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The monthly magazine for automotive electronics engineers

vehicle-electronics.biz

IN THISISSUE

Page 2: Toyota testswireless charger

Page 3: Abslntbecomes Targetlinkpartner

Page 4: STM ine-call test

Page 5: Streamingmusic market

Page 6: EmbeddedWorld report

2: Poweringstart-stop systems

Page 17: Drivingintelligenttransportation

Page 20: The IssueTransportTechnologiesConference

Page 26: Productnews

Page 30: Contactdetails

Issue 03March 2014

Apple became the talk ofthis month’s GenevaMotor Show with Ferrari,Mercedees-Benz andVolvo all demonstratingits Carplay operating sys-tem and 13 other car man-ufacturers promising carsusing the system later thisyear.Volvo says its will pro-duce the first car to useCarplay, the XC90 SUVdue out before the end ofthe year.The aim is to bring fa-miliar features from theIPad, IPhone and IPod tothe large central consoletouchscreen display.Volvo plans to enhanceApple’s capabilities bylinking them to a spe-cially developed interfacethat lets drivers use voiceand touch controls to ac-cess features and serv-ices, ensuring the entireinteraction is always safeand easy to use.

Apple OS is talkof Geneva Show

Users should recognisebasic IPhone applica-tions, such as phone, mes-sages, music andnavigation. The initialoffer also has third partyaudio apps including theSpotify music streamingservice.“IPhone users will feelcompletely at home in anew Volvo,” said HakanSamuelsson, presidentand CEO of the VolvoCar Group. “We have cre-ated a wholly-integrateduser experience in ourlarge portrait-orientedtouchscreen that takes thein-car mobile device ex-perience to a new level.That, coupled with the

obvious driver safety ben-efits of an advanced voicecontrol system like Siri,made Apple a perfectmatch for Volvo.”According to marketanalyst Frost & Sullivan,(F&S) there are questionssurrounding how Apple,which is dominant with ahigh number of smart-phone sales, would lookat a niche automotivemarket with smaller rev-enues.“It should be noted thatApple stepped into theautomotive business in atime where the smart-phone and tablet industryis noticing a slump and ismajorly dominated by thelikes of Android,” said anF&S analyst. “Volkswa-gen Group is not a part ofApple’s plan, since theyare clearly moving to-wards Android with therecent announcementfromAudi.”

NEWS NEWS

Vehicle Electronics Vehicle Electronics, March 2014 March 2014, Page 3

Demonstration of Toyota’s wireless charging

Abslnt and DSpace work together

Uwe Borowski

IT consultancyWipro andanalytics software com-pany Agnik are cooperat-ing to provide connectedcar information technol-ogy services and plat-forms for the automotiveindustry. The serviceswill be powered byAgnik’s big data analyticsproducts, which analysevehicle and driver per-formance informationalong with context datausing a blend of on-boardand cloud-based distrib-uted analytics.Wipro’s experience ofcustomer engagements inthe automotive sector hasenabled it to providetelematics services. Thecompany sells end-to-endIT services covering re-

mote telemetry, M2Mbased transformation,warranty, dealer systemsand analytics.Big data services forconnected car environ-ments can help the auto-motive industry betterunderstand vehicle per-formance and connectwith customers at adeeper level to improveefficiency and brand-loy-alty. Wipro will useAgnik’s analytics prod-ucts to offer automotivecompanies a way to en-able proactive mainte-nance of vehicles,encourage safe driving,and present a person-alised customer experi-ence.Wipro will integrateand support connected

vehicle services forOEMs and tier-one auto-motive suppliers.“Wipro is excited towork with Agnik andbring an innovative con-nected car solution to theautomotive industry andaftermarket businesses,”said Srinivas Rao, Wiprovice president. “We be-lieve advanced person-alised analytics will havea deep game-changingimpact in the connectedcar applications for theautomotive industry.”Agnik’s suite of analyt-ics software providescloud-based tools thattransform data about ve-hicle performance anduser experience into in-sights for connecting with

car owners at a deeperlevel. Its approach in-cludes data stream man-agement, mining softwarefor on-board analytics in-side the vehicle andscalable cloud-basedanalytics by mashingtelematics data with non-telematics data. Its prod-ucts are designed to minelarge scale vehicle anddriver performance datain a distributed cloud en-vironment, providing use-cases including warrantymanagement, detailedprognosis, failure model-ling, geo-spatial analyt-ics, actuarial analysis forinsurance and CRM serv-ices powered by compu-tational advertisementalgorithms.

Toyota has started testinga wireless battery charg-ing system for vehiclesthat use an electric pow-ertrain.The technology lets avehicle be charged simplyby parking it in alignmentwith a coil set into thesurface of the ground.This makes the processsimpler and easier, dis-pensing with cables andconnectors.The system transmitselectricity using magneticresonance created bychanges in magnetic fieldintensity between a trans-mitting coil in the groundand a receiving coil in thecar. It is designed so it can

A common but difficultproblem when manufac-turing complex printedcircuit boards is whenthey fail to boot. How-ever, there are solutionsto these problems, asUwe Borowski, lead ap-plications engineer atGöpel Electronic, will ex-plain in a seminar at thisyear’s Embedded Master-class, which will formpart of National Electron-ics Week at the NEC inBirmingham, UK, from 8to 10 April 2014.The problem is morecommon with prototypes

and cannot be handled bymany high-level test anddebug methods as theydepend on devices start-ing up correctly. There-fore a lower levelapproach is needed.“We will discuss a num-ber of typical faults,” saidBorowski, “and the ap-propriate tools to find anddiagnose them to a levelthat allows the user to re-pair the board and not justshrink the bone pile. Wewill also provide pointerson how to improve themanufacturing process.”Embedded system ac-

cess tools include a num-ber of different technolo-gies based on the five-pinJTag bus. Depending onthe actual design of theboard and the encoun-tered problems, a specifictoolset can be chosen totest and diagnose faultboards effectively in anautomated manner, reduc-ing debug time and cost.Borowski has beenworking with Göpel since2005, first as a field appli-cations engineer in Ger-many and, since 2008, aslead applications engineerin the UK. He looks after

Abslnt Angewandte In-formatik has become apartner for DSpace and amember of the Targetlinkpartner programme. Thetwo companies are work-ing together to coupleAb-slnt analysis tools – AiT,Stack Analyzer andAstrée – with the Tar-getlink production codegenerator.Timing errors, stackoverflows and run-timeerrors due to erroneousmodel specifications can

now be analysed directlyfrom within the Tar-getlink model and de-tected in earlydevelopment phases.Analyses can be config-ured largely to be auto-matic to provide moreprecise results.The tool coupling com-bines model-based soft-ware development withthe verification of non-functional requirementsat the implementationlevel. It will provide

Toyota starts testing wirelesscharger for electric vehicles

reduce any loss in powertransmission efficiencycaused by misalignmentor height differences be-tween the coils.Toyota will use the testresults to develop thetechnology further, withthe aim of bringing thesystem to market. Toyotabelieves its commerciali-sation will help promote

the use of electrified vehi-cles and mobility optionsthat are smarter, easier touse and kinder to the en-vironment.Measures have beentaken to reduce electro-magnetic interferencewith nearby equipment,and the transmitting coilin the ground has beenmade robust enough to

withstand vehicles driv-ing over it.To help the driver alignthe car correctly, Toyotahas developed a functionfor its intelligent parkingassist system that showsthe position of the trans-mitting coil in a parkingspace.The test programme in-volves three plug-in hy-brids used by homes inAichi prefecture in Japan.The magnetic reso-nance charging methoduses a frequency of85kHz, an input voltageof 200V AC and a charg-ing power of 2kW. Charg-ing time is about 90minutes.

Masterclass shows how to check PCBs that fail to boot

everything related toboundary scan and em-bedded system access andworks closely with cus-tomers to optimise teststrategies and the buildquality of PCBs.

Abslnt becomes Targetlink partner

seamlessly integrated de-velopment from modeldesign, to productioncode generation, to certi-

fication, thereby reducingdevelopment time whilealso enhancing softwarequality.

