mercedes to reveal deploymentofv2x.” autonomous concept at … · 2019. 2. 16. ·...

The monthly magazine for automotive electronics engineers

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IN THISISSUE

Page 3: Green Hillsand MEN partner

Page 4: Geotab helpsTelefónica

Page 5: VehicleElectronics issuescall for papers

Page 6: Car makerpicks Visteon Fusion

Page 7: Electronicareport

7: Testingelectric vehicles

Page 23: Vodafoneand connected cars

Page 28: Outlanderenergy recovery

Page 29: Toyota’ssafety plans

Page 33: Productnews

Page 38: Contactdetails

Issue 12December 2014

NEWS

Vehicle Electronics December 2014, Page 2

Early next year, the Fiat 500X will hit the roads using the Harman Ucon-nect infotainment system. Already on board other Fiat group vehicles, itbrings realistic navigation, advanced connectivity and entertainmentchoices to the compact vehicle, enabling drivers to stay connected, in-formed and focussed on the drive.“We are delighted to extend our collaboration with Fiat and bring Har-man infotainment to the exciting new Fiat 500X,” said Sachin Lawande,president of Harman’s infotainment division.Uconnect already powers the connected media centre in numerous 2014Chrysler and Fiat cars, lorries and SUVs, including the Jeep Renegade,Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee, Alfa Romeo Giulietta as well as thecurrent Viper sports car.With its 16.5cm colour touch screen, the system gives drivers access tothe full range of infotainment features, and a clear, sharp view for follow-ing navigation maps. It provides realistic navigation with 3D city models,landmarks and enhanced digital terrain models, and the entertainmentchoices include a dab tuner, Bluetooth connectivity for streaming audioand IPod compatibility. There is speech control for all functions.

Fiat opts for Harman for 500X

ST Microelectronics andIsrael-basedAutotalks arecooperating to deliver amass market-optimisedV2X chipset for wide-spread deployment by2017. The collaborationlets both parties leveragecomplementary technolo-gies and resources.Autotalks brings semi-conductor, system andsoftware experience inV2X and associatedknow-how in security,mobility, communica-tions, RF, signal process-ing and positioning.“Cooperating withSTM brings added valueto our proven and indus-try-leading V2X pro-gramme,” said NirSasson, CEO at Auto-talks. “We can extend thescope of the V2X chipsetto meet next-generationobjectives, like securityand functional safety forautonomous vehicles, thatare unmatched by anyother similar projects inthe industry.”STM provides chip-de-sign expertise in commu-nications and navigation,with manufacturing capa-bilities, in addition tostrategic partnerships andlongevity with all the au-tomotive tiers to enablebroader market evalua-tion and accelerateadoption of the next

Autotalks and STM settarget for V2X chipset

-generation chipset.“Our technological ex-

pertise, leading positionin automotive semicon-ductors, and the processes

we have established fordelivering and supportingadvanced automotive ICs,empower us to ensure thesuccess of this project

within the 2017 time-frame,” said MarcoMonti, executive vicepresident at STM. “Weexpect our collaborationwith Autotalks to delivera high-quality and cost-effective solution thatwill enable widespreaddeployment of V2X.”

Mercedes to revealautonomous conceptat CES in JanuaryMercedes-Benz plans tointroduce a concept ofwhat it believes an au-tonomous car will looklike at January’s Con-sumer Electronics Showin Las Vegas.Developed at the carmaker’s research and de-velopment centre in Cali-fornia, the interior hasbeen designed to makethe most of developmentsin gesture, touch and eyedetection control. Occu-pants will be able to inter-act with the vehicle byhand gestures, touch dis-plays and eye sensor de-tection.The four seats can berotated so that passengersand driver can face eachother while the car isdriving itself. Or they canbe rotated to a more nor-mal seat configurationwhen the car is undermanual control. The carmaker has released a

Mercedes has released this sketch of the interior

sketch showing what thiswill look like.The vehicle’s surround-ings, such as pedestrians,other road users or localbuildings, will be shownon interior displays.“We are convinced thatautonomous driving willbe a central factor on theway to comfortable, acci-dent-free driving,” saidHerbert Kohler, head ofcorporate research andsustainability for Daim-ler. “Autonomous drivingrelieves pressure and

stress in driving situationsusually regarded as te-dious – for example intailbacks, in inner-cityareas or on long journeys.At the same time, it opensup new ways in whichpeople can make the bestuse of their time on theroad. The time spent inthe car acquires a totallynew quality. This is inkeeping with the growingdesire for privacy and in-dividuality in a crowdedand hectic urban environ-ment.”

