Automotive Electronics Issue-4

ISSUE FOUR 2012

SAFE RElIAblE SEcURE www.automotive-electronics.co.uk

show report

Advanced Automotive Electronics

test & measurement

Mixed-signal oscilloscopes

telematics

Field service management

safety

Adaptive cruise control TRUS T ED S O F TWA RE FO R AUTO M OT I V E E l Ec TROn I cS For 30 years the world’s leading automotive electronics companies have trusted Green Hills Software’s secure and reliable high performance software for safetycritical applications. From chassis and safety to powertrain and interior systems, Green Hills Software has been delivering proven and secure underpinning technology. To find out how the world’s most secure and reliable operating system and software can take the risk out of your automotive electronics project, visit www.ghs.com/s4a

power technologies Battery monitors

Copyright © 2012 Green Hills Software. Green Hills Software and the Green Hills logo are registered trademarks of Green Hills Software. All other product names are trademarks of their respective holders.

PRODUCTS + NEWS + DIARY

CONTENTS 3

26

25

CONTENTS

4 11

News

31

Diary

12 AAE Report

Steve Rogerson reports from November’s Advanced Automotive Electronics conference in Daventry

18 Power Technologies

Steve Rogerson looks at Linear Technology’s claims to have raised the bar for battery monitoring

22 Test & Measurement

Clive Davis, Kelvin Hagebeuk and Hafeez Najumudeen discuss how instruments can evolve to meet the latest automotive challenges

26 Telematics

Mark Forrest talks about how investment in today’s field service management technology can help streamline business processes to lead to long-term efficiency, profitability and customer retention

30 Safety

36 Published by: MT Publications Limited, Prudence Place, Proctor Way, Luton, Bedfordshire LU2 9PE, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1582 722460 Fax: +44 (0)1582 722470 Email: [email protected] Web: www.automotive-electronics.co.uk ISSN: 1749-1819 Editor Steve Rogerson, [email protected] Editorial Contributors: Clive Davis, Kelvin Hagebeuk, Hafeez Najumudeer, Mark Forrest, Siraj Ahmed Shaikh and Padmanabhan Krishan

www.automotive-electronics.co.uk

Siraj Ahmed Shaikh and Padmanabhan Krishnan describe safety analysis carried out for adaptive cruise control

35 Product News Designer Victoria Wren, [email protected] Advertisement Manager David Williams, [email protected] Circulation & Subscription Manager Wendy Magee, [email protected] Accounts & Administration Manager Kim Hughes, [email protected] Publishing Assistant Ruthanne Hornshaw, [email protected]

Automotive Electronics is available to readers in the United Kingdom not meeting the terms of control at an annual rate of £55. The overseas subscription rate is US$130. Automotive Electronics is published six times a year by MT Publications Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of Automotive Electronics may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording on any information storage system without the written consent of the publisher. The publisher cannot be held responsible for loss or damage to unsolicited press releases and/or photographs. Views of contributors and advertisers do not necessarily reflect the policy of Automotive Electronics or those of the publisher. Printed in the UK by Hastings Printing Company Ltd.

Publisher David Williams, [email protected]

issue four 2012 | automotive electronics

4 NEWS

NEWS 5

EU launches e35m driver assist programme

Continental and Freescale team up on 32bit

The European Union’s Artemis joint technology initiative has launched a three-year project to design and develop a tool platform for embedded advanced driver assistance (adas) systems. Started in September, the Deserve project has the backing of car makers Daimler and Volvo. There are a total of 26 companies across nine countries involved in the project, including Bosch. Continental, DSpace, Infineon and NXP. Total investment in the project is expected to be around e35m.

Freescale aimed to strengthen its position in the automotive market with a string of announcements at November’s Electronica show in Munich leading with a quad-core 32bit microcontroller that it has jointly developed with Continental. Aimed at electronic braking systems (EBS) and chassis control, the device contains 4.75Mbyte of flash memory, 256kbyte of sram and Continental’s fail-safe technology, which meets the requirements for ISO26262 Asil D and Sil3 according to IEC61508 applications. “Freescale and Continental have worked together for many years and this is the first device using a fault-tolerant system,”

The project aims to exploit the benefits of cross-domain software reuse, standard interfaces and easy and safe integration of heterogeneous modules to cope with the expected increase in function complexity. A modular system is also better placed for keeping costs down. Partners in the project will be looking to develop reference designs and architectures to create tools that can be engineered with little effort. The design methods and tools will support the introduction of disruptive hardware and software to allow trade-offs

between properties such as cost and robustness. Cost is important because one of the goals of Deserve is to make adas affordable in the low-end car market. “The sharing of software and hardware resources will enable higher levels of complexity to be taken into consideration without a proportional increase in the price of the modules and the vehicle,” said a statement from Deserve. “Fast and significant market penetration will be promoted through relevant cost reductions and Europe’s posi-

Car thieves caught by mesh network Since its launch in March, Tracker’s mesh network has led to the recovery of more than £4m of stolen vehicles. The network uses vehicles fitted with SVR units to identify stolen vehicles also fitted with Tracker. This brings drivers together to create a nationwide network of listening vehicles. “Our latest figures show the success of the Tracker mesh network, with well over £4m of stolen vehicles recovered using this

new vehicle crime detection system,” said Stephen Doran, managing director of Tracker. “Crucially, the Tracker mesh network empowers drivers by allowing their cars to be used as detection devices to help police and Tracker combat vehicle crime.” When a vehicle fitted with Tracker Locate or Plant passes any Tracker SVR equipped vehicle that has been reported stolen, it automatically sends a signal with the location of the stolen

When two is better than one

car – even if it is hidden in a garage, container or underground car park. Both drivers are totally unaware that the stolen vehicle has been identified. “Ninety per cent of stolen cars fitted with Tracker are returned to their owners and 80% of these are recovered within 24 hours,” said Doran. “But with the mesh network’s ever-expanding web, designed to catch car criminals, we hope to recover more vehicles faster than ever.”

This underground car park has provided a good example of how well Aptina’s image coprocessors work in automotive camera applications. The image on the right shows the building as captured using the firm’s AP0100AT image coprocessor and AR0132AT megapixel HDR (high dynamic range) sensor. The sensor performance is improved because the heat is lower when using a separate coprocessor chip. “Our automotive OEMs need to deliver multiple camera products quickly and efficiently,” said David Zimpfer, vice president and general manager for Aptina’s automotive business. “Meeting this challenge, Aptina created an advanced, flexible two-chip solution that combines megapixel resolution sensor support, superior image quality including HDR, and optimal heat dissipation.” The AP0100AT and AP0101AT co-processors provide colour processing, auto-function support, noise reduction and adaptive local tone mapping to enhance HDR images. The AP0101AT is for digital surround view systems and the AP0100AT supports 185˚ fisheye lens distortion correction, perspective correction and multiple view options such as split side view and triptych.

automotive electronics | issue four 2012

tion as a key player in the adas market will be strengthened.” Deserve aims to create a European standard including meta-models, methods and tools for safety-critical hard real-time adas development. It should provide an environment for design, development, pre-validation and even pre-certification of software and hardware for adas applications. The project acknowledges that multi-core architectures will have to play a key role to reach the necessary levels of performance and safety.

Cantata 6.2 shines at AAE QA Systems chose the Advanced Automotive Electronics (AAE) conference and exhibition (see page 12) for its first showing of version 6.2 of its Cantata unit and integration testing tool for C/C++ embedded systems. Including more than 30 separate enhancements and over 40 fixes, Cantata 6.2 has been specifically developed to simplify, further automate and speed up the software testing procedure. Cantata 6.2 is now also available as a complete built-on Eclipse development environment or as a set of Eclipse-ready plug-ins supporting the most recent four Eclipse releases. “Since our acquisition of the Cantata++ product line from IPL in March 2012 and our subsequent rebranding to Cantata, we have been working hard at developing the product to suit the immediate business needs of software developers,” said Andreas Sczepansky, CEO at QA Systems. “Specific industry sectors such as aerospace or transport have very precise standards that absolutely must be met for business critical and safety critical systems, making testing a fundamental activity within any software development.”


Qorivva MPC5777M quad-core MCU

said Ray Cornyn, Freescale’s vice president for automotive microcontrollers. The two firms have collaborated on a custom MCU programme called Quasar (for quad-core microcontroller for automotive safety and reliability) designed to provide the processing intelligence for Continental’s nextgeneration EBS products. The

first device in the family integrates four e200z4 cores based on Power Architecture technology. This is claimed to be the industry’s first quadcore automotive MCU with two pairs of cores in redundant lockstep. “DevelRay Cornyn: “Freescale and Continental have oping a quad- worked together for many years.” core MCU based on Power Architecture technology with fuel saving applications, Xtrinsic this level of integration, redun- pressure sensors for automotive dancy and functionality rede- engine control and green vehifines innovation,” said Cornyn. cle applications, and an Xtrinsic “The resulting device has the radar transmitter for automotive potential to provide unprec- active safety systems. “The MPC5777M is our most edented levels of performance and safety for new generations advanced powertrain controller,” said Cornyn. “We have just of braking systems.” Also announced at Electroni- supplied samples to the first tier ca were the Qorivva MPC5777M ones for engine management use.” quad-core MCU aimed at engine E-OCT12-023-Action:Layout 1 15/10/2012 09:54 Page 1

Graham chooses Masternaut for fleets Masternaut has been selected by Graham Construction, one of Ireland’s largest privately-held building and civil engineering companies, to modernise fleet management processes and deliver increased visibility over vehicle deployment and fuel usage. The telematics provider will install its driver performance products into the fleet of vehicles. Graham anticipates saving at least 5% in fuel costs. “Working with Masternaut will give us much more detailed reporting, fully automated and configured to our needs,” said Karl Teggarty, business manager of Graham Construction. “This will allow us to see where the fuel bill is going – by that I mean which vehicles are using the most fuel, and how driving styles contribute to higher fuel consumption.” The Greener Fleet product can

access data from the vehicle’s Can bus that generates granular data insights into fuel consumption and driver behaviour. Measurements of vehicle depreciation and cost per kilometre are now also available. “Masternaut was selected as part of a competitive pitch process,” said Teggarty. “We carried out a trial period across a sample set of vehicles and were able to achieve significant savings, so we’re really delighted to be rolling it out across the fleet.” The real-time web-based system replaces the need for manual time and mileage sheets – providing more sophisticated and reliable reporting. “Graham is really planning to make the most of the functionality that the product offers and the ability to customise reporting to deliver the insights they need from big data,” said Martin Hiscox, CEO of Masternaut.