Agnik and Wipro join forceson connected car information

NEWS

Page 4, March 2014 Vehicle Electronics Vehicle Electronics March 2014, Page 5

NEWS

Global shipments ofstreaming music enabledcar infotainment systemswill exceed 66 million bythe end of 2019, accord-ing to ABI Research.In recent years, stream-ing music services haveshown there is a marketfor personalised radio andon-demand subscriptionbased services, listeningvia PCs and laptops andparticularly via smart-phones. Now these com-panies are turning theirattention to the car and

are seeking ways to offertheir services to mo-torists, moving into terri-tory the traditional radiostations have held sacredfor decades.“This means that adver-tisers can run car-specificcampaigns, targeting lis-teners who are typicallythe most engaged withwhat is being broadcast,”said Gareth Owen, princi-pal analyst at ABI Re-search. “FM broadcastingstill dominates in-car lis-tening today, but it is

likely that this will grad-ually diminish in favourof streamed radio andmusic services as an in-creasing number of carsbecome connected.”This trend is alreadyhappening in some mar-kets such as the USA.“It is now clear that dig-ital radio via Dab, Dab+and HD Radio is unlikelyto ever become as wide-spread as FM on a globalor even regional basis,and so car OEMs willneed to include FM re-

ceivers in their infotain-ment products for manyyears to come,” saidOwen.ABI Research forecaststhat global shipments ofstreaming music enabledautomotive infotainmentsystems will exceed 66million by the end of2019, which representsaround 93% of all con-nected car infotainmentshipments.In the car sector, thebiggest problem is that ofplatform fragmentation.

Infotainment provides growingmarket for streaming musicST Microelectronics has

released its Teseo II sin-gle-chip satellite-trackingIC to the European SpaceAgency (ESA) and theEuropean CommissionJoint Research Centre(JRC) for testing for e-call approval. The testingcampaign is coordinatedby the European GNSS(Global Navigation Satel-lite System) Agency aspart of its effort to accel-erate Galileo adoption.The Galileo tests will beconducted by the ESAand JRC to validateSTM’s latest firmware re-lease, according to theEuropean GNSS Agencytest plan.The testing campaignsupports the upcomingGalileo early operationalservices that are expectedto go live at the end of2014. In addition, thetests will evaluate TeseoII compatibility with theEuropean GeostationaryNavigation Overlay Serv-ice (Egnos) and withGalileo for the e-call in-vehicle system thatautomatically sends noti-fication messages fromvehicles involved in anaccident.Beside static and dy-namic test conditions, thetesting plan foresees threedifferent use cases, in sys-tems with single-, dualand triple-constellation(GPS, Galileo andGlonass) operation.

STM puts Teseo II to e-call test

Following the first posi-tion fix using Galileo in-orbit validation satellitesconducted by STM andESA in March 2013, thecompany has imple-mented the GalileoGolden-candidate pro-duction firmware as anadditional constellation inits Teseo II chips. Whilefrom day one Teseo II ICshad the capability to beGalileo-ready, STM is en-abling a firmware updatefrom the Galileo naviga-tion system. This updatedoesn’t require any hard-ware modification.“The launch of the testcampaign with the JRC is

an additional milestonethat reinforces our fullcommitment to supportGalileo on STM’s satel-lite navigation plat-forms,” said AntonioRadaelli, infotainmentbusiness unit directorat ST Microelectronics.“The maturity of ourTeseo II chip combinedwith STM’s long andproven experience in thedevelopment of multi-constellation firmwareare fundamental pillars todemonstrating the capa-bility to successfully op-erate across the range oftest cases, from single totriple multi-constellations

based on GPS, Glonassand Galileo.”Introduced as theclaimed world’s first sin-gle-chip positioning de-vice for multiple globalnavigation systems inJanuary 2011, Teseo II’smulti-constellation ap-proach keeps many satel-lites in sight, deliveringadvantages such asshorter time to first fixand continuous trackingwith enhanced accuracy,even under challengingcircumstances such asdriving through urbancanyons.“Our multi-GNSS mar-ket strength andlong-term automotivecommitment build aunique offering for the e-call application, as well asall other enhanced auto-motive communicationstechnologies such as dig-ital tachographs, tolling,telematics and naviga-tion,” said Radaelli.

At last month’s MobileWorld Congress inBarcelona, Accel Tele-com and Mobile Tornadoannounced a partnershipto provide connected carcommunications.The system will inte-grate Mobile Tornado’sPush To Talk platformwith Accel’s Voyagerconnected car smart-

phone to deliver instantconnectivity and commu-nications for fleet andcommercial vehicles.“We are delighted to be

partnering with Accel,and integrating our serv-ices across its Voyagerrange of in-vehicle de-vices,” said Jeremy Fenn,Mobile Tornado CEO.“These devices can be de-

ployed across many ofour vertical markets, andwe look forward to intro-ducing them to our cus-tomers and partnersacross the world.”Firms can stay in touchwith one or many em-ployees simultaneously,locate its workforce onthe road and alert them ofmajor issues.

Accel and Tornado partnership

Vehicle Electronics Vehicle ElectronicsPage 6, March 2014 March 2014, Page 7

Steve Rogerson reports fromlast month’s Embedded Worldin Nuremberg, Germany

FUN OFTHE FAIR

A model car dodging toypedestrians provided anample illustration of Xil-inx’s latest capabilities inthe advanced driver assis-tance systems (adas) fieldand promoted the launchof the Logidak develop-ment kit based round the

Xilinx teams up for adas democompany’s Zynq-7000all-programmable SoC.

Jointly developed withXylon, Embedded VisionSystems (EVS) and Digi-tal Design, the kit helpsOEM car makers and tier-one suppliers developadas capabilities with upto six cameras.

“This runs on theFPGA, which takes theinformation from fourcameras and turns it intovisual information, suchas a bird’s eye view,” saidBill Klinger, programmemanager for Xilinx. “Afifth camera is runningpedestrian protection IP,or it could run vehicle de-tection or lane departurewarning software.”

Michela Farenzena,software developmentmanager with EVS, wasdemonstrating the com-pany’s IP for vehicle de-tection.

“It can distinguish be-tween vehicles and whatare not vehicles,” shesaid. “We developed theIP core and the softwarethat gives us that and it isimplemented in Zynq. Weare also developingpedestrian detection andlane departure warning.”

EVS is working withXylon on commercialis-ing the IP. Xylon is alsodeveloping face-recogni-tion software for adas ap-plications.

“We are going to builda prototype for detecting

driver drowsiness,” saidDavor Kovačec, CEO forXylon. “The next genera-tion of our face recogni-tion software will be outin the second quarter thisyear with a higher framerate and better quality. Wewill probably have thedriver drowsiness featureby the end of the year.”

The kit is a completeout-of-the-box develop-ment platform thatincludes application spe-cific software and refer-ence designs that can beused for rapid test vehicleinstallation and demon-stration.

The customisable refer-ence designs come withevaluation IP cores and afull design framework forcamera-based adas thatallows integration of ad-ditional customer devel-oped software or IP basedfunctions.

“The advantage youhave with an FPGA isyou can be more flexible

in being able to addthings,” said Klinger. “Itwould be difficult to addanother camera if youused an asic, but you canre-programme the FPGAon the fly.”

He said there were al-ready OEMs working onthe system and Ford wasplanning to implement aversion on its F150pickup truck.

The platform is basedon the Zynq-7000, whichcan deliver real-time per-formance capabilitieswhile meeting automo-tive temperature andquality needs by exceed-ing AEC-Q100 qualifica-tion requirements. Withits Arm dual-core Cortex-A9 MPCore processingsystem integrated withXilinx’s 7-Series FPGAtechnology, the SoC en-ables the rapid develop-ment of integrated,intelligent and flexiblehardware and softwareadas products.

Bill Klinger with the adas demo

Michela Farenzena:“We are alsodeveloping pedestriandetection and lanedeparture warning.”