NEWS NEWS

Vehicle Electronics Vehicle ElectronicsPage 3, December 2014 December 2014, Page 4

Green Hills and MENjoin forces on safetyGreen Hills Software andMEN Mikro Elektronikhave announced a part-nership to develop pre-certified safety platformsfor applications in the in-dustrial and transporta-tion sectors.The multi-year, multi-safety standard agreementunites the two vendors inthe delivery of singleboard computer hardwareand rtos.This cooperation shouldenable their customers tofocus on the developmentof their own applications,confident they canachieve required safetycertifications while re-ducing risk and cost.“MENMikro has an ex-cellent pedigree provid-ing ruggedised hardwareand supporting compa-nies in the industrial andtransportation sectors,”said Peter Hoogenboom,head of the Europeanfunctional safety team atGreen Hills Software. “Itsportfolio of pre-certifiedhardware is ideally suitedto Green Hills Software’sfunctional safety and cer-tification expertise builton the Integrity operatingsystem.”Green Hills’ Europeantechnical centre in theNetherlands will provideservices from assistingcustomers through the in-

dustrial safety (IEC61508) and transportation(EN 50128) certificationprocess to offering aturnkey safety BSP(board support package)service. Green Hills’safety and security pedi-gree includes the comple-tion of certified projectsto IEC 61508 sil three (in-dustrial), EN 50128 SWsil four (railway), EAL 6+high robustness (secu-rity), DO-178B level A(avionics), ISO 26262asil D (automotive) andFDA class III (medical)over a period of morethan a decade.By adopting GreenHills’ safety-certifiedIntegrity rtos, developerscan run applicationscontaining software ofmultiple levels of safety-criticality (and non-critical software) concur-rently on a single proces-sor. The secure separation

kernel architecture en-ables consolidation offunctions on a singleprocessor that, until now,may have been imple-mented with a morecostly hardware designusing physical separation.MEN Mikro’s comput-ers are used in harsh mis-sion- and safety-criticalenvironments found inthe transportation (rail,road, air and sea) and in-dustrial (automation,power, energy and med-ical) markets. MEN pro-vides advice and supportas well as system design,configuration and envi-ronmental qualification inaccordance with industrystandards. The company’score competencies en-compass Arm, Power PCand x86 processor archi-tectures, developmentrules for safe applica-tions, analogue IO designand FPGA technology.

Henry Muyshondt ofMicrochip Technologyhas been appointed ad-ministrator of the MostCooperation. He willwork on the continuedrollout of Most 150,based on specificationrevision 3.0.“It is exciting time forMost technology,” said

Muyshondt. “It is cur-rently used in more than170 car models, withmany new ones yet tocome. The scalable andmultiplex architecturewith powerful interfaces,multiprotocol channels,synchronicity and low la-tency has resulted in theextendable Most architec-

ture that meets the needsof the automotive datanetwork for many yearsto come.”The administrator is re-sponsible for the execu-tion and organisation ofdecisions made by thesteering committee.Muyshondt is a seniormanager at Microchip.

Microchip manager takes Most role

Telefónica and telematicscompany Geotab haveannounced a partnershipin Europe, initially focus-ing on Spain, Germanyand the UK with the in-tention to explore LatinAmerican markets in thenear future.Telefónica will offerGeotab’s plug-and-playdevice, which providesreal time fleet manage-ment and the ability to de-velop a number of alertsand notifications, and re-view driver trip and activ-ity reports.Features include on-board diagnostics throughengine indicators to re-turn feedback, such as en-gine failures, or anin-depth engine fault codediagnosis. It can detectaccidents and retrace thecause of the accident. Itwill also allow add-onssuch as a navigational de-vice, NFC driver ID keyand sensors.“We’re delighted topartner with Geotab, whothrough continuous inno-vation have many of theworld’s largest fleetsalready using their prod-uct,” said Surya Men-donça, M2M managingdirector at Telefónica.“This agreement allowsTelefónica to provide abest-in-class plug-and-play fleet telematics prod-