6 NEWS

Green Hills and Obigo join forces on web platform Green Hills Software and Obigo, an HTML5 platform company, are working together on products for automotive infotainment and digital instrument manufacturers. Obigo products go into automotive, IPTV and mobile software, web applications and services. The two companies will offer Obigo’s HTML5 web products integrated and optimised for use with the Green Hills Integrity rtos and secure Multivisor virtualisation technology. This will lets automotive infotainment and digital instrument manufacturers bring scalable, graphics-rich products to market rapidly and with high levels of security. With more than 800 million units fielded in the mobile industry since 1998 and licensed for use in the commercial automobile market since 2001, Obigo brings the browser market to Green Hills’

Green Hills and Obigo are working together on web applications for the car

customers. The HTML5 platform consists of an HTML5 browser, web runtime, web applications and device API extensions. “When combining Obigo’s product breadth and experience

Keeping track around the world

with the Green Hills Platform for Digital Instruments, developers are enabled to design the most scalable vehicle HMI solutions while delivering the highest performance, security and reliabil-

More than 50,000 people around the world logged on to monitor the progress of Mike Perham, the youngest person to circumnavigate the world alone by land. From July to October, the 20-year-old travelled more than 37,000km across 20 countries to raise money for disaster relief charity Shelterbox. Leeds-based vehicle tracking company Remote Asset Management (Ram) provided the tracking kit for this feat, allowing thousands to log on and use real-time monitoring to keep up to date with Perham’s progress minute by minute. During one moment on his trip, he was stuck in Alaska at -20˚C, at which point both his watch and mobile failed and his car battery froze solid. The vehicle tracking device remained working, ensuring family and friends knew he was still moving and safe. “It has been an absolute pleasure to support Mike as he embarked on this world’s first,” said James Taylor (standing) from Ram. “Being part of something like this is brilliant and knowing we were playing an active part in not only Mike’s safety, but also the joy of others tracking his progress was fantastic.”


ity,” said Dan Mender, vice president of business development for Green Hills Software. Obigo has extended its web offering to include automotivecentric device APIs that facilitate secure data sharing and control of vehicle diagnostic, sensor data and more over HTTP. The browser and web runtime, when combined with Integrity, deliver what is claimed to be the industry’s first automotive-grade secured HTML5 web platform, providing secured device API access. When combined with Multivisor, the platform can be used as an HMI rendering engine that allows use of the same HMI engine in a guest os-agnostic manner. “Obigo is pleased to be integrated with Green Hills’ industry-leading product offerings currently in use by the demanding automotive marketplace,” said Obigo president David Hwang. “We are excited to see this partnership address the difficult challenges around designing for maximum platform scalability, security and reliability while delivering next-generation, advanced HMI solutions to the car.” • Green Hills has announced the availability of an Autosar compatible API for the Integrity rtos.


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8 NEWS

NEWS 9

Eris targets automotive for diodes expansion Taiwanese company Eris Technology has made its first tentative steps into the automotive market for its diode products following the company receiving ISO/TS16949 certification last year. Currently, only 1% of its output goes into automotive but it is targeting tier one companies in south-east Asia for its products, which, according to executive vice president Vincent Chiang, are a good fit for infotainment systems. “We are just at the beginning for automotive,” said Chiang at October’s Taitronics electronics exhibition in Taipei. “We are

He said his company had not set clear targets for how the automotive market would expand during the next two years. “You need to spend a very long time to get accepted, so it is hard to set targets,” he said. “You can spend one to two years just to get one part number accepted.” He said expanding in Korea would be the first step followed by Taiwan and China. Vincent Chiang: “You need to spend a very “Then Japan will be a few long time to get accepted.” years later because it is so difselling to a Korean company, but ficult,” he said. Asked whether it was worth we don’t exactly know what it is being used in but probably a car the effort, he replied: “When you get into automotive, it is camera and video system.”

not easy to be displaced, so it becomes very stable. Also, the profit is much higher than in the consumer market. A diode is a very small part of a car so they don’t mind spending a small amount more for quality.” Two of the company’s products launched at the show were aimed specifically at the automotive market. The DO-221AC is for automotive and LED lighting while the TO-220SG is primarily for power supply applications but can also be used in automotive. The firm was established in 1995 and has factories in Taiwan and Shanghai.

Power battle Audi and NXP form strategic partnership fo trucks Audi and NXP Semiconductors Enocean is hoping its energy harvesting technology will win the day over solar power for a wireless warning sys- John Corbett: “It tem being de- may go one way or another.” veloped in the UK for trucks. The system will alert the driver of faulty bulbs anywhere on the truck, but the company developing the technology hasn’t decided which technology to use to power the system. “As the truck bumps along, you get vibrations to give enough power to give a signal,” said John Corbett, Enocean’s sales director, at the recent Electronica exhibition in Munich. “This is still in development and they may go for solar power. It may go one way or another.” He said it would be about nine months before the system would be on the market and thus couldn’t name the company carrying out the development. He also said a company was looking at the technology for on-off switches in non-commercial domestic vehicles.

have signed a strategic partnership focussing on automotive electronics application segments ranging from in-vehicle networking and car entertainment, to emerging technologies for the connected car. This includes carto-X communications, telematics, near field communications and high-voltage controls for electrical vehicles. “The partnership is another milestone in our progressive semiconductor programme (PSCP) and underscores the mutual trust that both corporations have built over many years,” said Ricky Hudi, chief executive engineer for electrics and electronics at Audi. “In addition, NXP’s strategy to provide the electronic interfaces for the connected car is smart and gives clear indications for Audi’s future plans.” The PSCP is a semiconductor strategy aimed at intensifying the role of semiconductor companies in the processes of the German car manufacturer. “It’s a real honour to serve as a strategic innovation partner to Audi in the premium car market, and is a testament to the industry recognising NXP’s excellent


Influx cuts data logger prices Influx Technologies is hoping that the price of its Rebel LT data logger will make it popular with large fleets despite its reduced functionality. The company is selling it at around the £1000 mark, which it says is at least 50% cheaper than many high-end models. These include products from the likes of Etas and Vector. But it has achieved this by reducing the number of features compared with its existing Rebel XT product. “The idea is that it will be more affordable for those with large fleets,” said Lance Keen, Influx director, at the Advanced Engineering show in Birmingham in November. “These are traditionally a lot more expensive.” The reduced cost has been achieved by lowering the IP rating and making the product

Lance Keen with the Rebel LT

less robust. “There is also no on-device display,” said Keen. “It is also slower than our high-end model.” But he said the two data loggers used the same software and set-up techniques. “But if you want more data and higher speeds, then use the high-end data logger,” he said.

TT helps Mercedes develop kers for S Class

Ricky Hudi (left) and Kurt Sievers

customer support, commitment to deliver top quality solutions and above all our innovation power,” said Kurt Sievers, general manager for NXP’s automotive business. “Our strong collaboration with Audi reinforces that NXP’s focus on technologies for the connected car is spot on with where the industry is going.” • Harman has started deliveries

of its latest-generation automotive infotainment system to Audi. The MMI Navigation Plus platform is a fully integrated infotainment unit to facilitate high-quality playback of diverse music and video files through seamless connectivity via such devices as IPod, hard disk drive, smart phones and USB devices. The system will premiere aboard the 2013 Audi A3.


The Mercedes S Class will be one of the first vehicles to use a derivative of the kers energy recovery technology used in Formula One cars. The German car maker is working with TT Electronics to develop a version that is viable for commercial cars. “We need to make it lighter and smaller, and we have to condense it without using the expensive technologies of a Formula One vehicle,” said David Winter, TT’s vice president of global sales, at the Electronica exhibition in Munich. “We have built up the knowledge to work on this.” He said the company had been working on Formula One vehicles and he said it could use that experience of working in such a quickly developing market. “We worked on Formula One and we have to look at how to commercialise that product going forward,” he said. “We are

in discussions with companies about that.” The company is also launching a range of resistors for automotive ap- David Winter: “We plications to have to look at how offer protection to commercialise that product.” against surges if the battery is disconnected. “The challenges in the hybrid vehicle market can be summed up with the word ‘power’,” he said. “We have resistors in these vehicles and we are looking at how we can put our power modules in there. This is about reliability and high temperature operation. You don’t want to have to repair things. It is a challenging environment.” He said it would probably be about 18 months before the company had power modules ready for these applications.



NEWS 11

Micrel continues attack on Most Blocks aid

Fleet manager moves to buses

Micrel continued its attack on the Most connectivity standard during the Electronica show in Munich in November. The company has recently joined forces with Marvell to push Ethernet as the best network for incar communications (AE, issue three, 2012), but it knows first it has to break the hold of Most. “Most is an open standard with a single source,” said Micrel’s senior product manager Mike Jones at the show. “Price, bandwidth and power savings have not been delivered. Without competition, the rate of change is slower.”

After six years of successful operation on trucks, Magic Internet Technologies is moving its internet based fleet management system over to the bus market. And after trials with Cumfybus in Merseyside and Airporter in Derry, the company officially launched the system – called Busfile – at the Eurobus show in Birmingham in November. The previous Truckfile product was introduced in 2006, has 11,000 users and has been installed on around 110,000 commercial vehicles. “We have now moved into the bus market,” said Paul Whittingham, marketing manager. “We have done one in Northern Ireland and one in Liverpool and we are talking with a lot more.” The system lets fleet operators scan in legal documents such as MoTs and safety certificates and produces a document timeline so the user can see all relevant documents for a particular vehicle on a particular date. “The history is kept for the life of the vehicle,” said Whittingham. “If you have internal workshops, you can set up workshop schedules

Mike Jones: “Without competition, the rate of change is slower.”

The company makes power management and networking products, which it says go well together in the likes of IP cameras. Key to this is its ripple

blocker technology that can be used to block noise. “The sensor guys get excited about our ripple blocker because it reduces the noise,” said Jones. “The main area is automotive; that is a key market for us.” He said that going forward cars were going to be covered with cameras, not just for rear view but for detecting road markings, signs, people, objects and so on. “When you start networking these, Ethernet is the de facto for networking,” he said. “You need bandwidth. You don’t want compression.”

McLaren lands Formula E contract

What the Formula E cars will look like

McLaren Electronic Systems is to provide the electric engine, transmission and electronics for cars that will participate in the FIA’s new Formula E series. McLaren will be a partner of Spark Racing Technology, which is led by Frédéric Vasseur and is dedicated to the creation and assembly of the electric cars participating in Formula E. McLaren and Spark will work together to design and assemble the electric cars, which will soon be racing around cities across the globe. “I’m a passionate believer in the role that motorsport can play

in showcasing and spearheading the development of future technologies, and regard the Formula E concept as an exciting innovation for global motorsport,” said Martin Whitmarsh, CEO of the McLaren Group. “McLaren has worked with Frédéric Vasseur for many years, and our association has been very successful.” The Formula E Championship will be launched in 2014. It will only use electric powered cars, will run exclusively in major international cities and has the assets needed to reach a worldwide audience. As well as being


application search Mouser Electronics has added four block diagrams to its automotive applications web site. These should help design engineers find the latest automotive advancements. They can source product information via block diagram navigation, and pinpoint the technical resources. The site also has some of the latest products from manufacturers such as Texas Instruments, Murata, Molex, ST Microelectronics and Infineon. The four application diagrams cover braking systems (ABS), electric power steering, central body control and seat control. This is in addition to its focus of covering the instrument cluster, rear vision systems, keyless entry, plus other industry news and technical resources. The block diagram navigation and streamlined graphical interface is designed to speed navigation. Combined with the featured products section, engineers can quickly steer themselves to products and information based on defined parameters and engineering standards – all centred on automotivespecific design needs. Engineers can review application notes, white papers and videos, as well as automotive-ready products. To learn more, visit www. mouser.com/automotive-applications.