Davor Kovacec: “Wewill probably have thedriver drowsinessfeature by the end ofthe year.”

Vehicle ElectronicsPage 8, March 2014 Vehicle Electronics March 2014, Page 9

Introduced earlier thisyear, an HPerc (for high-performance extremerugged computer) fromAdlink was on show intwo forms, one withfinned coolers and onewith a conduction plate.

“They are aimed at ve-hicles,” said regionalsales manager MarkTurner. “They can beused in unmanned vehi-cles, land vehicles andmaritime. Though theyare aimed at military, weare finding them in differ-ent transportation appli-cations.”

They have military con-

LDRA introduced theLCMS compliance man-agement system to pro-vide companies with theproper infrastructure forenabling ISO 26262 com-pliance. It walks usersthrough the compliantplans, document and tran-sition checklists, stan-dards and other lifecycledocuments, and problemreports to help customersmanage software plan-ning, development, veri-fication and regulatoryactivities of ISO 26262Part 6, Product Develop-ment: Software Level.

“It means the supplierswill have proof that theyhave complied beforethey pass the softwareonto to the OEMs,” saidJim McElroy, vice presi-dent of marketing. “It willalso help them get up tospeed on the standardfrom a requirements per-spective.”

Although ISO 26262 isnot government man-dated, automotive OEMshave adopted the standardfor their supply chain as away to ensure quality andto manage risk and liabil-ities. For suppliers, thisdemand for standardcompliance imposes aneed for explicit

Automotive OEMs areputting more pressure ontier one suppliers to testtheir software, accordingto William McCaffrey,chief operating officer at

Vector Software.“They don’t necessarily

want to do it, but they arebeing told they have to doit,” he said.

But one of the problems

Rugged computer in two versions

nectors and can achieveIP67 rating as well as op-erate in temperaturesfrom -40 to +75˚C for the

finned Vita 75.21 versionand to +85˚C for the Vita75.22 plate-mount model.

Some potential cus-

tomers are trying thecomputers out at the mo-ment and more samplesare about to come out ofthe factory for customerevaluation.

“The alternative solu-tions are almost twice theprice,” said Turner.

The company was alsoshowing the Matrix boxPC that can provide in-vehicle applications suchas GPS, Wifi, camerasand display informationfor buses and taxis.

“It can also be used inrailways,” said Turner,“as an infotainment sys-tem.”

Mark Turner: “The alternatives are almosttwice the price.”

OEMs pressurise tier ones on testingwith this, he said, wasthat a lot of the microcon-trollers in automotive aresmall chips with limitedmemory.

“That is why we havecome up with a reducedfootprint that will fit onthe chip to do the testing,”he said.

To help engineers, thecompany established aglobal services division inDecember.

“Companies don’t wanttool vendors to drop toolsat their door,” he said.“They want help with get-ting them into the processand that is what this divi-sion is doing.”

As part of this, the com-

pany has opened an officein Munich to serve auto-motive customers insouthern Germany aswell as those in Austriaand Switzerland.

A key feature of its of-fering at EmbeddedWorld was the concept ofchange-based testing tohelp engineers quickly as-sess the impact of asource code change ontheir code and the entiresoftware application.

“Instead of having torun every test, our soft-ware is clever enough toknow what files havebeen changed so you onlyhave to run a subset of thetests,” said McCaffrey.

William McCaffrey: “They don’t necessarilywant to do it, but are being told they have to.”

LDRA provides help forISO 26262 compliance

processes and documen-tation that providesprocess and product visi-bility and enables processassessment by OEMsafety assessors sent toaudit suppliers.

LCMS includes the de-tailed document tem-plates outlined by the ISO26262 standard and walksthe LCMS customerthrough the required ac-tivities needed to gain ap-proval for each stage ofdevelopment.

“It will expediate howthey can create docu-ments required by thestandard,” said McElroy.“And it tracks all thechanges in the docu-ments.”

LCMS aims to helpcompanies transitionthrough the stages, au-tomating the process to

Jim McElroy: “It tracks all the changes.”

ensure that progress fromone stage to another isseamless.

LDRA offers the soft-ware to operate in eithercloud-based or locallyhosted environments.LCMS Local is installedand secured behind an ap-plicant’s firewall to ad-

dress security-sensitiverequirements whileLCMS Cloud delivers amore economical optionfor companies withgreater flexibility. Bothoptions include two-dayquick start training.• LDRA announced apartnership with Xilinx atthe show to streamlinestandards compliance forsafety-critical applicationdevelopment. The toolsuite has been integratedwith the Zynq-7000 SoCand development kit.

“They need a strongmessage on the safetycritical side with the in-crease in software in thevehicle, so it makes senseto partner with us,” saidMcElroy.

Screengrab of LDRA’s LCMS compliancemanagement system


Though Mouser is be-coming known as a lead-ing semiconductordistributor, its focus atEmbedded World was onits design capabilitieswith a range of develop-ment kits on offer thatwould put some largerdistributors to shame.And the company’s offerto visitors to win develop-ment kits attracted visi-tors in droves to thestand. There was nearlyUS$13,000 worth ofgiveaways.

In fairness, the com-pany has always aimed itsoffering at the design en-gineer, concentrating onsmall volumes rather thanthe bulk selling of someof its competitors. But

Mouser focuses on developmentthis year, it made sure themessage was clear.

“We decided to focuson what the customers tothe show like to see,” saidGraham Maggs, Mou-ser’s marketing director.“The manufacturers focuson products so with the

support of the supplierswe have the latest devel-opment kits for the newerproducts that are eitherout or due to be out.”

He said that had re-sulted in visitors up some40% on the previous year.And this year, sales of de-

velopment kits were dou-ble that of last year.

“We want to provide thedesign engineer with thetotal solution,” saidMaggs. “We are gettingmore involved with opensource hardware, soft-ware, peripherals, boardsand so on. We are goingto introduce more testequipment for the designand development engi-neers.”• Embedded World endedwith 26,688 trade visitorspassing through thedoors, a new record and18% up on last year.There were 856 ex-hibitors from 35 coun-tries, making it thebiggest in the show’s 12year history.

Graham Maggs: “We decided to focus on whatthe customers to the show like to see.”

In-car applications areamong the markets tar-geted by Silica for itsArchitech family of de-velopment and referenceboards.

The family was intro-duced a year ago and thisyear it added two moreboards – the Tibidabo de-velopment platformbased on the Freescalei.MX 6 quad applicationsprocessor and theHachiko, which is sup-plied with a Linux kerneloptimised for the RenesasRZ/A1H MCU.

To help promote the

range, the company hasfive software field engi-neers to help customersget up to speed.

“They are doing a simi-lar job to a field applica-tions engineer,” saidtechnical director Lau-rence Dellicott, “but com-pletely in the softwaredomain.”

The Linux distributionwith Hachiko is Yoctocompatible, letting userscreate custom Linuxbased systems quicklywhile avoiding the com-plexity of standard MPUboards. The developers at

Silica have ported gui li-braries to the distributionwith a demo application,and source code is avail-able in open source.

As well as its quad ArmCortex-A9 CPU clockedat 800MHz, the Tibidaboboard carries features tosatisfy developers target-ing high-end embeddedapplications such as digi-tal signage, automotiveinfotainment and gaming.Its payload includes2Gbyte DDR3 ram, dualLVDS interfaces to drivelarge HD display panelsdirectly using standard

Reference boards aimed inside cars

50-pin connectors, and astandard HDMI interface.

“This is for in-car appli-cations rather than underthe bonnet,” said Delli-cott. “It can take datafrom the car to use for di-agnosis purposes.”

Laurence Dellicott

Combining the processorand FPGA into a singleSoC has helped Alteragrow its market in the au-tomotive world, accord-ing to product managerStefano Zammattio.

“This really brings inpower and size savings,”he said.

He said typical applica-tions included driver as-sistance systems usingmultiple cameras thatneed stitching together.