Telefónica and Geotabpartner on fleet management

uct in Europe that rein-forces our portfolio andgives our M2M cus-tomers further access tothe strongest solutions.”The technology shouldhelp businesses improveon-road productivity, on-road safety and ecologicalefficiency, in addition tooptimising fleet perform-ance to reduce fuel costs.Fleet managers willgain more intelligenceacross multiple vehiclesgiving them the data andinsights needed to makemore informed businessdecisions in real-time.Furthermore, drivers willhave more insight overtheir individual vehicles.“We are seeing tremen-

dous growth for fleetmanagement worldwideand the wireless carriersare now becoming an in-tegral component of thefleet telematics and con-nected machine ecosys-tem,” said Neil Cawse,

CEO of Geotab. “We areimpressed by the Tele-fónica M2M team andlook forward to workingtogether with Telefónicato deliver the most ad-vanced fleet telematics inthe market.”

Part of Geotab’sfleet managementrange

Infineon is buying a 9.4%stake in PCB makerSchweizer Electronic foran undisclosed amount.They will work on em-bedding semiconductorsinside the PCB. The PCBwill thus become smaller.This should benefit sys-tems in vehicles, forwhich there is only littlespace available.“System boundaries be-tween PCBs and semi-conductors are going tochange, and this requiresnew business models,”said Marc Schweizer,CEO of Schweizer.

Marc Schweizer

Infineonbuys stake

Paul Mascarenas, formerchief technical officer andvice president of researchand advanced engineer-ing at Ford Motor, hasjoined the board ofdirectors of On Semicon-ductor.Mascarenas served asthe CTO at Ford from2011 to 2014, where heoversaw the car maker’sworldwide researchorganisation as well asthe development andimplementation of thecompany’s technologystrategy and plans. From

Former Ford CTO joins Onsemi board

Paul Mascarenhas

2007 to 2010, he wasFord’s vice president ofengineering, and from2005 to 2007 vice presi-dent of North Americanvehicle programmes.

“Automotive electron-ics remains a primaryfocus for On Semicon-ductor, currently account-ing for approximately30% of annual revenues,”said Dan McCranie,chairman of On’s boardof directors. “Mascarenaswill be valuable additionto the board as we con-tinue to grow our automo-tive business and alignthe company towards ourvision of becoming thepremier supplier of en-ergy efficient systemsolutions worldwide.”

NEWS

Page 5, December 2014 Vehicle Electronics Vehicle Electronics December 2014, Page 6

NEWS

A leading European-based vehicle manufac-turer has awarded Visteonthe first production pro-gramme for its Fusionconnected platform. Thevehicle line is expected tolaunch in 2018.Fusion fuses traditionaldriver information, info-tainment and cloud con-nectivity into oneconnected platform, pro-viding drivers and pas-sengers a seamless HMIexperience. The platformlets multiple systems runside-by-side in a virtualenvironment on scalablehardware that is capable

Car maker picks Fusion from Visteon

of incorporating multipleoperating systems and ex-tended graphics.“Fusion offers vehiclemanufacturers more mod-ular integration opportu-nities on one single user

interface, making it sim-pler to update certain as-pects of the systemwithout affecting the en-tire platform,” said BobVallance, group vice pres-ident at Visteon. “Benefit-

Fusion technologyin action

ing from cloud connectiv-ity, the platform can alsobe updated over the vehi-cle’s lifecycle – which isa significant differentiatorcompared with today’saudio and infotainmentsystems.”For the driver, Fusioncombines multiple levelsof information into onesystem, including vehi-cle-related and safety-critical information suchas speed or warning sig-nals, as well as personalinformation from thecloud.“The Fusion conceptillustrates how we areconstantly working onnew ways of improvingthe driving experience,”said Christian Feltgen,vice president of Vis-teon’s technology office.“This milestone customerprogramme shows howVisteon continues to in-troduce connected tech-nologies that will drivethe mobility of the fu-ture.”