an urban race series, it will facilitate the development of electric car technology that could one day be used in mainstream road cars. “I am proud and happy to give birth to this project that is innovative and extremely rewarding for a company both technically and philosophically,” said Vasseur. “Personally, I can write a new chapter, regardless of my other ventures in motorsport. Confidence and commitment from our partner McLaren is a guarantee of quality and reliability without which this project Central body control application would not have been possible.” block diagram


8th-11th January 2013 Las Vegas, USA www.cesweb.org

Autosport International 10th-13th January 2013 Birmingham, UK www.autosportinternational.com

North American International Auto Show 16th-27th January 2013 Detroit, USA www.naias.com

Automotive World Paul Whittingham demonstrates how Busfile works

and email alerts.” A compliance management feature can be used to prove all the maintenance has been done at a set time. An option is an electronic check system for drivers. “Some drivers just sit in their cabins and tick boxes,” said Whittingham. “This system means they have to get up and walk round the vehicle.” The driver has to scan in QR codes situated around the vehicle and then answer on a handheld device various safety questions related to that location. “If the driver finds a defect, that

will send an email alert to the main system,” he said. “It will stay there until it has been dealt with. It can also be pushed direct to the workshop.” Penny Lyon, managing director of Cumfybus, said: “The comprehensive workshop system manages our scheduling and maintenance compliance, and we have introduced the driver’s walk around check to manage the driver’s first use inspection. As a management team, we can instantly see the checks as they are completed and can rectify defects efficiently, saving downtime.”

man car manufacturers. The hardware security module has its own sub-CPU core that manages a symmetric AES-128 cryptographic engine along with other security elements. As a result, it provides security and tamper resistance without consuming host microcontroller CPU resources. “Our TSM will help the automotive industry prevent intellectual property theft or manipulation, which is a significant threat as an increasing proportion of innovations in new car models are now software based,” said Klaus Neuenhueskes of Toshiba Electronics. “Moreover, the strong security afforded by our She-compliant TSM will protect car owners against abuses such as tampering with odometer set-


16th-18th January 2013 Tokyo, Japan www.automotiveworld.jp

V2X for Auto Safety & Mobility

20th-21st February 2013 Frankfurt, Germany telematicsupdate.com/v2xeurope

Advanced Battery Development 26th-27th February 2013 Aachen, Germany www.battery-power.eu

Embedded World 26th-28th February 2013 Nuremberg, Germany www.embedded-world.de

Geneva International Motor Show

Toshiba plans security update Toshiba Electronics has designed a security module for automotive microcontrollers, which is said to meet standards aimed at protecting vehicle electronics against hacking, tampering and software IP theft. The TSM module was developed at the company’s Eldec European automotive LSI development centre n Düsseldorf, and will be built into future generations of the company’s automotive microcontrollers, with the first expected to be sampling as early as spring next year. The module’s firmware is, as a first release step, compliant with the Secure Hardware Extension (She) version 1.1 specification of the Herstellerinitiative Software (HIS), a technical collaboration between five Ger-

Consumer Electronics Show

diary dates

10 NEWS

tings, or sub-standard servicing by unqualified agents.” The company plans to implement it in future variants of its automotive microcontrollers based on the Arm Cortex processor architecture, and will release software libraries to support the devices. Future updates compliant with upcoming standards (for example, in accordance with Evita Medium requirements) including TSM firmware updates are planned. The related software libraries for the main microcontroller CPU will enable developers to design in accordance with the latest version of the automotive industry’s common software infrastructure promoting modularity, scalability, transferability and re-usability.

7th-17th March 2013 Geneva www.salon-auto.ch

Commercial Vehicle Show 9th-11th April 2013 Birmingham, UK www.cvshow.com

Autotronics

10th-13th April 2013 Taipei, Taiwan www.taipeiampa.com.tw

Most Forum

23 April 2013 Stuttgart, Germany www.mostforum.com

Global Automotive Components & Suppliers 4th-6th June 2013 Stuttgart, Germany www.globalautomotivecomponentsand suppliersexpo.com


12

13 AAE 2012 was held at the Daventry Court Hotel

Ian Riches: “If a car never crashes, it can be made out of paper.”

Steve Rogerson reports from November’s Advanced Automotive Electronics conference in Daventry

Market showing steady growth despite problems in Europe Despite a somewhat gloomy picture in Europe, the market for automotive electronics is continuing with an overall steady growth, according to Ian Riches, director of global automotive practice at Strategy Analytics. “There has been quite steady growth in automotive electronics, and that will continue,” he told delegates. One of the key drivers, however, is the number of cars being produced, and here the outlook has been worsening over the past year, with the situation in Europe particularly bad. This is being countered by the growth in the amount of electronics per vehicle. “But the content per car average could be flattening off,” he said. “This is because of production transferring to India and China where the content of electronics tends to be lower. This is dragging down the global average.” At the moment, he said, the market for automotive electronics was growing at about 10 to 20% per year worldwide.

In Europe, this growth was only 5%, with the UK bucking the trend slightly with a growth of 10%. “Automotive electronics is a growing market, but Europe is a back water,” he said. “It is the weakest region. But the emerging markets are more fragmented.” As to car types, he the said the fastest growth in electronics was in the smaller vehicles. This was particularly noticeable in India where production of small cars was increasing rapidly. Other fast growth areas, unsurprisingly, are hybrid and electric vehicles, plus the trend towards advanced driver assistance systems (adas). The problem with the HEV and EV market though is the lack of a large number of players. Toyota, for example, is responsible for 70% of the market, and even though that is shrinking as more car makers take the plunge, Riches predicted that even by 2019 it would still have 25%. “There is very big market potential in HEV and EV,” he said, “but it is a tricky market


to get into with huge investment from a relatively small number of players.” Connectivity requirements are growing with people wanting to connect their smart phone with the car, but navigation systems, once a fast growth area, have stalled. “The days of £2000 navigation systems have gone,” said Riches. “People now either expect navigation as a standard fit, or use their phones, or buy a £100 Tomtom system.” The news from the USA of some states allowing a degree of autonomous driving, albeit always with a human in overall control, has led to speculation as to whether this will take off in a big way. “Fully autonomous vehicles will take many years to mature,” said Riches. “But humans are becoming more willing to hand over parts of the control to the car. Cruise control has become accepted and it will grow as more autonomous features become available. The first autonomous system was parking and that is becoming more sophisticated.

We are seeing more steps in this direction but it won’t be an overnight thing.” The Euro NCap rating could start to play a major role in this, he said, as the indications are that within a few years cars will have to have some form autonomous braking system if they are to get the full five stars. These types of driver assistance were one of the fastest growth areas, he said, and features such as cruise control were moving from premium brands into more cheaper cars. Here, though, some are levelling off the cost of making the car by making structural savings. “If a car never crashes,” said Riches, “it can be made out of paper. The structural aspects become less important.” However, conference chair Elias Stipidis, director of the vetronics research centre at Brighton University, asked whether extra safety systems could have the opposite effect to what was intended. “These increase safety to a certain extent,” he said. “But


Elias Stipidis: “These increase safety to a certain extent,”

if these sensors bombard the driver with all this information, does the driver spend more time looking at this information and thus damage the safety?” Philip Clarke, business manager for DSpace, said it was a matter of how this information was presented to the driver. “Is it giving the driver raw data or making it more intuitive?” he said. “The driver is processing enough raw data from looking out of the window. It is possible to misinterpret a complex image. It is a question of how the ECU interprets the information and presents it to the driver.” An alternative problem is that if there is too much autonomous control, the driver may lose concentration because he or she starts to think the car can handle any situation. This is a problem that airlines have already come across. “On long-distance airlines, they are finding that the pilots are going to sleep because all the senor information is being handled automatically,” said Chris Hills, CTO of Phaedrus Systems. “Could this happen with car drivers? Will the driver start fading out the information?” Head-up displays are one way to help in that the driver can see the information from the car while still being focussed on the road. “But your brain still has to process a lot of information,” said Clarke. This raises the question of how to design a system that can suit all drivers with such a vast difference in skills and

Philip Clarke: “Your brain still has to process a lot of information.”

concentration levels. “It is important to understand the impact of new technology on drivers,” said Mark Fowkes, senior engineer at Mira. “People have a range of driving skills from the naïve to the more experienced. If you allow the driver to tune the system, is it being done correctly? If someone else is tuning it, how do they know the driver?” Hills also raised the question of how these systems will affect

Chris Hills: “Will you have to have different driving tests?”

the driving test. “Will you have to have different driving tests?” he said. “You have to have them for geared and automatic cars. Maybe there will be tests for with and without a head-up display.” But Fowkes said it was hard to regulate for these systems until we knew how drivers would use them. “We might have to see what accidents are caused before we

Mark Fowkes: “We might have to see what accidents are caused before we can regulate.”

can regulate,” he said. There is also the Volvo factor, which happened in the 1980s when the Volvo cars were so solidly built that their drivers believed they couldn’t be hurt and some drove accordingly giving the car the reputation of being the worse driven car in Britain. “If people are aware they have safety systems, they tend to drive in a more reckless way,” said Clarke.

Feeling the future

Delegates were treated to a rare chance of experiencing a rather unusual DeLorean car with this full-scale replica of the vehicle made famous in the iconic Back to the Future films. Built by a former Nasa electrical engineer who used to work at Universal Studios, the car is not only screen accurate but can also perform some of the special effects. And they can all be activated wirelessly along with audio clips from the film. Sadly, though, the time travel function was disabled and all the delegates were still in 2012 at the end of the show. The car was provided by Fusion Time Travel.



14

15

Controlling ECUs to save power

Different approaches to consolidating ECUs

Having all the ECUs in a car running at full power all the time is wasteful and electric vehicles will struggle to maintain that. Even petrol engines are using more fuel to handle the power requirements and ways need to be found to control the use of the ECUs just to what is necessary. For every 100W of energy in a car, that uses an extra 0.1 litre of fuel per 100km, which equates to 2.5g of CO2 per kilogram, according to Alistair Robertson, a systems engineer with Freescale Semiconductor. Passenger cars worldwide account for about 5.5% of CO2 emissions and in Europe that rises to 12%. “Fuel costs are doubling every ten years,” said Robertson. “Any

Dudemaine added: “One way The number of ECUs in a car is increasing with each generation, to reduce power is to reduce with some models having up to the number of chips, and thus 150 units and some 1.5km of the number of boards and the amount of cable in the system. cable connecting them. One answer appears to be ECU You also want to reduce the complexity, but consolidation. But this must be software done in a way that maintains software complexity is going up safety and security – non-critical not down.” One of the first tasks systems must not interfere with when considering crucial functions. consolidation is to Yet consolidation look at how ECUs can must take place when be grouped together more electronics is into areas such as being called for in powertrain, chassis, cars, such as adaptive body, safety, adas, cruise control and and V2V and V2I other advanced driver communications. assistance systems “The number of (adas), as well as Rolland Dudemaine: ECUs is going down c o m m u n i c a t i o n s “A separation kernel brings freedom from in the older groups with other vehicles interference.” but growing in areas and information such as adas, V2V and V2I,” said infrastructures (V2V and V2I). Two approaches were put, one Walkembach. “And the number by Franz Walkembach, senior of sensors in the car is growing project manager at Wind River, by about 50% per year. The and one by Rolland Dudemaine, question is how to consolidate.” The obvious answer is to technical manager at Green Hills put more functionality on the Software. “The car is becoming a node chips, which not only reduces to the cloud,” said Walkembach. the number of chips but also “There are lots of devices in the the communications needed. car that are communicating with However, Dudemaine warned that this came with dangers. each other.”

impact, however slight, on fuel efficiency is welcome.” He is looking at ways banks of ECUs can be switched off when not used to save power as well as considering standard techniques such as sleep and standby modes. “The goal is to spend as much time as possible outside the full run mode,” he said. “Another technique is to only clock what is required. Controlling the clock is a major contributor to the power. You can stop the clock and only wake it up when it needs to do something.” Multi-core, which is becoming more popular in automotive, he said, also gave more performance per milliwatt. He also encouraged designers to find way of doing

things without using the CPU. “The CPU is the most power hungry module in the core,” he said, “so if you can disable that and let something less powerful do the job then you can save a lot.” Another technique is to use partial networking where individual or groups of ECUs can be started up and shut down as needed, and this includes the communications with the ECUs. The alternative is pretended networks where ECUs are switched to a low power mode while keeping up bus connections. “This is a local approach,” said Robertson. “It doesn’t need something else telling it to shut down; it does it itself. You

Alistair Robertson: “The CPU is the most power hungry module in the core.”

don’t need dedicated hardware to support this. But the power savings are not as great as with partial networks.” He said though there was a limit to what could be done within the microcontroller and that system-wide techniques had to be applied.