“We have major auto-motive manufacturersworking on our products,though not in productionyet,” he said. “We haveseveral OEMs building

Combined SoC attracts car makers

their camera systemsbased on these devices.”

He said they could alsobe used in traffic monitor-ing applications searchingfor cars doing, say, illegalturns.

“They can add intelli-gence to the cameras sothe operator doesn’t haveto sit there looking at thescreen,” he said.

The company’s first-generation Cyclone V

Arm Cortex based SoCsare shipping in full pro-duction and the second-generation Arriva Vproducts are available asengineering samples.

The Arria 10 FPGA andSoC family has been an-nounced including third-generation Cortex A9hard processors. Userscan start designing withthese 20nm parts usingthe company’s Quartus II13.1 software suite.

Finally, the companyhas announced that itsStratix 10 fourth-genera-tion SoCs will use a 64bitquad-core Cortex A53hard processor.

Stefano Zammattio: “We have major automotivemanufacturers working on our products.”

The boom in infotain-ment has led to Freescaleseeing an increase of 50%year on year for the num-ber of its i.Mx processorsgoing into cars, accordingto vice president of salesand marketing SteveWainwright.

“We are number two inautomotive infotainmentprocessors,” he said. Buthe added the automotivebusiness was changingenormously.

“We were talking notthat long ago about theconnected car in terms ofmultimedia,” he said,“but now we are seeingall the driver assistance

Processing revolutionfeatures. Automotive isseeing a real revolution.”

This had mainly been inthe areas of car networksand powertrains, but thelatest adas applicationswere demanding muchhigher level processing.

“They are really leaningon the multimedia capa-bilities we are seeing inother industries,” saidWainwright. “Connectiv-ity is a given in many ofthese automotive applica-tions.”

His colleague seniorvice president Geoff Leesadded: “The graphics per-formance in automotive isincreasing exponentially.We are having to moveright up to the high end ofthe graphics spectrum tomeet the expectations ofour customers.”

Steve WainwrightGeoff Lees: “Thegraphics performancein automotive isincreasingexponentially.”

POWER TECHNOLOGIES POWER TECHNOLOGIES


Knowing when to stopBruce Haug explains how to powerautomotive start-stop electronic systems

Many car makers have de-vised a clever way ofsaving fuel in vehicles

by using a concept called a start-stop system. This automatically

switches off the engine when thecar is at a standstill and in neutral,then restarts it as soon as thedriver presses the clutch pedalagain.The auto start-stop functionhelps reduce both fuel consump-tion and emissions by turning offthe engine each time the vehiclecomes to a complete stop, such asat traffic lights, and restarts itagain automatically. The reductionin fuel consumption can be as

Citröen usesstart-stoptechnology onits C3 range

POWER TECHNOLOGIES POWER TECHNOLOGIES

Vehicle Electronics March 2014, Page 15Vehicle ElectronicsPage 14, March 2014

much as 8% in city traffic com-pared with a car without such asystem. This has the added benefitof reducing its carbon dioxidefootprint.The principle is simple, if theengine is not running, it does notconsume fuel. The start-stop func-tion turns off the engine wheneverit is not needed. In a traffic jam oreven in stop-and-go traffic, simplyputting the car into neutral andtaking the foot from the clutchwill activate the function. A start-stop message on the display willsignal that the engine has beenturned off. To start the engineagain, depress the clutch, put thecar back into gear and the engineimmediately springs back to lifeready to drive on without delay.Driving comfort and safety arenot affected by the function. It isnot activated, for example, untilthe engine has reached an idealrunning temperature. The sameapplies if the air conditioner hasnot yet brought the cabin to the

desired temperature, if the batteryis not adequately charged or if thedriver moves the steering wheel.The function is coordinated by acentral control unit that monitorsdata from all relevant sensors, in-cluding the starter motor and thealternator. If necessary for com-fort or safety, the control unit willautomatically restart the engine.For example, if the vehicle beginsto roll, the battery charge falls toolow or condensation forms on thewindscreen. Furthermore, mostsystems recognise the differencebetween a temporary stop and theend of the trip. It will not restartthe engine if the driver’s seatbeltis undone, or if the door or trunkis open. If desired, the functioncan be completely deactivatedwith the press of a button.However, when the enginerestarts and there is an infotain-ment system on or any other elec-tronic device requiring greaterthan 5V, there is a possibility thatthe 12V battery can dip to below5V causing these systems to reset.

Some infotainment systems oper-ate from a 5 and 8.5V input fedfrom a step-down converter oper-ating from the car battery. Whenthe input voltage dips below 5Vduring an engine restart (coldcrank), these systems will resetwhen the DC-DC converter onlyhas the capability to step down theinput voltage. Obviously, it is notacceptable to be watching a videoor listening to a CD and havethem automatically reset everytime the car restarts.

DC-DC controllerFortunately, triple output DC-DCcontrollers exist that combine asynchronous boost controller andtwo synchronous step-down con-trollers in a single package. Thesynchronous boost converter out-put feeds the step-down convert-ers to maintain a high enoughvoltage to prevent electronic sys-tems requiring greater than 4V toreset during an engine restart. Inaddition, when the input voltagefrom the car battery to the boost

Bruce Haug

converter is higher than its pro-grammed output voltage, it runs at100% duty cycle and simplypasses the input voltage directly tothe step-down converters, reduc-ing power loss.Fig. 1 shows a schematic withthe synchronous boost convertersupplying 10V to the synchronousstep-down converters when thebattery voltage drops below 10V.In addition to powering the twostep-down converters, which pro-duce 5V/5A and 8.5V/3A in thisexample, the boost converter canbe used as a third output that canprovide an additional 2A output.Such a low quiescent current,current mode control, triple-out-put synchronous DC-DC con-troller can operate with alln-channel mosfets from inputvoltages ranging from 4.5 to 38Vduring start-up and down to 2.5Vafter start-up. The two buck con-trollers, channels one and two, op-erate 180˚ out of phase and canproduce output voltages from 0.8to 24V that are suitable for navi-gation, infotainment systems,processors and memory. Theboost controller, channel three,operates in phase with channelone and can produce output volt-ages up to 60V. The fixed operat-Fig. 1: Typical start-stop application schematic

Fig. 2: Burst mode operation voltage diagram

Fig. 3: Efficiency versus load current for differentconverter sections

ing frequency can be programmedfrom 50 to 900kHz or can be syn-chronised to an external clockover a 75 to 850kHz range.

Battery run timesAny battery powered system thatrequires an always-on power buswhile the rest is turned off mustconserve battery energy. This stateis commonly referred to as sleep,standby or idle mode and requiresthese systems to have very lowquiescent current. The need forlow quiescent current to conservebattery energy is especially impor-

tant in automotive applicationsthat can have several electricalcircuits such as telematics, CDand DVD players, remote keylessentry, and multiple always-on buslines. The collective current con-sumption of these systems duringstandby mode needs to be as lowas possible and the pressure con-tinues to mount for battery energyconservation as cars become moredependent on electronic systemsfor their operation.DC-DC controllers as discussedhere draws as little as 28µAwhenin sleep mode with the boost con-

POWER TECHNOLOGIES IN-VEHICLE COMPUTERS


verter and one of the buck con-verters on. With all three channelson and in sleep mode, they candraw down to 38µA, which signif-icantly extends battery run timeswhen in idle mode. This is doneby configuring the part to enterhigh efficiency burst mode opera-tion, where it delivers short burstsof current to the output capacitorfollowed by a sleep period wherethe output power is delivered tothe load by the output capacitoronly. Fig. 2 shows the conceptualtiming diagram of how this works.

Load dumpLoad dump is a term that refers tothe inductive kick that happensafter the starter motor is turnedoff. This surge voltage is normallyclamped to 36V maximum for a12V lead acid automotive typebattery system. This surge re-quires the controller, mosfets andassociated components being ca-pable of operating at the clampedvoltage. Based on the circuit inFig. 1, the efficiency is above92% at full load for each rail asshown in Fig. 3. For clarity, the

efficiency of each buck and boostsection is shown separately. In ad-dition, the layout and size for thiscircuit is shown in Fig. 4 with thetallest part being 4.8mm high.