The inaugural VehicleElectronics conferencehas issued its first call forpapers. The event willtake place alongsideNational ElectronicsWeek from 21 to 22April2015 at the NEC in Birm-ingham, UK.Papers can cover abroad range of subjectsbut must be technical andeducational in contentand aimed at hardwareand software electronicsengineers working in theautomotive industry.Seminars are typically 30minute presentations.The conference will bejoined by the Embedded

Masterclass, with each ofthe two days comprisinga half day each for Em-bedded Masterclass andVehicle Electronics.The objective is toprovide a technical forumwhere electronics engi-neers can come along,meet a broad range of in-dustry experts and keyvendors, and discoverwhat is happening at theleading edge of softwareand hardware technolo-gies.The seminars will bedesigned to develop thedelegates’ technicalknowledge and skills,helping them get the most

out of their current andfuture projects, and withlittle time out of the of-fice.Submissions can be onany subject – either hard-ware or software – of in-terest to embedded andautomotive electronicsengineers.“We are delighted tobring the Vehicle Elec-tronics conference along-side Embedded Master-class and National Elec-tronicsWeek,” said ClaireSaunders, event directorfor NEWEvents. “We be-lieve this is positive forindustry and will givedelegates a really fo-

cussed event.“All submitted paperswill be assessed and se-lected by an independentjudging panel of industryexperts. Closing date forabstracts is Friday 19December 2014. Submis-sions should be sent inMSWord or PDF formatsand contain no more than250 words.Please send your sub-mission by email to JayneFoster at [email protected] are also some spon-sorship and exhibiting op-portunities, and JayneFoster can provide detailsof those.

Vehicle Electronics conferenceissues first call for papers

Infiniti has won the first-ever People’s Choice Award as part of the 11thannual Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge with Synaptiq. Infinitidesigners looked towards the future in which augmented reality, 3D holo-gram and wearable technologies may be a part of the everyday drivingexperience, creating a seamless interaction between human and machine.To demonstrate how these futuristic technologies could be used to makedriving even more interactive, the design team imagined a vehicletriathlon called the Arc Race which includes air, rally and circuit competi-tions. For each race, the Synaptiq design provides a universal fuselage forthe driver to control each of the different air, rally and circuit vehicles.The entry received the most online votes from visitors to the challenge’sFacebook page.

Infiniti wins people’s choice award

Voxx Electronics has ex-tended its car telematicsservice with AT&T tousers worldwide; the CarConnection product lineand services have untilnow only been availablein the USA. Additionally,Voxx and AT&T havereached an agreement ona new LTE 4G data planprogramme for the USA.“We have several pro-grammes under reviewoutside of the USA, andworking with AT&T onthese efforts is excitingfor the potential cus-tomers who will benefit

as a result,”said DanMurphy, VPof telematicsfor Voxx.“ T h r o u g hthis agree-ment, wehave the abil-ity to expandoutside of theUSAand further grow thenumber of users of ourCar Connection pro-gramme.”The Car Connectiontelematics device was in-troduced in November2013, launching at select

retail outletsacross the USA.The M2M-baseddevice providesup to nine in-carwireless con-nected vehicleservices, and wasdesigned to letconsumers moni-tor, manage and

maintain their vehicle’shealth, driving habits andlocation and, through op-tional Zoom Safer tech-nology, restrict mobilephone usage while driv-ing. Many of these serv-ices can also be used for

business-to-business ap-plications such as smallfleets.In June 2014, the com-pany announced the for-mal launch of itsinsurance discount pro-gramme, aligning withthree insurance carriers –Liberty Mutual Insur-ance, American FamilyInsurance and General In-surance.The insurance pro-gramme lets consumerssave hundreds of dollarson their car insurance pol-icy when they sign up forCar Connection.

Voxx extends telematics deal with AT&T


Steve Rogerson reportsfrom last month’s Electronicain Munich, Germany

BACK INBACK INMUNICHMUNICH Current mobile networks

are nowhere near goodenough to handle theplanned increase in con-nectivity in automotive,says Tim Summers, groupmanager of Freescale.

“We do not really havea reliable wireless com-munications networktoday,” he said. “Some-times you can’t evenmake a voice call.”

But he said the planned5G networks needed forinternet of things applica-tions would have to beeverywhere. “When is itgoing to come?” heasked. “Who knows.Probably after 2020.”

Automotive is Free-scale’s single biggestmarket accounting forsome 40% of the com-pany’s business. Thecompany is currently sec-ond in the automotiveMCU league table with a22% share with marketleader Renesas holding40%. The next best is In-fineon at 12%.

