. If we com- bine this test with 1,000 volts, sometimes we see new effects and we have to avoid them. is will be one of the biggest challenges in e-mobility. Johnson: Great. ank you, Christian. is has been very informative. Matties: ank you so much, Christian. Klein: ank you for the interesting talk. PCB007 The essential point is that the infrastructure for these charging stations has to be provided.