Protection featuresThese devices can be configuredto sense the output current byusing DCR (inductor resistance)or a sense resistor. The choice be-tween the two current sensingschemes is largely a trade-off be-tween cost, power consumptionand accuracy. DCR sensing is be-coming popular because it savesexpensive current sensing resis-tors and is more power efficient,especially in high current applica-tions.On-board comparators monitorthe buck output voltage and signalan overvoltage condition when theoutput is greater than 10% of itsnominal output voltage. When thiscondition is sensed, the top mosfetis turned off and the bottom mos-fet is turned on until the overvolt-age condition is cleared. Thebottom mosfet remains on contin-uously for as long as the overvolt-

age condition persists. If the out-put voltage returns to a safe level,normal operation automaticallyresumes.

ConclusionAutomotive start-stop systemsallow for fuel savings that willcontinue to evolve over the nextseveral years. Care must be takenwith regards to powering on-board infotainment and navigationsystems that need up to, or can ex-ceed, 5V for correct operation.These systems can reset when theinput voltage drops out of regula-tion with an engine restart.But devices exist that boost thebattery voltage to a safe operatinglevel with an on-board synchro-nous boost controller. Combinedwith two synchronous step-downcontrollers, suitable for poweringmany automotive electronic de-vices, these devices maintain reg-ulation for all output voltagesduring an engine restart. �

Bruce Haug is senior productmarketing engineer for LinearTechnology

Fig. 4: Size and layout of demo board top (left) and bottom sides

Driving intelligenttransportation

In-vehicle computers canembrace diverse integrations,according to Steven Wu

The recent rise of the inter-net of things (IoT) hasbrought several innova-

tions to the development of intelli-gent transportation, which started20 years ago. In-vehicle comput-ers, the main building blocks ofintelligent transportation, arewidely used to increase transportefficiency, to improve transporta-tion safety and to meet the de-mands of surveillance,

London taxis were fitted within-vehicle computers to provideinformation during the 2012London OlympicsPhoto: Mercedes-Benz

IN-VEHICLE COMPUTERS IN-VEHICLE COMPUTERS


entertainment and more. To fulfilthe expanding requirements of in-telligent transportation, integrat-ing communications technologiesand industrial designs into thein-vehicle computers are key forsuccess.The technology of communica-tions devices in intelligent trans-portation has been evolvingcontinuously. To keep up with thetechnology and establish a firmfooting in intelligent transporta-tion, new generation in-vehiclecomputers require the ability tocollect, store and analyse data, aswell as include communications,tracking and navigation mecha-nisms. However, unlike conven-tional computers, in-vehiclecomputers need to adapt and inter-operate with different automotiveelectronics in various vehicles.Therefore, there are complex de-sign issues concerning powermanagement, communicationsand navigation that require carefulthought.

Rugged platformThe characteristics and behaviourof the automotive battery are dif-ferent than municipal electricitynot only in the unstable voltagesand amplitudes, but also in thepower surges that occur duringvehicle ignition, which can dam-age in-vehicle computers. In addi-tion, automotive electricalsystems vary from vehicle to vehi-cle. In light of this, incorporatingwide range DC power input, low-voltage detection and protection,power ignition delay on-off con-trol, idle mode, and power overEthernet (PoE) are key design ele-ments to provide a viable andrugged power management mech-anism that allows in-vehicle com-puters to work with each type ofautomotive electrical system.Wide range DC power input,low-voltage detection and protec-tion, and power ignition delay on-off control enable these computersto overcome problems caused bylow voltages and power surges

and maintain ongoing data com-munications and integrity whenthe vehicle is turned off. In addi-tion, instead of shutting downcompletely, entering idle mode al-lows remote wake-up of the in-ve-hicle computers. Lastly, with PoEin place, data and power can beshared on a single cable, simplify-ing cable installation for IP cam-eras or other peripheral devices.In terms of communications, asdata are transmitted over Wifi and3.5G networks, additional roam-ing costs may incur when used inlarge geographic countries such asin Europe and America. To savecost and maintain optimal connec-tion when travelling between dif-ferent regions operated bydifferent telecommunicationsservice providers, system integra-tors often turn to in-vehicle com-puters with dual-sim support. Inaddition, a wake-on-SMS featureallows remote power-on over cel-lular networks, enabling adminis-trators to upload work-relatedinformation or software updates inadvance, thereby improving workefficiency.For seamless integration withthe vehicle’s components, apartfrom supporting general networkcommunications, in-vehicle com-puters need to support Can busstandards such as SAE J1939 andJ1708 to collect data on fuel con-sumption, mileage, engine tem-perature and speed as well ascontrol vehicle components.Navigation wise, the computersneed to consider the positioningsystems in different regions andprovide support for GPS (USA),Galileo (Europe), Glonass (Rus-sia) and Beido (China). Further-more, advanced functions such as

From pedestrians, vehicles and roads toroadside infrastructures, next generationin-vehicle computers will be moreconnected than ever as the IoT grows

dead reckoning are required toprovide position tracking whenvehicles enter tunnels or areaswhere satellite signals areblocked, and immediately re-establish positioning and naviga-tion after the vehicles exit the tun-nels or receive satellite signals.

Connected everywhereIn-vehicle computers are prima-rily used for fleet management,in-vehicle surveillance, infotain-ment and intelligent transport.Fleet management improves trans-portation efficiency by assistingroad transportation, emergencyservice and waste managementoperators in dispatching vehicles,recording drivers’ behaviours andworking hours, tracking vehiclesand optimising routes. For exam-ple, a major US carrier uses in-ve-hicle computers to assess thesignal strength of various regionsand provide improvements. In-ve-hicle computers are also used byanother major US carrier to en-hance field engineer coordinationand strengthen the efficiency andquality of customer service.

On the other hand, in-vehiclesurveillance is applied in publictransportation and transportingvaluable goods or hazardous ma-terials to ensure transport safety.Security administrators can moni-tor for suspicious activities in realtime from a remote location andtake proactive measures, or storethe surveillance data and use themas evidence when required.Digital signage is the most com-mon form of in-vehicle infotain-ment, for example, in response tothe London Olympics, local taxiswere equipped with in-vehiclecomputers to display tourism in-formation and process credit-cardpayments.For intelligent transportation, inaddition to public transit arrivalinformation systems, vehicle andpedestrian collision avoidancesystems as well as emergencytraffic notifications are emergingas the norm.The “intelligent” of intelligenttransportation will span across awide area of subjects, from pedes-trians, vehicles, roads to roadsideinfrastructures as the IoT expands.

In-vehicle computers will adoptWave (wireless access in vehicu-lar environments) and DSRC(dedicated short-range communi-cations) technology to provide in-telligent roadside functions. Thelow-latency transmission charac-teristic of Wave/DSRC can satisfythe communications needs of ve-hicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) andvehicle-to-any (V2X), and pro-vide real-time alerts to notify driv-ers about the changes in thesurrounding roadside environ-ment.By integrating Wave/DSRC, in-vehicle computers can retrievereal-time traffic status and guidedrivers in locating the fastest driv-ing route, or notify drivers aboutthe speed change of the vehiclewithin a 1km radius. This givesdrivers more time to react andprevent traffic collision, thus pro-viding safety and improving theoverall transport efficiency. �

Steven Wu is general managerof mobile computing atNexcom

IO rich in-vehicle computer based on Intel’s i7 CPU

TRANSPORTATION TRANSPORTATION


Nine out of every ten citydwellers in the EuropeanUnion experience a level

of air pollution that is considereddamaging to health. That was themessage from Professor PaulMonks from the University ofLeicester at The Issue SustainableTransport Technologies Confer-ence in February.Held at the Holywell Confer-ence Park on Loughborough Uni-versity’s campus, the event hadthe theme of looking at how col-laboration between different trans-port sectors, from automotive torail, marine and air, could providethe innovation necessary to tacklethis growing problem.Not surprisingly, Nicky Morgan,the local Conservative MP,

BIG ISSUES Steve Rogerson reports fromThe Issue Sustainable TransportTechnologies Conference inLoughborough, Leicestershire, UK

claimed the government was tack-ling these issues with a long-termstrategy of “stable funding, newinvestment and leadership forbold projects”. But she did seemto appreciate the scale of the prob-lem pointing out that, for exam-ple, more people are using trainsnow than in 1920 when the net-work was twice the size and thatthe past 20 years have seen roadtraffic increase by a fifth.“The government is investing inrail and road,” she said. “The nextfew decades will be exciting forthe transport sector.”This was echoed by Jim Lupton,deputy technical director of theRail Industry Association. “Therail sector is very buoyant,” hesaid. “We are seeing tremendous

Nicky Morgan: “The government is investing in rail and road.”

