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One of the most evident trends in automotive sector is miniaturization. It is related to considerable benefits due to the potential of mass reduction, cost reduction and efficiency improvement. It involves many different automobile components and most of them are facing challenges to achieve the targets defined by car makers and final consumers. Specifically for wiring harness, it seems to be many manufacturing and process challenges to be surpassed in order to fully perceive the benefits expected with miniaturization, internally and externally. So this article aims to present an overview of literature as well as reporting of experts on this issue mentioning some of the challenges that global automotive wiring harness manufacturers are facing. Subjects as assembly automation, terminal connection and small gauge cables are discussed in the article and also a general overview of how those problems are being addressed in order to meet customer requirements.

The development of an analytical model for multilayer stack subjected to temperature change is demonstrated here. Thin continuous layers of materials bonded together deform as a plate due to their differing coefficients of thermal expansion upon subjecting the bonded materials to the change in temperature. Applications of such structures can be found in the electronics industry (the study of warpage issues in printed circuit boards) or in the aerospace industry as (the study of laminated thin sheets used as skin structures for load bearing members such as wings and fuselage). In automotive electronics, critical high-power packages (IGBT, Power FETs) include several layers of widely differing materials (aluminum, solder, copper, ceramics) subjected to wide temperature cyclic ranges. Modeling of such structures by using three-dimensional finite element methods is usually time consuming and may not exactly predict the inter-laminar strains.

Miniaturization is an important trend in many technology segments, once it can enable innovative applications generating new markets. This trend was begun in electronics industry after World War II and has spawned changes into automotive sector also. For Automotive Wiring Harness, miniaturization is clearly presented in most of the components, mainly because of its benefits like the potential of mass reduction, cost reduction and efficiency improvement. Furthermore the main voice of customer points to cable gauge reduction that represents a considerable challenge for connection manufacturing process due to quality control limitations presented by conventional crimp process for 0,35 [mm₂] cables and smaller. According to that, the scope of this article is to present, in details, a manufacturing process optimization for an alternative and more robust technology of joining copper stranded cables to tin brass terminals used on automotive wiring harness, Resistance Welding.

Bond wires are used in automotive electronic modules to carry current from external harness to components where flexibility under thermal cyclic loading is very essential between PCB (Printed Circuit Board) and connectors. They are very thin wires (few μm) made up of gold, aluminum or copper and have to undergo mechanical reliability to withstand extreme mechanical and thermal loads during different vehicle operation scenarios. Thermal reliability of bond wire is to make sure that it can withstand prescribed electric current under given boundary conditions without fusing thereby retaining electronic module's functionality. While carrying current, bond wire by virtue of its nature resists electric current flow and generates heat also called as joule heating. Joule heating is proportional to current flow and electrical resistance and if not handled properly can lead to thermal run away conditions.