Can one DC-DC converter handle all the voltage levels? If European Union CO2 and tailgate emission targets for 2020 are going to be met, then electric and hybrid electric vehicles will be necessary, but to get the most out of these a more efficient way must be found for converting battery voltages into other voltages needed round the car. Peter Tibbles, research manager for Prodrive, reported on the work from two consortia looking at producing an allin-one DC-DC converter that can handle the temperature difficulties encountered in vehicles. The EU has set targets for both 2015 and 2020, but Tibbles said the targets for 2015 could be met by improving existing technology. “The industry is slightly ahead of the curve with more fuel efficient vehicles and more diesels,” he said. “To hit the 2015 target, that will be done by making existing technology more efficient. But to get to the 2020 target, a lot more work needs to be done, and that is where they are looking to HEVs

Peter Tibbles: “Our goal is to have a single box.”

and EVs. It is forcing the market to do things differently, and one way is to electrify part of the drive train.” If an electric vehicle has a 200 to 250V battery, a DC-DC converter is needed to bring that down to 12V for the legacy systems in a car. But if another DC-DC converter increases that to 500 to 600V for the motor, the current and the losses can be reduced. “You can have smaller battery packs and use DC-DC conversion to boost the voltage for the motor,” he said. “This is the way it has gone on the Prius range.” He said though there was no clear winner on finding a


technology that suits all drive cycles for electric vehicles. “There are a lot of technologies being touted as the next big thing for automotive,” he said. Prodrive was part of a consortium set up in 2010 to look at DC-DC converters. Other partners included Manchester University, Raytheon and Tata. The key part of the work they are doing is using silicon carbide (SiC) for the semiconductor material. “This has significant advantages over silicon,” said Tibbles. “It will operate at higher voltages and temperatures. It can switch at much higher frequencies, and this means you can reduce the size of the capacitors and inductors. You can also reduce the size of the cooling pack and ultimately delete the cooling pack.” However, the main problem with SiC is that it is relatively new and hence more expensive that silicon. The goal though of the consortium is to reduce the cost of the entire system and have it in a much smaller package.

Another problem concerns high temperature operation. SiC can work at up to 500˚C but the other parts in the package need to do the same, including the box in which it all sits. Thus another consortium was set up in July this year to look at all the temperature issues. This will run for two years and, as well as Prodrive, its members include TT Electronics, GE, Ricardo and Warwick University. “Our goal is to have a single box that can handle multiple ins and outs and work both ways,” said Tibbles. “It will reduce complexity. We also want some sort of plug-and-play capability.” This means all the different voltage levels in the vehicle can be handled from a single device. Because that becomes a hub for the vehicle’s power management requirements, there is the potential to add other functionalities using software. The next stage of the project will be looking at the safety aspects and the effects of ISO 26262. That will start in the new year.


“If a failure crashes the whole system,” he said, “there is no easy way to see where the failure occurred. If you integrate more functions, you have stability problems.” Walkembach said there were three main options, the first being letting the software run on a main ECU with one operating system. Alternatively, have virtual management of devices or virtual ECUs taking advantage of multi-core technology. Considering virtualisation, there were three options: a hypervisor or virtual machine monitor; Linux containers; or Linux kernel-based virtual machines (KVMs). “It all depends on the use,” said Walkembach, “or how many software partitions, graphics, user interfaces and real-time requirements that influence what operating system to use.” In the virtualisation and partitioning approach, there would be a single or multi-core processor on top of which sits the hypervisor and on top of that the virtual machines each with a guest operating system. “Virtualisation lets you partition a system and that gives

you fast boot options,” said Walkembach. “When one partition crashes you can define the Franz Walkembach: h y p e r v i s o r “The question is how to consolidate.” such that other par– titions don’t see it at all.” Each partition can have the data assigned in different ways, from no trust to full trust, and they can have definitions specifying how the data are transmitted. Dubemaine believes the answer to these problems is to use a separation kernel. “This means the amount of code with access to all the systems is the minimum possible,” he said. “The application code has no way to access memory from outside its own application.” He said the operating system could guarantee there were no unintended communications as the user could define all the paths that were allowed. “A separation kernel brings freedom from interference when integrating multiple ECUs on one chip,” he said.

Autosar falls short on diagnostic interface One of the problems with Autosar is the diagnostic event manager, basically an API that forms the bridge between the diagnostic software and the interface seen by the engineers and service personnel. However, this interface is too much geared towards software engineers, according to David Price, chief technical officer at Pi Innovo. “The API is very much written for software engineers,” he said, “which means you need another layer to translate for the systems guys. This probably leads to errors when you cross the boundary. The fewer APIs the better as there is less scope for confusion.” He proposed a single API that

sat on the boundary between the infrastructure and the monitors. And he described the infrastructure as like an iceberg with the bulk of it unseen by those who do diagnostic work. “It is a complex area,” he said. “There are over 3000 pages of specifications that you have to follow. But the service guys just need to know what is wrong with the car and how it can be fixed.” While similar, the regulations are slightly different for each country. And the systems have to handle the problems of different vehicles. “So, you can be more abstract or more flexible with the API,” said Price. “You have to decide


how much flexibility you want or how much you want it to do what the regulations say. You have to be aware of the 3000 pages of regulations but have enough flexibility to work round the wrinkles depending on which vehicle you are working with.” He said the API choice therefore depended on the target audience. “What do the guys who are designing the monitors want to think about?” he asked. “They are generally working with high-level tools such as Simulink, so you want the interface to work in the language with Simulink blocks.” The idea he said was to configure it so the user sees the simple stuff and the complex stuff

David Price: “You need to hide all the software.”

is underneath. “It is the simple high-level interface that is the important thing,” he said. “You have to build up all the blocks underneath that manage the data. And then you have to put it all together with all the faults. There is a lot. There can be 500 to 1000 faults. The target audience are system engineers and not software experts, so you need to hide all the software.”


16

How to keep Formula One cars on track The problems of keeping the electronics working on a Formula One car can be nightmarish but it could all become even worse as new control units and powertrains are brought in for all teams over the next two years. Peter van Manen, managing director of McLaren Electronic Systems, explained to delegates in his keynote speech how, with so little testing, the development of a Formula One car continues throughout the racing season. “There are three to eight large engineering upgrades in the two weeks between races,” he said. “Teams are making thousands of components each year. And it is a very violent environment in which they have to operate.” And with in-season testing banned these upgrades are only really put to the test on the

race weekend, which is why telemetry plays such a crucial role in grand prix racing. A race car, for example, will have around 120 sensors. “These are very highly strung machines,” said van Manen, “so we monitor the health to see very quickly if something goes wrong. Also, with no testing during the season, it is important to monitor the cars to get the optimal set-up.” He said that teams build the car, spend the season trying to make it better and then throw it away and start again. “So we need to understand what we have very quickly,” he said. During a race, he said, up to 500 parameters were being logged at about 1kHz. Around 2.4Mbit/s of data are being sent from the car to the garage, with

each car sending about 1.5Gbyte per race. The people at the team’s headquarters are also receiving the same real-time data so they can provide inputs as well. “In the one hundred minutes of a race, everything has to be reliable,” he said, raising a few smiles given McLaren’s problems this season. McLaren provides the electronic control unit for all the cars, and van Manen explained the difficulties in keeping it cool. Though it might seem logical to use the airflow from the fast moving vehicle to provide the cooling, this is a bad idea as it can compromise the finely tuned aerodynamics. The team’s current challenge though is building the new control unit for the 2013 season ready for the new powertrains due to be introduced in 2014.

Peter van Manen: “Teams are making thousands of components each year.”

“It is quite an exciting stage,” he said. One big difference will be that the processor will be partitioned in a way that will allow all the teams to write some of their own software. “We will create a single version of the software that everyone uses but there will be elements that the teams can use,” he said. “It will be standard electronics with the flexibility the engineers will need when they build the new powertrains.”

Delegates browse the exhibits at the Advance Automotive Electronics show



18 Power Technologies

Power Technologies 19 circuit. A controller then uses the cell data to compute the state of charge and state of health of the pack. The controller may command the battery monitor to charge or discharge certain cells to maintain a balanced state of charge within the pack.

Battery monitor

LTC6804 battery monitoring devices

Balancingact

Linear Technology has completely redesigned its high-voltage battery monitor chip in a move that it claims will raise the bar for stacked battery monitoring in hybrid and electric vehicles. The LTC6804 chip has had all aspects of the design changed from its predecessors – the LTC6802 and LTC6803. “This is the state of the art in terms of a stacked battery monitor,” said Erik Soule, vice president and general manager of signal conditioning products. “This comes from a lot of different things all working together. We have dealt with every issue we have been asked to improve.” The chip will monitor a bank of 12 cells at voltages up to 4.2V with

16bit resolution and better than 0.04% accuracy. This is claimed to be four times more accurate than the predecessors. A key upgrade is the use of two 16bit ADCs rather than one 12bit circuit in the LTC6803. “This means it will run at ten times the speed,” said Soule. “And Erik Soule: “We are going to change the it lets us better synchronise voltage industry with this.” and current measurements. You get closer time alignment between voltage and current and that is important for calculating an accurate state of charge.” One difficulty the company had designing the chip was trying to make it work with a standard SPI interface. In the end, the designers opted for the proprietary IsoSPI interface, which means the device has to be used with the companion LTC6820 chip to translate signals to and from this environment. “We tried to find a standard bus but failed,” said Soule, “so we designed our own IsoSPI. This is new.” The voltage reference technology is completely different from the

older chips to improve measurement accuracy and long-term stability. And there are more built-in self test circuits than the predecessors. Also important is that it has been engineered with ISO26262 in mind. “There are features to help the system designer comply with the specification,” said Soule. The use of burned Zener technology is said to improve time and temperature stability giving it references similar to that used in precision instruments. “Nobody else is using this or even thinking of using it,” said Soule. The company also plans to introduce the LTC3300 bidirectional active balancing device early next year, and this will be controllable by the LTC6804, which itself will be in full production during the first quarter of 2013. “We have been sampling it with out customers and had tremendous interest,” said Soule. “The feedback has been unbelievable. We are going to change the industry with this. It is a whole bunch of little tricks all working together.” l

Steve Rogerson reports on Linear Technology’s claims to have raised the bar for battery monitoring

L

ithium-ion batteries require considerable care if they are expected to operate reliably over a long period. They cannot be operated to the extreme end of their state-of-charge (SoC). The capacity of Li-ion cells diminish and diverge over time and usage, so every cell in a system must be managed to keep it within a constrained SoC. To provide sufficient power for a vehicle, tens or hundreds of battery cells are required. These cells must be configured in a long series; as much as 1kV and higher. The battery electronics must operate in this very high-voltage environment and reject common mode voltage effects, while differentially measuring and controlling each cell in these strings. The electronics must be able to translate information from the battery stack to a central point for processing.