Holywell Conference Park atLoughborough University

TRANSPORTATION TRANSPORTATION


growth not just in the rail networkbut in London Underground.”

UrbanisationThe question though is how to in-crease the level of transportationto meet a growing demand yettackle air pollution. Now, whileMonks acknowledges that theproblem is higher in city centres,on the overall pollution front thereare positives from this.“There is an increase in urbani-sation,” he said, “but this is notnecessarily a bad thing. You canminimise journeys and resourceuse in cities.” But he acknowl-edged that: “Transport lies at thecentre of many of the solutions tothe problems of air pollution.However, it is not fair to say thatall the problems are from trans-portation.”He said that even though therewere methods that were being ex-plored to reduce pollution, itmight reach a situation where the

policy was to adapt to the pollu-tion.“The whole push on air qualityis to reduce the effect on health,”he said. “We make policy to affectemissions. We then observe theeffects on human exposure. Wemay have to move towards adap-tation. We have high concentra-tions of pollution, so how do weadapt to that?”He pointed out that there havebeen successes and many pollu-tants had experienced a two-thirdsreduction. But at the same timethere had been an increase inother pollutants. This brings withit another, quite serious problem,in that reducing one pollutant canincrease others, ozone being aprime example.Jim Lupton: “The rail sector is very buoyant.”

Marco Petrelli: “We propose an approach that takes into accountthe best of both.”

“In urban areas, traffic is actu-ally suppressing the amount ofozone,” he said. “So as we cleanup traffic in urban areas, we couldaccelerate global warming. Sothere are choices when we are try-ing to improve air quality and re-duce climate change. Some ideasthat improve air quality are actu-ally bad for climate change.”A good example of this he saidwere diesel particulate filters thatdid improve air quality but werebad for climate change.“This is a particularly thornyissue,” he said. “You attack oneproblem and increase another. Ithink full lifecycle analysis isabsolutely essential to see theeffects of improving one area onother areas.”

Different approachesThis brings with it the problem ofanalysing traffic in urban areasand then using the data to improvethe situation. Traditionally, Eu-rope and the USA have taken dif-ferent routes towards this, withthe USA concentrating onanalysing particularly bad inter-sections and looking at how trafficflow through them can be im-proved. Europe tends to take amore macro approach, bringing infactors such as average vehiclespeed and distance travelled.“We propose an approach thattakes into account the best of bothof these,” said Marco Petrellifrom Roma Tre University inItaly. “We estimate pollutantemissions over a large area butwith the microscopic accuracyyou get from the US system.”This approach has been put tothe test in the southern Italian cityof Brindisi, with about 100,000inhabitants.

“We can see the localisation ofemissions at intersections,” hesaid. “And we can see the impactof different policies, such as one-way systems, as well as optimis-ing flow through intersections.”

Gathering dataAt present, there are a number ofways already that data needed toperform the analysis can be gath-ered, and these were explored byRoland Leigh, a lecturer atLeicester University. Such datasources include automatic numberplate recognition systems, vehicleprofiles, CCTV, MoT information,satnavs, GPS, tyre pressure meas-urement devices, road temperaturesensors, fleet management sys-tems, radar, wireless sensor net-works and so on. Induction loopscan measure traffic volumes,wheel base, weight and speed.“What they don’t measure isqueue length,” said Leigh, “butthat can be modelled from exist-ing data. Satnav systems are nowgiving more information on con-gestion. There are some interest-ing apps that are now appearing togather the information fromsmartphones.”In the future, drones – un-manned aerial vehicles – could beused to gather traffic data. Thereare also now trials of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastruc-ture networks. Sensor systems canalready direct drivers to vacantparking spaces.“Full vehicle tracking is one ofthe major data schemes we couldsee,” said Leigh. “That could bewidely available within tenyears.”The question though is how touse these data for improving airquality and traffic management. In

certain areas, they could be usedfor autonomous driving schemesand platooning on motorways.The difficult issue there is thetransition to autonomous driving.How easy will it be to have self-driving cars mixing in the sameareas as those being driven nor-mally? Maybe areas in citiescould be created in which onlycars with autonomous driving areallowed into at certain times ofday.“The real issue is the transitionfrom non-autonomous to au-tonomous vehicles,” said Leigh.In the short term though datacan provide congestion informa-tion to drivers. There could alsobe adaptive speed limits on motor-ways and adaptive prioritisationwhere, say, electric vehicles aregiven priority in high pollutionareas.Leigh said that these data couldalso be used by large corporationsthat have many people commutinginto one area to encourage carsharing, cycling and so on.But he warned about there beingtoo many journey planning andcongestion systems, which could

Roland Leigh: “There are someinteresting apps that are nowappearing to gather the infor-mation from smartphones.”

TRANSPORTATION ELECTRIC VEHICLES


lead to fragmentation in the mar-ket and a dilution of the availabledata.“You need to reach a criticalmass and avoid fragmentationwith different systems,” he said.

TransportationOn the railway front, MarcusMayers, programme manager forFuture Railway, said the numberof passengers was set to doubleover the next 20 years, which willmean more carriages are neededand increase the amount of elec-tricity used.

“Where will the electricity comefrom?” he asked. “How can weguarantee supplies? What will thatdo to our power networks?”He also said remote areas wouldcontinue to rely on diesel enginesand the railway companies had tolook at reducing emissions fromthem.The marine industry was alsolooking at moving from diesel todiesel-electric hybrids, saidAdrian Waddams, a marine spe-cialist at the Transport KnowledgeTransfer Network (KTN). But hepointed out: “Shipping is the mostenvironmentally friendly methodof transportation. Shipping ac-counts for about six per cent ofglobal CO2 production, but the in-dustry is looking to reduce that.”He said that while there was nomandate in the same way as therewas with automotive, there was aglobal agreement for future shipsto be designed in a way that re-duced CO2.“The goal is to reduce CO2 by25% by 2050,” he said. “There isa lot of research and developmentwork going on.”Cost he said was also a driver inthis as diesel accounted for 50 to70% of the total cost of a shippingoperation.“That is why they are lookingtowards alternatives such asdiesel-electric hybrids and fuelcells,” he said.They are also looking at alterna-tive fuels and at wind power. Sailscould return in a big way. Andhull coatings are also being con-sidered.“If a ship has a dirty bottom, itcan cancel out all the other sav-ings,” he said. “Weather routing isalso important. Anticipatingwhere there is heavy weather and

knowing how to avoid it can makebig savings.”The number of planes is set todouble in the next 20 years,warned Philippe Lattes, deputy di-rector of Aerospace Valley. “Thisis a major challenge to reduce theimpact of that,” he said.One of the problems was thatthey could not make big modifica-tions to existing planes, so muchof the emphasis was on the designof new planes. One possibilitythough with existing planes is toreduce the fuel consumption whenthey are on the ground, which ac-counts for up to about two percent of fuel consumption. Movingto electric motors could help here.“Another is to optimise the tra-jectories of all the planes,” hesaid. “In Europe, a lot of planesare not flying in direct lines andwe are trying to optimise theflight trajectories. This could re-duce fuel consumption by be-tween five and 15%.”

ConclusionWhat all at the conference wereclear on was that to solve theseproblems, closer collaboration be-tween the different transport sec-tors was needed, but achievingthat might not be that straightfor-ward.“The rail industry is dreadful atworking with other people,” saidMayers. “We have to change thatto take advantage of commonalityin technologies. Automotive isdoing that very well in the UK.”“Working in partnership is theright way to go,” added AdrianVinsome, interim director of theTransport KTN.Good intentions for sure, buttime will tell whether these can beput into practice. �

Paul Monks: “As we clean uptraffic in urban areas, we couldaccelerate global warming.”

Adrian Vinsome: “Working inpartnership is the way to go.”

Wireless charging sys-tems for electric vehi-cles provide several

advantages over conventionalplug-in technology, foremostamong them convenience for EVowners. Until recently, these sys-tems were in the R&D and pilotstages only, but now productshave begun to reach the market,and several major EV manufactur-ers have plans to offer modelswith wireless charging capabilityin the 2015 to 2016 timeframe.According to a report from Nav-igant Research, worldwide salesof wireless EV charging systemswill grow from a few hundred in2014 to nearly 302,000 by 2022.“Although some in the industry

remain unconvinced that wirelesscharging will ever be more than asmall niche market, it’s clear thatmajor automakers have concludedthat this technology could be adifferentiator in a crowded EVmarket,” said Richard Martin, edi-torial director with Navigant Re-search. “Features once consideredluxury items, such as power win-dows and automatic garage dooropeners, tend to spread, over time,across all vehicle segments – andthat is likely to apply to wirelesscharging, as well.”Several developments in 2013signalled the beginning of a newphase in this emerging market, ac-cording to the report. Bosch an-

nounced a sales and distributionagreement with Evatran, maker ofthe Plugless Power system, withproducts scheduled to reach themarket in the first quarter of 2014.Also, the Society of AutomotiveEngineers (SAE) said its WirelessPower Transfer Task Force forvehicles had agreed on a standardfrequency for wireless EV charg-ing, reducing the possibility of astandards battle among competingvendors.The report – “Wireless ChargingSystems for Electric Vehicles” –analyses the fledgling market for

wireless charging systems forEVs. It examines the technologyof wireless EV charging and theefforts of technology developers,working in partnership with carmakers, to bring systems to mar-ket. Global market forecasts forsales of wireless EV charging sys-tems, segmented by region, ex-tend through 2022. The report alsolooks at the demand drivers andmarket barriers associated withwireless EV charging, along withthe efforts of car makers to incor-porate wireless charging capabil-ity into their EV models. �

The futureis wireless

Report predictsmassive growth inwireless chargingsystems for electricvehicles

Are the days of wired charging already numbered? Photo: Nissan

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Vehicle Electronics Vehicle ElectronicsPage 26, March 2014 March 2014, Page 27

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Shutting down ECUssafely when a fault devel-ops is a key potential ap-plication for the Pic16(L)F161x family of8bit microcontrollers an-nounced by Microchip atEmbedded World inNuremberg.These MCUs expandthe offering of the com-pany’s core independentperipherals, which off-load timing-critical andcore-intensive tasks fromthe CPU, allowing it tofocus on other things.They integrate fault-de-tecting hardware to helpengineers develop safety-critical applications.“You want an ECU toshut down safely if thecode is corrupted,” saidGreg Robinson, Mi-crochip’s 8bit MCU mar-keting director. “Theywill detect the corruptionand then shut down safelyor alert the driver thatthere is somethingwrong.”A windowed watchdogtimer monitors propersoftware operation withinpredefined limits. Acyclic redundancy checkwith memory scan detectsand scans memory forcorrupted data. And ahardware limit timer de-tects hardware fault con-

Microcontrollers helpshut down ECUs safely

ditions, including stalland stop, to simplifyclosed-loop-control appli-cations. These make iteasier for designers to im-plement safety standardssuch as UL and class B,or fail-safe operation.A 24bit signal measure-ment timer performshigh-resolution measure-ments of any digital sig-nal, in hardware, resultingin more precise and accu-rate measurements. Thisis suitable for speed con-trol, range finding andRPM indicators. Bothtimers are designed to re-duce design complexityby eliminating the needfor additional code andexternal components.Other applications in-clude industrial machin-ery and power supplies,as well as products withvariable-speed motorcontrol such as fans andhome appliances.They are also the firstPic MCUs to have hard-ware zero cross detect,

which helps designerslooking to simplify triaccontrol and increase ro-bustness by reducing theEMI caused by switchingtransients.A complementarywaveform generator,

comparators, 10bit ADC,8bit DAC and capture-compare PWM are alsointegrated.They are availabletoday for sampling andvolume production ineight-pin PDIP, soic and 3by 3mm DFN and UDFNpackages. The PIC16(L)F1613 MCUs are alsoavailable in 14-pin PDIP,soic, tssop and 4 by 4mmUQFN and FN packages.A 20-pin product will beintroduced later in theyear.

“They will detect thecorruption then shut down

safely or alert the driver thatthere is something wrong”Greg Robinson, Microchip

Hypervisor lets users prioritise accessThe latest version ofReal-Time Systems’ hy-pervisor lets users priori-tise simultaneous accessof guest operating sys-tems to shared resourcessuch as shared caches orthe main memory itself.This approach avoidslower priority operatingsystems influencing anrtos using the same cache.Strict separation of op-erating systems whilepreserving hard real-timedeterminism has been oneof the strongest attributesof the RTS Hypervisor.While so far virtualisationtechnology has been usedto virtualise and monitorunmodified, non-real-time operating systemssuch as Microsoft Win-dows, this takes it one

step further.Claimed to be an indus-try first, the hypervisornow detects excessivememory use of a non-real-time operating sys-tem, which due to shareduse of cache or simultane-ous access to the system’smain memory couldcause jitter in a high pri-ority rtos running in par-allel.The hypervisor is par-ticularly useful for prod-ucts in the industrial,medical or transportationmarkets where many relyon an rtos for time or mis-sion critical functionswhile using a differentoperating system forother tasks, such as run-ning a human machine in-terface.

Because this does notdepend on a host operat-ing system, operating sys-tems can start in anysequence, reboot inde-pendently and never harmeach other.A finely adjustablethrottle can limit theamount of memorythroughput available to avirtualised operating sys-tem to avoid negative im-pact on an rtos due topotential cache misses oran occupied data bus.This throttle only takeseffect if a user-config-urable threshold is aboutto be reached.This feature reduces jit-ter and therefore im-proves determinismsignificantly. Now userswith demanding require-

ments regarding latenciesand determinism can alsorun multiple operatingsystems on the samehardware while still pro-viding the hard real-timecapability expected oftheir system.The hypervisor is a soft-ware product allowingcustomers to partition anIntel x86 multi-core plat-form into virtually inde-pendent computersrunning for example aMicrosoft operating sys-tem as a user interfaceand separate real-time op-erating systems in parallelfor real-time tasks on thesame hardware. Consoli-dating hardware reducescost while increasing reli-ability and reducingpower consumption.

Support for µCLinux on Cortex M3 and M4Lauterbach has an-nounced its support forµCLinux onArm Cortex-M3 and M4 microproces-sors using Trace 32 tools.Many developers areseeing the Cortex-M3 and4 as stepping stones froman 8 or 16bit MCU andthey are being used inmore devices, especiallythose targeting wirelessnetworking, motor con-trol, automotive, powermanagement and indus-trial automation.The µCLinux has theadvantages of Linux,

being stable, reliable,flexible and secure, andcan run on microcon-trollers with no memorymanagement unit.This is what makes it aviable and reliable operat-ing systems for the Cor-tex-M3 and M4microprocessors.The Trace 32 tools en-able the off-chip trace forCortex-M to be extendedfrom data watchpoint andtrace unit into a task-aware trace, which allowsnon-intrusive runtime andperformance evaluation.