On top of these requirements, operating a high-voltage battery stack in a vehicle or other highpower applications imposes tough conditions, such as operation with significant electrical noise and wide operating temperatures. The battery management electronics are expected to increase operating range, lifetime, safety and reliability, while reducing cost, size and weight.

information for determining the status of each cell. Secondly, the BMS must control the SoC for each cell in a system. This is done by controlling the charge, discharge and balancing of each cell in a system. The third requirement concerns safety. The BMS must know the electronics are properly working such that the battery information is valid. The golden rule is that no over voltage cell can appear as an Battery management The electronic system that measures OK voltage cell. To do this, the BMS has to communicate the status of all and manages the battery stack cells and the BMS electronics to the (also known as the BMS, or battery rest of the system. management system) has three key The key element in the battery requirements. management electronics is the First, the BMS must know the battery monitor IC. The battery health of each battery cell in the stack. Primarily, this is accomplished monitor performs the difficult task of accurately measuring the voltage, by estimating the SoC of each cell current and temperature of each cell in the battery system. The current SoC can be combined with historical and passing the data to a control




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Test Drive: The ¸ESR, a Hybrid Instrument for the Modern Age Andy Coombes, EMC Product Manager for Rohde & Schwarz UK, discusses why the company’s latest EMI Test Receiver ideally suits automotive EMC testing. From an EMC perspective, benign the average car is not. With its combustion engine, alternator, wiper motors and other electro-mechanical components introducing broadband noise throughout the platform, automotive EMC testing has always been challenging. But the task is getting harder as more electrical/ electronic sub-components, sensors and modules for control, communications and entertainment are added to the system. Linked by high speed data, these systems fall victim to the inherent interference, before consideration of a vehicle’s compliance to EMC regulations is taken into account. Nowhere are these challenges more apparent than in Hybrid Electric Vehicles. Insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), the power inverters used to drive 3-phase AC motors from high voltage DC batteries, can create high levels of broadband noise. This phenomenon can readily knock out readings from the vehicle’s many sensors, necessitating immensely thorough diagnostic, as well as compliance EMC testing.

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Rohde & Schwarz has introduced a new EMI receiver designed with the above-mentioned challenges in mind. By combining a traditional EMC receiver and spectrum analyser with a time-domain scanning receiver and real-time spectrum analyser, the ESR EMI Test Receiver provides the means to perform high speed compliance tests, as well as advanced diagnostic measurements, all in one box. Insight and Speed The ESR has several features that ideally suit it to automotive EMC testing. First is the unrivalled insight provided by the optional real-time analyser. The spectrogram function allows for seamless spectrum display in the time domain, enabling all discrete interferers to be viewed even in the presence of broadband disturbances, such as wiper motors or hybrid drivetrains. A persistence diagram lets users see all of the signals, all of the time, whilst the spectogram mode (spectral histogram) – which identifies pulsed and continuous disturbances – has frequency mask triggering that will detect the most sporadic of spectral events. Display of a broadband disturbance in conventional analyzer mode – in this example caused by an electric motor with poor EMI suppression. The yellow

Raymond Whinray, Integration Engineer for Hybrid & Electrification at Jaguar Land Rover: “With the ESR as part of our toolset we make another step to avoid unexpected behaviour, rather than being reactive to these issues later in a development program. Within electric propulsion systems we have to analyse behaviour with a wide range of variables. We use test data early within our projects to correlate the CAE simulation data with real behaviour. We have used the ESR function for real-time display of frequency spectrum when analysing system-wide EMC effects. From this we can observe and replay the transient effects during mode changes that would be very easily missed using traditional spectrum analysers or digital oscilloscopes with FFT capability. The real-time aspect has proven very useful to match the RF behaviour with the system operation and mode transition events.”

¸ESR EMI Test Receiver.

trace represents the current spectrum, the blue trace Max Hold.

Simultaneous display of disturbance spectrum in persistence mode (top) and as a spectrogram (bottom).

The ESR also offers a Time-Domain Scan option with unparalleled speed. This Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) based technology provides up to 30MHz bandwidth for FFT calculations and enables measurements up to 6000 times faster than conventional stepped frequency receivers. This makes the ¸ESR EMI Test Receiver the fastest EMI measuring receiver on the market by some margin and ideally suits automotive component suppliers or EMC test houses, where time-consuming manufacturer-specific testing is the norm.

Whilst outright speed of test and clinical levels of insight are important, ease of use is a key consideration for any test equipment that is used every day. Featuring an intuitive touchscreen interface that allows users to configure automated tests directly on the screen, the ESR offers standard consumer HMI features such as an onscreen keyboard, undo/redo keys and a built-in help function, to name but a few. A 21 cm screen enables up to six different traces to be simultaneously displayed. Meanwhile, a combined numeric and analog bargraph displays results for up to four detectors, allowing users to rapidly recognize the effect of changes made to the device under test. The ¸ESR allows users to configure automatic test sequences (preview measurement, data reduction, final measurement) quickly and easily and execute them at the press of a but-

Disturbance spectrum for the same motor in persistence mode. A second pulsed disturbance is clearly visible, while it cannot be identified in conventional analyzer mode (upper diagram) as it is hidden by the broadband disturbance.

MIRA, a world class independent engineering and test consultancy, already has a suite of Rohde & Schwarz ESU test receivers and recently trialled the ESR. According to Mark Emery, EMC technical specialist: “The ESR further enhanced our speed of testing, whilst features such as the ‘spectrogram’ and ‘real time analysis, persistence mode’ assisted our EMC engineers in discovering intermittent and masked emission content in a unique and intuitive way.”

One such customer is leading manufacturer of automotive climate, electronic, infotainment and lighting products, Visteon. Attesting to the ESR’s impact on test times, Philip Page, Technical Fellow, EMC at Visteon’s European Test Operations says: “Used correctly, the FFT capability has the potential to cut our test times for certain customers by 50 to 80%, and results in much faster development and troubleshooting time for our engineers. Hence, we are excited to have engaged with R&S with such a leading-edge product.” The ¸ESR performs disturbance voltage measurements with quasi-peak and average weighting in just a few seconds.

ton. The final measurement can also be carried out interactively.

The ESR EMI test receiver has been designed to measure conducted and radiated disturbances in the 10 Hz to 7 GHz frequency range. It complies with CISPR 16-1-1 (Ed3 Amd1), as well as emissions to all OEM-specific EMC standards thanks to the availability of 6 dB resolution bandwidths in decade steps from 10 Hz to1 MHz. Having many of these features as options allows users to acquire them as and when needed, rather than pay for features that they won’t necessarily use. And for those that use the ESR during the product development phase, the cost benefit is considerable from a combined test receiver and real-time spectrum analyzer in one. To find out more about the ESR, please visit www.rohde-schwarz.co.uk. Or, call Andy Coombes on +44 (0) 1252 81 88 88 to request a demonstration of the ESR’s capabilities.

Keepingpace


TPMS

Transmitter test, Anritsu won’t let you down.

Fig. 1: Eight-channel mixedsignal oscilloscopes provide comprehensive measurement and analysis capabilities for embedded, automotive, power and mechatronics applications

Clive Davis, Kelvin Hagebeuk and Hafeez Najumudeen discuss how instruments can evolve to meet the latest automotive challenges

had four measurement channels, which is proving insufficient to address the challenges presented by today’s automotive electronic systems. An increasing number of oscilloscope users are finding that the traditional four channels that have been the norm for decades are no longer sufficient. True, there are instruments he increased use of advanced the use of mixed-signal oscilloscopes available that provide eight or more electronic technologies in with increased channel count; and, channels, but these are normally modern cars poses considerable secondly, recent developments in the oscillographic recorders which do not challenges to the test and kers (kinetic energy recovery system) measurement engineer, both at technology used in modern racing cars offer sufficiently high bandwidth and sampling rate. the design debugging stage and has led to the need for high-accuracy Some users have created eightfor general-purpose performance power measurements. channel set-ups by combining two and maintenance purposes. The four-channel oscilloscopes, but this modern motor vehicle may contain ECUs approach requires the instruments sophisticated embedded systems linked Traditionally, the general-purpose to be synchronised: something that with the engine control unit as well test instrument of choice has is only normally possible in tightly as serial buses for communications been the oscilloscope, which has controlled laboratory conditions. information and control signals evolved from the early analogue In the words of one automotive throughout the vehicle. instruments to high-speed digital electronics engineer involved in In addition, measurements also need oscilloscopes with built-in storage developing ECUs: “We need to to be made on physical parameters and processing capabilities. In recent observe the waveform details of from mechanical elements such years, the emergence of mixed-signal as motors and actuators and their oscilloscopes (MSOs) has enabled users more than four channels of engine interaction with multiple control to look at analogue and digital signals control unit signals, along with sensor signals, which can include analogue, together on the same display, allowing signals giving us parameters such as rotational speed, fuel injector pulse digital and high-power content. the interaction between the different times and crank angles, to name just Recent developments have led types of signal to be examined in a few.” to modern test and measurement depth as an aid to determining the Not only are more IO signals used instruments aiding engineers in cause-and-effect sequence when as the control system becomes more automotive electronic developments. problems occur. sophisticated and complicated, there First, the debugging and test of the However, the first generation of is also a need for faster sampling and embedded electronics in engine MSOs suffered from a limitation in higher bandwidth because of the noise control units is greatly facilitated by some applications in that they only

T



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Test & Measurement 25

Serial bus testing

from the inverters or power supplies within the system.

Eight channels

To address these challenges, the latest eight-channel oscilloscopes (Fig. 1) provide comprehensive measurement capabilities for embedded, automotive, power and mechatronics applications. The channels can be allocated as eight analogue channels or seven analogue channels plus one 8bit digital input. There are plans for such machines to have 16 more channels of logic to allow seven channels of analogue plus a 24bit digital input. Not only do such oscilloscopes provide enough channels for analogue applications such as three-phase voltage and current measurements, they also enable users to view the actual waveform shape of digital signals. This helps the digital debug process as glitches are often caused by such things as noise and crosstalk which are invisible when viewing just 1s and 0s. Some of these instruments have long memory (up to 62.5M points per channel and 125M points in interleave mode), allowing both long recordings and multiple waveforms to be acquired. A history memory function, which does not reduce the oscilloscope’s waveform acquisition rate, can allow up to 20,000 previously captured waveforms to be saved in the acquisition memory, with any one or all of them displayed on screen for cursor measurements to be carried out. Waveforms can be displayed one at a time, in order, or automatically played back, paused,

Fig. 2: Users can find abnormal signals that might otherwise be overlooked

Fig. 3: Analogue IO and digital serial bus controller signals can be tested together


fast-forwarded or rewound. The history memory in combination with the advanced waveform search feature enables users to capture and see the details of anomalies on individual waveforms when their characteristics are still unknown (Fig. 2). Advanced measurement and analysis features can include histogram and trending functions, digital filtering, zoom windows, userdefined mathematics, and serial bus analysis. The combination of an eightchannel analogue input at 500MHz bandwidth with a 16bit logic input makes it possible to carry out comprehensive and efficient measurements on many captured waveforms without changing the probe connection. Moreover, by capturing logic and bus signals in the analogue domain, users can evaluate signal-quality effects such as surge and noise, which often have a damaging effect on overall system reliability. As an added benefit, the analogue channel is psychologically more friendly than a logic display for many oscilloscope users.