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Vehicle ElectronicsPage 28, March 2014

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Vehicle Electronics March 2014, Page 29

For applications on thetest bench or in the vehi-cle, Ixxat has extended itsFRC-EP series of test sys-tems with the FRC-EP170. This is a compactvariant of the existingFRC-EP190.These devices haveFlexray, Can, Can FD,Lin, K-Line, USB, Ether-net, Ethercat, Bluetoothand RS232 interfaces,along with analogue anddigital IO. Expansionslots allow the addition ofwlan, GSM or GPS.Both devices have thesame processor and thesame operating system,making the latest model

Test systems for benches and vehicles

software compatible andjust as powerful.Thanks to many identi-cal interfaces and its gal-vanic isolation, extendedscalability, and its op-tional Ethercat slavefunctionality, the primarytarget application of theFRC-EP190 is integration

with test benches in theautomotive communica-tions world. The FRC-EP170 was developed foruse in vehicles.Its main applications in-clude gateways for con-nection to different ECUintegration levels, proto-type controllers, expan-

sion of data loggers withadditional interfaces, andwireless signal displayusing off-the-shelf mobilephones or tablet PCs.Restbus simulation andgateways can be imple-mented quickly based oneither device, using thecorresponding softwarepackages from the com-pany. There are also de-velopment packagesavailable. Custom func-tions and applications canbe implemented by usersin-house thanks to the useof the Linux operatingsystem and the availabil-ity of a free software de-velopment kit.

A prototype electric vehi-cle (EV) motor drive sys-tem with a built-insilicon-carbide inverterhas been developed byMitsubishi Electric. TheEV motor drive system,claimed to be the smallestof its kind, should letmanufacturers developEVs offering more pas-senger space and greaterenergy efficiency.Mitsubishi plans tocommercialise the motorsystem after finalisingtechnologies for motorand inverter cooling, fur-ther downsizing, and ad-ditional efficiency.The motor drive systemwith integrated all sili-con-carbide inverterachieves downsizing(14.1 litre, 60kW) with asmaller motor resultingfrom improved thermalresistance between themotor drive system andthe cooling system. It isthough equal to existingEV motors in power andvolume, enabling replace-ment.

InvertershrinksEV drive

Controller protectsduring cold crankAsynchronous step-downDC-DC controller fromLinear Technology in-cludes a 7.5V buck-boostbias voltage to provide ef-ficient gate drive over a2.5 to 60V input voltagerange. The LT3840 gener-ates a 7.5V bias voltagefor mosfet gate drive re-gardless of whether theinput voltage is above,below or equal to 7.5V.The supply range is de-signed to protect againsthigh voltage transientsand continuing operationduring automotive coldcrank, as well as coveringa broad range of inputsources and batterychemistries.It draws 75µA whenregulating the output volt-age with no load, extend-ing the run time inbattery-powered applica-

tions. The output voltagecan be set from 1.25 to60V at output currents upto 30A with efficienciesup to 95%, making it suit-able for 12 or 24V auto-motive, heavy equipment,industrial control, robot-ics and telecoms use.Accurate current regu-lation is achieved with theprogrammable currentlimit while the currentmonitor function reportsthe average output cur-rent. The user can selectfrom continuous opera-tion, pulse skipping andlow ripple burst mode op-eration during light loads.On-chip gate drivers arefor driving multiple stan-dard or logic level n-channel mosfets. Itoperates with a selectablefixed frequency between50kHz and 1MHz or can

be synchronisable to anexternal clock over thesame range. Its current-mode architecture pro-vides easy loopcompensation, fast tran-sient response and lineregulation.Additional features in-clude up to 99% dutycycle for low voltagedropout, accurate over-and under-voltage lock-outs, soft-start, trackingand a power good signal.The device is availablein 28-lead tssop and 4 by6mm QFN-38 thermallyenhanced packages. Ex-tended and industrial ver-sions from -40 to +125˚C,a high temperature auto-motive grade versionfrom -40 to +150˚C and amilitary grade versionfrom -55 to +150˚C arealso available.

At this month’s GenevaMotor Show, Harmanpremiered its next-gener-ation scalable in-vehicleinfotainment platform forenabling rapid develop-ment of connected carapplications while pro-tecting the integrity of thesystem against cyber se-curity threats.The platform has anHTML-5-based applica-tion environment anduses separate computingdomains for securing crit-ical vehicle functionsfrom malicious softwarefor automotive grade ro-bustness. The architecturealso integrates advanced

driver assist system(adas) functions such asforward collision and lanedeparture warnings intothe infotainment systemto bring sensor-basedsafety features to a rangeof vehicles.It is ready for imple-mentation into vehicles,and drivers can expect thesystem to be on the roadwithin the next two years.With automotive-gradeLinux as the underlyingoperating system andHTML-5 as the applica-tion environment, devel-opers can create app-lications for the infotain-ment system using com-

monly understood tech-nologies such as HTML,Javascript and CSS.“Consumers now ex-pect to be able to cus-tomise their mobilecomputing experiencethrough downloadableapps,” said SachinLawande, president ofHarman’s infotainmentdivision. “In-vehicle info-tainment has traditionallynot offered this capability– even though cars are in-creasingly connected.We’re excited to start thistransformation with ournext-generation scalableinfotainment platform.”It uses a type one hyper-

visor on multi-coreprocessors to implementtwo separate system do-mains that are isolatedfrom each other. One do-main manages critical carfunctions such as vehiclenetwork communications,and the second domainhandles infotainment ap-plications such as naviga-tion and internet access.The infotainment domainis securely firewalledfrom the vehicle domain,preventing any impact onsafety-relevant features inthe car. Security tech-niques such as secureboot and data encryptionare also implemented.

Infotainment platform provides security and adas

Vehicle ElectronicsPage 30, March 2014

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© 2014 Vehicle ElectronicsISSN 2055-1177

Vehicle Electronics is available to readers world-wide. It will be published approximately twelvetimes a year in a digital-only format. All rights re-served. No part of Vehicle Electronics may be re-porduced or transmitted in any form or by anymeans, electronic or mechanical, including photo-copying or recording on any information storagesystem, without the written consent of the pub-lisher. The publisher cannot be held responsiblefor loss or damge to unsolicited press releases orphotographs. Views of contributors and advertis-ers do not necessarily refelect the policy ofVehicle Electronics or those of the publisher.

A single chip amplifierfrom Toshiba Electronicscan help make an electricor hybrid electric vehiclesound like a conventionalinternal combustion en-gine. The TB2909FNG isan integrated power ampthat also supports otherexternal audible outputincluding reversingalarms and answerbackconfirmation for keylessremote entry security.EVs and HEVs operat-ing in all-electric modeare quieter than vehiclesdriven by internal com-bustion engines. As a re-sult, pedestrians, cyclistsand other road users maybe less aware of theirpresence.Because of this, somemanufacturers alreadyequip vehicles with an

acoustic vehicle alertingsystem (avas). It is antic-ipated that such systemswill become more preva-lent as legislators seek toestablish a minimumlevel and type of soundfor low-speed, all-electricoperation. Due to roadusers’ familiarity with tra-ditional vehicles, a pre-ferred sound is that of anormal vehicle engine.The IC is a single-chan-nel, class-AB, single-ended push-pull (SEPP)amplifier developed toamplify the simulatedsound of a conventionalengine. The device oper-ates from a supply of be-tween 6 and 16V and candeliver a maximum out-put power of 5W.Total harmonic distor-tion (THD) is rated at

Amp helps electric vehiclessound just like regular cars

0.08% (for an outputpower of 0.125W) andoutput noise voltage is50µV. Guaranteed opera-tion between -40 and+110˚C supports use inEV warning sound sys-tems where stable per-formance at extendedtemperatures is required.The device is suppliedin a tssop-16 packagewith dimensions of 4.4 by

5.0 by 1.0mm.Integrated functionalityincludes various mute ca-pabilities and a built-instandby switch. Abnor-mality detection and pro-tection for thermaloverload, over-voltage,short circuits to GND orVCC, and speaker-openconditions are providedas standard, supportingfunctional safety.