An eight-channel MSO can allow data from up to two serial buses (which can be Can, Lin, Flexray, I2C, SPI, uart or RS232) to be decoded and displayed in real time. A serial bus auto setup function can reduce the configuration work dramatically. Long memory enables long time measurements even at a fast sampling rate. This means that slow phenomena from mechanical equipment and fast electronic signals from the controller can be measured at the same time (Fig. 3). For longer-term measurement or measurements with various physical signals along with Can bus data where the eight-channel requirement is exceeded, it is possible to use an additional instrument such as a scope-corder (a unit that combines the benefits of an oscilloscope with those of an oscillographic recorder) in combination with the MSO.

Formula One

Formula One is a sport that has transformed over the years into a billion dollar business. The sport has become so popular and with a wide global audience base it has become an attraction for hundreds of multinational companies. Grand prix racing has a long-standing history of providing technological developments, which are applicable not only to fast racing cars but also to the general automotive industry. One of these developments is the kinetic energy recovery system (kers), also known as regenerative braking, which is becoming one of the most widely discussed subjects in technical universities and automobile companies. A Formula One car has kinetic energy when it runs, and when the brake is applied this kinetic energy is converted into a huge amount of heat energy, which would normally be wasted. This is not the case in a kers equipped car. With the kers system (Fig. 4), when the driver brakes, this kinetic energy is converted to electrical energy. Formula One cars have an electric motor and batteries setup that is used to convert and store this energy in the car. The electric motor is mounted at one end of the engine crankshaft. When the brakes are applied, this electric motor captures a portion of the rotational


force and converts the kinetic energy into electrical energy, which is stored in the battery bank. When the driver presses the kers or the boost button, the stored energy is converted back to kinetic energy, which gives the car additional power for a limited duration. The kers system was first introduced in 2009 and only a few F1 teams used the technology. In 2010, kers was banned, but it was reintroduced in 2011. It is now being used by most of the F1 teams. Even though the kers system adds an extra 35kg weight which gives a challenge to the balance of the car, it does provide the driver approximately 60kW extra for up to 6.7s per lap. This extra capacity can be released in one go or at different points, which gives the driver an added advantage during overtaking or defending positions. The kers system is not only intended to help in overtaking and defending to create additional excitement in the race, but also it is a step towards bringing the sport close to greenness.

Fig.4: Schematic of the kers system as used in Formula One racing cars

Testing kers

The F1 industry uses high-precision power analysers for the development and testing of kers system at both the R&D and production of stages. These power analysers (Fig. 5) are particularly suited to the measurement of electrical output, efficiency and losses in electric motors.


Fig. 5: Precision power analysers are ideally suited to the testing of kers and related systems in modern racing cars

The ability to connect six power inputs to a single analyser helps the users to evaluate the motor input and output efficiency. In addition, a motor evaluation function makes it possible to carry out simultaneous measurements of voltage, current and power as well as the rotation speed and torque changes. The input for torque and speed sensors helps in understanding the shaft power in electric motors, along with the direction of rotation. The six inputs of the analyser also help users to understand the battery characteristics by following the battery charge and discharge cycle and evaluating the inverter efficiency between the input and output.

Conclusion

These are just two areas in which advances in automotive systems have

posed new challenges for the test and measurement sector, but most of these challenges are being addressed by the latest generation of test instruments. As the automotive industry develops still further into the realms of electric and hybrid vehicles, electrical power trains and green initiatives to optimise performance and efficiency, so the test industry will respond by continuing to provide the appropriate measurement tools. l All three authors work for Yokogawa in Europe and Africa: Clive Davis is manager for test and measurement marketing; Kelvin Hagebeuk is product marketing manager for scope-corders and portable test instruments; and Hafeez Najumudeen is product marketing manager for power meters and analysers


26 Telematics

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28 Telematics

Telematics 29

A method that boosts productivity while reducing costs ensures a business achieves a genuine return on investment (RoI). Unfortunately, there is often a lack of understanding of the huge cost savings field service management systems can deliver, alongside improvements in workforce productivity and customer satisfaction. An independent study among directors and senior managers operating large field-based work forces in the UK found that only 18% possess fully automated scheduling, dispatch and mobility tools. The majority are operating partly manual, partly automated systems, integrating a diverse mix of often incompatible legacy systems. This is preventing many organisations from realising the full potential of technology to increase workforce efficiency, a crucial factor A box fitted inside in achieving field service excellence. the vehicle can

Intelligent data

Fleet management and telematics have emerged as being powerful management tools and provide new levels of field service and vehicle fleet performance. Today’s products integrate GPS with wireless communications and emerging technologies to enable every aspect of mobile operations to be identified, measured and analysed, delivering greater intelligence to fleet managers. The information provided typically includes the vehicle location, speed and time, but also may include work order information, driver behaviour and vehicle diagnostics data such as kilometres per litre, fuel use or vehicle faults, all determined by the in-vehicle telematics. As a result of the insight delivered, businesses can start to reduce direct expenses such as fuel costs by optimising route planning,

determine the vehicle’s location, velocity, acceleration and direction of travel

delivery performance and reduced customer complaints for late technicians or missed appointments. Once companies start comparing the information taken from field operations regularly, it is easy to see where improvements can be made or where patterns exist that can be planned for in advance to reduce the impact.

Mitigating risk

improving operational efficiencies and driving revenue generation through top quality customer service and flexibility. With the knowledge of where resources are, their status and time on site, businesses can make the real-time decisions required to keep their operations running as smoothly as possible. According to the independent research, this value is already being recognised with organisations running field-based workforces seeing one of the top priorities for future technology investment and upgrades to be within the area of fleet management. Fleet management and telematics can service all aspects of fleet operations to provide a 360˚ view of their use and performance. Particularly when deployed with other field service management tools for managing the work and the mobile worker, they are key elements to achieving efficiency, productivity and cost saving goals.

With the knowledge of where “resources are, their status and time on site, businesses can make the real-time decisions required to keep their operations running as smoothly as possible automotive electronics | issue four 2012

”

Managing the work

Operations managers require a clear understanding of what is happening in the field to monitor performance, and work management provides real-time job status of each mobile worker as well as alerts for proactively managing productivity. If a job is in danger of being missed or a customer emergency comes up, modern work management tools mean these are automatically highlighted by the technology and a proposed method put forward as to how to redeploy resources to meet the new requirements. The capabilities and benefits that can be achieved include: • Optimising and automating mobile work schedules; • Communicating to laptop or smart phone to view work details, provide current work status and receive work assignments without returning to the office; • Monitoring arrival times, distances travelled, stops made and overtime usage; • Comparing planned versus actual work done per day or shift; and • Adjusting schedules and reassigning work.

Health and safety are understandably high priorities for organisations with field-based workers, especially those doing a significant amount of driving out in the field. These individuals not only face greater risks than office-based employees, but can also expose members of the public to danger through aggressive and unsafe driving, with disastrous consequences for the company’s reputation as well as the legal risks involved. As telematics have evolved, both the amount and type of data gathered have increased significantly. Driver behaviour and vehicle diagnostics information are now available that can identify how a vehicle is being driven and any faults that may affect performance. Taking steps to mitigate poor driving or proactively servicing underperforming vehicles not only significantly reduces on the road risk but cuts vehicle breakdowns or unscheduled downtime. The research discovered that 51% surveyed agree that the technology they are using to manage safety of their employees is in need of updating, with 44% stating that their risk assessment software is in

very conscious of managing these costs. Reducing fuel usage through data interpretation can result in significant cost savings and will additionally lead to a reduction in CO2 emissions. Lack of budget and cost are major barriers to rolling out new technology but the increased sustainability credentials derived from the financial and

For field-based organisations, “monitoring fuel consumption through telematics is a quickly achievable method of reaching environmentally friendly targets liability therefore helping to manage the risks and costs associated with work-related driving. Essentially, telematics can be used to improve the efficiency of, rather than completely replace, health and safety policies, while also helping to increase efficiency, cut costs and help maintain a brand’s reputation of executing a safe driving culture.

Going green

Introduced and incoming legislation has placed mounting pressure on businesses to improve their sustainability and accelerate the move to meet green targets. For field-based organisations especially, monitoring fuel consumption through telematics is a quickly achievable method of reaching environmentally friendly targets. Fuel prices have seen a consistent increase over the years and business owners have become

”

environmental advantages are key benefits that influence business decisions. The recent research shows that nearly two thirds of respondents believe that sustainability plays a key role in their business plan and a further 64% feel sustainability will have a significant effect on their business moving forwards. The desire to become more sustainable is also largely driven by perception and company image, as being green, and being seen to be green in the public eye, is becoming increasingly important. Forwardthinking businesses are moving towards sustainability as a way of promoting their organisation and ultimately to attract and retain new customers. l Mark Forrest is general manager of field service management for Trimble

www.rmcan.com

     

The above capabilities evidently lead directly to increased customer satisfaction due to such outcomes as increased on-time service


need of the most improvement. Driver safety products enable managers to monitor driving behaviour and complete back office analysis of aggressive manoeuvres, such as hard acceleration, braking, turns and speed. With this data at hand, recommendations on training can be made for individual drivers, resulting in lower accidents and


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30 safety

safety 31 The human factor needs to be considered when designing safety systems

Human factor H

Siraj Ahmed Shaikh and Padmanabhan Krishnan report on safety analysis carried out for adaptive cruise control automotive electronics | issue four 2012

uman failure is often a cause of accidents. However, while useful in many cases, increasing the level of automation in vehicles does not necessarily reduce the number of human failure related accidents. In the automotive world, the past decade has seen a rise in advanced driver assistance systems (adas) from rain-sensing wipers to lane departure warning to adaptive cruise control (ACC). For adas to be successful and safe, the human user must be aware of the automation and react to it appropriately. While promising driver and road safety, functional safety standards such as ISO26262 do not explicitly describe the role of the human user. ISO26262 focuses only

on the reliability of the electronics and the human user is often ignored. Simply having reliable electronics is not sufficient to guarantee safety. This brings with it a variety of challenges. A common problem is mode error where the driver cannot recall what state the system is in. This gives rise to more complex challenges including: • handover between manual and automated control during a task, which is critical as the driver needs to be able to judge when to reclaim control; • inadequate feedback from the vehicle to the driver, with the consequence that the system fails on drivers’ expectations during a task and ultimately maximum


benefit of the technology is not derived; and • a fundamental change of task for the driver as it changes from monitoring the situation to monitoring the situation and automation. Our recent work has developed a modelling and analysis framework to model human behaviour and analyse the interaction to determine if any safety conditions are violated. A generic ACC system was modelled where the driver was part of the control system. Human factors were incorporated in the controllability analysis of the system. The focus was on the interaction between the user and the system; reliability of the system was not the focus here. The system model aimed to represent the features and behaviours of the vehicle system, incorporated within which is adas. A behaviour model was then used to demonstrate user actions driven by cognitive and emotional stimuli. The behaviour modelled was an abstraction of the user’s mental model and associated actions relevant to the interaction with the system. Traditionally, such models have been derived from cognitive science. However, it is increasingly feasible to

look to human physiology to sense for driver perception and stress, given advances in sensors. An environment model aimed to account for operational factors external to the system and the user, and which remained unaffected by any interaction that resulted. This provided for a clear separation to study the potential impact on the driver and the system as they interacted with the environment. The various factors influencing each of the models were represented as a set of parameters. Assuming there were no circular dependencies, based on the inputs and the current state of the system, the outputs and the new state of the system was computed. A schematic description of this approach is given in Fig. 1 and the behaviour of the entire system was expressed using the standard control loop approach from discrete event simulation. All the models were developed in C with the safety properties written as assertions. CBMC (bounded model checker for C programmes) was used to validate the safety properties. This approach allowed the exploration of various scenarios where safe interaction between the driver and vehicle was critical. Given behaviour, vehicle and environment models, overall system states that led

to safety violations was explored. Specific scenarios can be generated if the functions that represent the calculation of the model values return a unique value. The CBMC feature also allowed a function to return nondeterministic values, which effectively enabled the analysis of a class of behaviours. Putting this into practice, the system model had the key aspects of the ACC, mainly the control system, to maintain the speed of the vehicle, the separation from the vehicle in front and a notion of safe stopping distance to prevent accidents. The environment model had the terrain and hazards that were non-deterministically generated. The behaviour model considered was that of fatigue, which was calculated from the duration the driver had been in the vehicle and the complexity of the terrain. The driver’s cognitive ability is influenced by fatigue and hazard perception. This, when combined with the mode to issue the commands, determined the reaction time. The current speed of the vehicle and the reaction time of the driver determined the safe stopping distance. Studies have demonstrated that ACC has the potential of causing delayed driver reaction, awkward handover and mode confusion with up to a third

Force is with Coventry

One of the men who created the R2D2 robot in the Star Wars movies is responsible for another automotive hightechnology spin-off from work at Coventry University. John Jostins, professor of sustainable transport design at Coventry University, is also managing director of Microcab, which has developed a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. The zero emission machine, the H2EV, is powered by a 3kW fuel cell which gives the car a 160km range. Hydrogen from a filling station is combined with oxygen from the air to create electricity (which drives the car’s electric motors) and water (the car’s only emission) in a reaction known as reverse electrolysis. This is part of the university’s Low Carbon Vehicles Grand Challenge Initiative – an applied research programme through which the university works with businesses to explore the development of green automotive technologies.



32 safety of drivers having forgotten at some stage whether ACC was engaged. This has serious road safety risks and raises a question whether the design of such mechanisms would ultimately serve to be detrimental to the intended goal. In addition to the time on task effects, road conditions and terrain also significantly affect driver experience, and contribute to fatigue. Here are some examples that the research explored using this approach:

1. Lowered speed and increased fatigue

One scenario dealt with an unexpected side effect of the ACC operation whereby the ability to adapt vehicle speed resulted in an increase in journey time, and hence fatigue. The system was configured such that the level of driver fatigue was derived by the system output. One aim was to check whether there was a route where the driver fatigue went past a threshold. The control mode remained enabled for ACC, and the safe stopping and desired separation distances also remained fixed. The speed of the vehicle was adjusted as

safety 33 per the operation of the ACC. The analysis revealed that the scenario failed to satisfy the desired property. To maintain the desired separation distance, the vehicle speed was reduced. This increased the duration of driving and led to increased driver fatigue. At the next point on the route, the safe separation may need to be increased owing to increased fatigue. This in turn further reduces the speed. After a few iterations, the vehicle speed was slowed to such a level that fatigue due to time on the road became unacceptable.

2. Manual override and variable speed

An alternative scenario was where the driver’s ability to override ACC at any stage of the journey was acknowledged. This was essentially to model for cases where driver actions may have undesired consequences. A fixed route was considered; the safe stopping and desired separation distances also remained fixed. The control mode was allowed to be nondeterministic and have no control

over the choice operated. Driver fatigue was then a calculation based on various inputs from the behaviour and system models. Speed was also dependent on the choice of control mode and ultimately the driver, and so were the rest of the variables. The analysis revealed that the safe distance requirement can be violated. For instance, the driver was able to override ACC manually and increase vehicle speed, which resulted in an unsafe distance from the vehicle in front. A different possibility was where the driver switched over to manual mode and ultimately reached an unsafe state (due to fatigue for example).

3. The ideal scenario

In the final experiment, the parameters were controlled for a bestcase scenario: the route and control mode (ACC) were both fixed. Driver fatigue was calculated as influenced by a combination of system, behaviour and environmental models. All other parameters were calculated from the relevant model respectively. The safety properties were satisfied.

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The fixed length of route meant that journey time was ultimately limited, even if speed was adapted (slowed) in response to driver fatigue. The fixed control mode helped to avoid any driver-led errors.

Conclusion

The main contribution of this work is an approach to modelling and design of human-in-the-loop systems. The approach takes into account real systems as well as cognitive models that are supported by empirical studies. By expressing the models in the C programming language, all empirical models were encoded without compromising on numerical accuracy. Informal discussions have taken place with practising engineers from the automotive domain and the general feedback is that the approach is accessible and intuitive. Their models are expressed as code fragments that can be translated quite easily to C; an advantage that this approach has for practising engineers in not using specific modelling languages.

Fig. 1: Schematic description of this approach

This approach supports automatic verification of safety properties as well as systematic scenario exploration. The non-deterministic choices of the various functions in the behaviour sub-models document the assumptions that were made on the interaction between different aspects. These interactions are not supported

by empirical studies but occur in real systems. l Siraj Ahmed Shaikh is senior lecturer at the engineering and computing faculty at Coventry University and Padmanabhan Krishnan is a professor of the Centre for Software Assurance at Bond University, Australia.

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PRODUCTS 35

Rectifiers fit tight spaces AEC-Q101-qualified, ESDprotected 600V standard rectifiers are available from Vishay Intertechnology for spaceconstrained applications. The SE20AFJ and SE30AFJ provide high current density with forward currents of 2 and 3A in the surface-mount slim SMA DO221AC package with a 0.95mm profile. With forward voltage drops down to 0.86V typical at 2A, they suit general-purpose power line polarity protection in con-

sumer and automotive applications. With their ESD capability, the devices can provide class H3B (less than 8kV) performance based on the AEC-Q101-001 human body model (contact mode). The rectifiers have an oxide planar chip junction, maximum operation junction temperature of +175˚C, and an MSL moisture sensitivity level of one, per J020, LF maximum peak of +260˚C. Suitable for automated place-

IC combines car radio and audio

ment, the devices are compliant to RoHS directive 2011/65/EU and halogen-free according to Jedec JS709A.

tight tolerances in the steering shaft thereby reducing shaft machining costs. The packaging and lightweight construction mean space and weight are saved in the overall steering system. Supply current is less than 21mA. Operational from -40 to +85˚C, the sensor is resistant to shock and vibration.

A combined car radio and audio system on an IC has been introduced by NXP. The SAF775x is the third generation of the company’s car radio and audio DSP family and is claimed to be the first single-chip multi-tuner RF cmos IC with embedded AM, FM and Dab tuners. The IC includes an open Tensilica Hifi 2 audio DSP for users to programme features, or to run those of third-party software vendors. This gives car radio makers the flexibility to differentiate infotainment without resorting to external ICs.

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Sensor improves power steering

A non-contact power steering torque sensor that is said to use less current and is smaller and lighter than existing products is available from TT Electronics. The device could help make elec-

Embedded multimedia At Electronica, Micron Technology announced E-MMC embedded multimedia cards for the automotive segment. Earlier this year, the company expanded its E-MMC portfolio for industrial applications and other key embedded markets. They support navigation and infotainment applications, such as detailed maps with full 3D and building information, traffic monitoring, meteorological information, car radio and multimedia, satellite radio, e-call, and voice recognition. They are designed to replace the complex management of a stand-alone nand with an MMC. Micron www.micron.com

tronic power steering systems more compact, reliable and efficient. Designed to sense small differential angles, the SX-4428 Magnetorque II sensor is based on Hall Effect technology. The freefloating torque rotor within the device provides long rotational life. The lack of torque rotor friction means it does not wear out. The user can programme output levels and reduce the use of

Transient voltage suppressor Protek Devices has introduced 19 transient voltage suppressors (TVSs) for ESD and electrical fast transient protection in automotive electronic systems, such as infotainment, body, chassis and power network systems. The components meet AEC-Q101 standards. For infotainment networks, there are eight TVS arrays. The Pam-01SC7905C is for the electronic control unit. The 02SD2312 is for USB2.0 as is an alternative TVS array, the 12SO824. The 03SD2303CI provides protection for Bluetooth. The 04ST430502 and alternative 18DF2L0521 cover automotive LCDs. The 05SC700504F and alternative 19DF2L0521P are for car audio. The 06SC7905S and alternative 21SC790501H arrays guard automotive an-


tennas. The 08SD23xxC and alternative 24DF1605 are for automotive control buttons. The 22LOPR2268 is a dual highbandwidth, fast single-pole double throw cmos switch. It can be used as an analogue switch or as a low-delay bus switch. For body networks, the 02SD2312 TVS array is for lighting sensor control units. The 08SD23xxC and 07DF23K24 protect reverse sensor control units. The 09SD2305HP is for air bag sensors. The 15ST4305 steering diode and TVS array is for wiper sensors. For chassis network systems, the 08SD23xxC TVS arrays cover fuel injection interfaces. The 09SD2305HP is for the ignition. The 16AL30A is for voltage protection

of electronic braking systems. The 10ST23xxC TVS arrays shield electronic steering control systems. For power network systems, the 08SD23xxC and10ST23xxC are for protecting power distribution (12, 24 and 36V). And the 16AL30A and 07DF23K24 components provide voltage protection for the car battery. Protek Devices www.protekdevices.com


36 PRODUCTS

PRODUCTS 37

MCU supports Autosar Module delivers LTE

The latest member of Fujitsu Semiconductor’s FCR4 family, the MB9DF125, nicknamed Atlas-L, is based on the Arm Cortex-R4 core and includes a She secure hardware extension module that is fully hardwareimplemented to ensure high levels of security. The MCU will enable driver information systems with larger feature sets that can run more sophisticated software while supporting Autosar. It can operate as a single chip for traditional instrument clusters without graphics or as a companion chip alongside the company’s Emerald SoCs for hybrid or freelyprogrammable (virtual) automotive instrument clusters. Operating at up to 128MHz, the core has processing power of more than 200DMips, with 1Mbyte of flash memory and 128kbyte of ram. It comes in an

LQFP-176 package. The cryptographic module complies with v1.1, rev 439 of the She functional specification. It includes secure boot using a cipher-based message authentication code, plus the MiyaguchiPreneel compression function inside the She block. The MCU contains a random number generator, a separate storage area acting as a secure repository for non-volatile keys and ram keys (therefore also providing secure key management and update), plus dedicated logic for the encryption of data using the AES standard with a 128bit key length. Additional device security includes secure handling of the Trace and JTag ports, plus flash memory security. Fujitsu Semiconductor emea.fujitsu.com

The LE920 LTE module is for European and North American OEM and aftermarket segments. Available from Telit Wireless, the unit measures 34 by 40 by 2.8mm on a 198-pad LGA automotive-grade package. The product delivers 100Mbit/s -down and 50Mbit/s-up data rates on LTE networks and is fallback compatible with DCHSPA+ delivering up to 42Mbit/s -down and 5.76Mbit/s-up. Quad-band GSM, GPRS and Edge performance ensure the module connects even in remote areas devoid of 3G or 4G coverage. Equipped with a multiconstellation GPS plus Glonass receiver, the module provides

navigation coverage in harsh environments and urban canyons, making it suitable for full-featured integrated navigation systems and location based services delivered through the car’s infotainment system. Telit Wireless www.telit.com

Four-in-one diodes For general rectification, voltage blocking and clamping, power supplies, reliabilitycritical, automotive, aeronautics and aerospace, and down-hole applications, the XTR1N0415 and XTR1N0450 diodes from XRel have a reverse voltage above 55V while the XTR1N0815 and XTR1N0850 have a reverse voltage above 90V. Each part is composed of four electrically independent, wellmatched diodes in a single piece of silicon; the diodes can be used individually. All come with several packaging configurations and samples

are available. Operating range is -60 to +230˚C. X-Rel Semiconductor www.x-relsemi.com

Chipset monitors Li-ion A Li-ion battery monitor chipset for automotive applications will start sampling in February 2013 with mass production scheduled for April 2014. Designed for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs), the Toshiba chipset comprises the TB9141FG monitoring IC and the TMPM358FDTFG microcontroller. The chipset detects remaining battery level, equalises battery levels (cell balancing) and can detect abnormal battery status. The IC uses a 96V process and

monitors up to 16 cells, which can lead to component count reduction in a battery monitoring system. It can also communicate in a noisy environment by differential signals using daisy chain communications with neighbouring ICs. The 32bit risc microcontroller is built around an Arm CortexM32 core and complies with functional safety levels. A software library is being prepared to be compliant with the IEC61508 and ISO26262 functional safety standards and reference models


Wireless combination module

The LBEL6Z2TXC wireless combination module from Murata is aimed at automotive applications and uses an AEC-Q100 compliant chipset. Providing support for wireless lan, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy in addition to providing an FM

radio receiver and GPS receiver, the module measures 24.6 by 18.0 by 3.0mm. The wlan feature is IEEE 802.11 b, g and n compliant and also supports Wifi Direct. Bluetooth 4.0 class two compliant support and H4 pro-

tocol are standard. Combining the five wireless functions into one package allows designers to simplify their end-designs, save board space and ease the burden of procurement. The modules are pre-qualified removing some of the need for design testing and evaluation. Module interfaces include a uart, PCM, SDIO, I2S and audio. Power requirements are +3.3 and +1.8V DC. The module can operate from -40 to +85˚C. Typical applications include car infotainment, parking assistance, telematics, driver assist and internet-in-car.

Tailored connectors

Provertha can produce user-specific connectors, battery leads and sensor cables for the automotive industry. This can include the production of a compact tuner assembly or the realisation of sensor connections and interfaces for control units in cars. The connectors combine SMT and THR contacts. A major criterion for the safe and reliable use of the connectors is the co-planarity of the SMT connections with a tolerance of ±0.05mm maximum across all the contacts in the connection area. A corresponding automatic pick-and-place Murata system has been developed and www.murata.eu produced for single and multirow board-to-board connectors. For battery connecting leads with cable cross-sections of 10 draw on gate drives for driving power devices such as mosfets to 50mm2, an automatic system and IGBTs. They need isolation based on a cable assembly maamplifiers to sense high-voltage chine has been extended into bus levels and digital isolation a fully automated production to feedback status from the line through the use of various high-voltage side of the opto- processing modules. coupler to the microprocessor on the low-voltage side. Provertha Automotive They are rated for continuous www.provertha.com working voltages of 1140V or higher. They meet UL1577, CSA and IEC 60747-5-5 standards and are qualified to TS 16949 and AEC Q100.

Optocouplers provide HEV isolation Three isolation optocouplers have been added to Avago Technologies’ R2Couplers family. They provide safe isolation for electric and hybrid-electric vehicle applications such as onboard charging systems and

powertrain inverters. The ACPL-34JT is an isolated gate drive with smart functions and features to improve integration. The ACPL-C87AT/C87BT isolation amplifier provides instrumentation amplifier performance with integrated isolation. And the ACPL-K7xT provides single and dual channels to improve configurability and manage space savings. These devices integrate functions in modules, isolated smart gate drives, analogue sensing and digital communications. Powertrain inverters, onboard Avago Technologies chargers and DC-DC converters www.avagotech.com

Control for ECU development

are planned. The IC realises typical ±2mV cell voltage measurement accuracy, improving the accuracy of battery state of charge detection

and contributing to more effective battery usage. Toshiba toshiba-components.com


Synect Test Management, DSpace’s latest test management software, is for managing and controlling tests and test data that are produced by the electronic control unit (ECU) development process. Model-in-the-loop, softwarein-the-loop, processor-in-theloop and hardware-in-the-loop tests, plus their associated requirements, can all be managed systematically. They can be combined to produce execution

plans and then used directly for test execution, for example, with the firm’s Automation Desk. Analyses of tests, test coverage and test progress can be generated from the test results stored centrally and presented in an organised form for further test planning. The associated Synect Variant Management module provides support for handling variants. For example, users can specify which tests are applicable to


which variants, and create execution plans accordingly. Together, the modules form part of the firm’s data management and collaboration software with support for model-based development global departments. and ECU testing. It is suitable for small, local DSpace development teams and large, www.dspace.com


38 PRODUCTS

Vehicle trackers make use of Arm The AT110 and AT240 vehicle tracking modules from Astra Telematics combine the Sirfstar IV GPS module with an Arm Cortex-M3 processor and the Telit GE865 GSM and GPRS modem. Power management enables the modules to remain awake continuously without imposing excessive drain on the vehicle battery. The AT240 is self contained with an integrated antenna and

a moulded IP67-sealed enclosure for mounting in automotive applications. The AT110 is a miniaturised module for use with external GSM and GPS antennas, housed in an aluminium enclosure and for use as part of a larger in-vehicle system. External interfaces include Can 2.0B plus digital and analogue IOs for connecting devices such as temperature sensors. The Can bus interface supports

FMS2.0 which provides data such as fuel consumption and OBD2, which is mainly for vehicle service and diagnostics information. An embedded mems accelerometer allows monitoring of driver behaviour (acceleration, braking and cornering), collision detection, tow alarm and wake

on motion power management. Users can also optimise settings such as SMS limits, GSM roaming and reporting intervals, and set device-based geo-fencing for applications such as tracking high-value goods. Astra Telematics www.gps-telematics.co.uk

Slave IC for Connectors aid pedestrian safety Lin-based RGB Claimed to be the first com- of the bonnet allows a softer immercially available range of pact zone to be created, reducLED control sealed squib connectors for use ing the risk of serious injury. Claimed to be the industry’s first Lin RGB LED slave to be incorporated onto a single semiconductor die, the MLX81106 from Melexis is a freely programmable IC that can drive directly up to four LEDs for automotive ambient lighting thanks to its integrated constant current sources. Every output can be programmed to a maximum current of 35mA through the built-in flash memory. All necessary components – such as physical layer Lin transceiver, Lin controller, voltage regulator and 16bit risc-based microcontroller, as well as supporting functions such as ADC, 16bit PWM generation, constant current high-voltage capable outputs and LED threshold monitoring capability – are on chip. Melexis www.melexis.com

in environments such as pedestrian safety and battery cut-off systems within engine compartments, Delphi’s connectors suit a range of pedestrian safety systems currently being developed and implemented by major OEMs. These include bonnet lift applications, for vehicles where hard structures such as the engine block are located close to the bonnet. In the event of pedestrian collision, the use of pyrotechnic devices on both sides

The company has also created the scoop-proof AK-2 standard, and a squib connector with an integrated grounding element, the AK-2+ electrostatic discharge (ESD) squib. Besides improving reliability and cutting assembly costs, the AK-2+ ESD squib eliminates potential misfiring caused by ESD with integrated grounding, thus allowing safe traceability of grounding.

Every advertisement is part of the long-term investment in the personality of the brand David Ogilvy

Delphi Automotive www.delphi.com

Lin chips combine functions in one pack Lin devices for automotive switch scan applications and invehicle ambient lighting control have been launched by Atmel. The ATA664151 and ATA664251 include on-chip functionalities that are normally only available by combining multiple devices. They come in packages measuring 5 by 5mm and 7 by 7mm. Switch scan applications used in automotive doors, roof modules and centre stacks benefit from the low sleep mode power consumption. The current sources are controlled by three independent PWM signals, which are suitable for ambient lighting when controlling RGB LEDs.



February/March 09

www.mtemag.com June 2009

THE MAGAZINE FOR EMBEDDED ENGINEERS

WIRELESS

Making networks secure Merchant navy mobile Simulcast architectures

MICRO TCA

Ruggedised deployment beyond telecoms

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TOOLS IMPLEMENTING LINUX IN INFOTAINMENT

HUMAN-MACHINE INTERFACES ENGINEERING A USER-CENTRED PRODUCT

SHOW REPORT

CRITICAL EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

AUTOSAR

SETTING THE STANDARD

A Lin 2.2 and SAEJ2602-2compliant transceiver, based on the company’s third-generation Lin transceiver IP with EMC immunity as well a low-drop 5V voltage regulator with 80mA

current capability and an adjustable window watchdog, are also included. Enquiry No: 21

Atmel www.atmel.com


Enquiry No: 13

To start investing in your brand, contact: +44 (0)1582 722 460 [email protected] | [email protected]

ISSUE FOUR 2012

SAFE RElIAblE SEcURE www.automotive-electronics.co.uk

show report

Advanced Automotive Electronics

test & measurement

Mixed-signal oscilloscopes

telematics

Field service management

safety

Adaptive cruise control TRUS T ED S O F TWA RE FO R AUTO M OT I V E E l Ec TROn I cS For 30 years the world’s leading automotive electronics companies have trusted Green Hills Software’s secure and reliable high performance software for safetycritical applications. From chassis and safety to powertrain and interior systems, Green Hills Software has been delivering proven and secure underpinning technology. To find out how the world’s most secure and reliable operating system and software can take the risk out of your automotive electronics project, visit www.ghs.com/s4a

power technologies Battery monitors

Copyright © 2012 Green Hills Software. Green Hills Software and the Green Hills logo are registered trademarks of Green Hills Software. All other product names are trademarks of their respective holders.

PRODUCTS + NEWS + DIARY

Automotive Electronics Issue-4

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