“The Asia-Pacific andJapan are the fastestgrowing regions for auto-motive MCUs for us,”said Bob Conrad, seniorVP at Freescale. “InChina, the base is muchsmaller compared withthe rest of the world, butit is growing fast.”

He said next year thecompany would be ship-

Mobile network not good enoughfor connected cars, says Freescale

Bob Conrad: “The Asia-Pacific and Japan arethe fastest growing regions.”

Tim Summers: “Sometimes you can’t even makea voice call.”ping six MCUs for everycar built in the world andhe believes adas and info-tainment will be the twobiggest growth areas.

“Adas is already a size-able market and a highgrowth area,” he said.“Radar will be coming toall four corners to give a360˚ view round the car.This will be augmentedby vision. At the moment,that is just used to givethe driver a rear view, butin the future it will bebased around object de-tection.”

He said he believed carswould exist that could notget into an accident.

“That is the kind of ca-pability we are on theverge of seeing,” he said.

Freescale announcedthat it would soon intro-

duce an Open CL-basedautomotive developmentenvironment engineeredto open the market for carOEMs and tier-one sup-pliers alike to bring adastechnologies to a widerrange of vehicles, faster.

The company alsocalled on tier-one adassystem providers and sup-pliers to renew their in-dustry-wide commitmentto safety via the designand deployment of highlysecure embedded semi-conductors built from theground up to meet and ex-ceed automotive-gradequality requirements.

“An open standards de-velopment environmentand zero-defect designmethodologies will formthe foundation forFreescale’s next-genera-tion adas platforms,” saidConrad. “IncorporatingOpen CL to our portfolioof automotive processingsolutions is expected tofree our customers tofocus more on adas inno-vation and, more impor-tantly, adas safety.”

Vehicle ElectronicsPage 9, December 2014 Vehicle Electronics December 2014, Page 10

NXP’s Derek Tang (pictured) had an enjoyable show taking visitors to thecompany’s stand for a drive on the roads surrounding the exhibition hallswhere the company had set up an intelligent transport system (ITS)demonstration. This was the start of a wider ITS corridor project that willsee a convoy of Honda smart vehicles travelling on 1300km of roadsacross Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.The Electronica demo showed warnings flashing up on the screen as the

car approached traffic lights, pedestrian crossing and road works. Tangpraised the wireless technology used.“Radar and cameras can be affected by the weather,” he said. “But with

this technology it is not a factor.”

Spinning round the show

The automotive industryis still struggling to un-derstand how ISO26262affects them, said ErikSoule, vice president andgeneral manager atLinear Technology.

“They don’t know whohas to guarantee what,”he said. “We continuallyhave enquiries from peo-ple wanting to interpretthe specification. I think itis because the specifica-tion is immature. It isfrustrating because it is abig time waster for us.”

He said that the topicwas complicated becauseit was not just about partsbut about the full devel-opment process.

“A lot was writtenaround MCUs and abouthow the software wasdone,” he said. “If youhave a mixed-signal part,it is not clear how it fits.It is classed as a safety el-ement out of context. Inone sense, that lets us offthe hook, but we are alsodoing all the measure-ments and guys designingthe system have to knowabout our part and how itfails. Yet we can’t say wecan hit any safety level. Itis frustrating.”

He said that Linear wasplanning to introduce itslatest battery monitoringpart in February aimed atthe high-voltage batteriesused in hybrids and fullelectric vehicles.

Industry still struggling with ISO26262“We have been success-

ful in this area,” he said.“We focus on high accu-racy, lots of safety fea-tures and diagnostics.”

The next generationpart will be based on anew process technologythat Soule said gave cer-tain advantages in termsof a higher level of safety.

“We are investing inthis area really heavily,”he said. “The market isdemanding higher per-formance and safety andthat plays to ourstrength.”

He said even thoughthis was a high profilearea, it was hard to do asit was a high voltage andnoisy environment.

“A lot of our competi-tors have struggledbecause they have an-nounced parts that have

Erik Soule: “The market is demanding higherperformance.”

never been released,” hesaid. “There is a need forincredible accuracy onlarge battery stacks. A lotof lithium batteries haveextremely flat discharge

curves, so for state ofcharge you need accuracywhen there is lots of noiseand changing tempera-tures. And it has to stayaccurate for ten years.”

Distributor TTI has set upa separate division tofocus on the Europeantransportation market, in-cluding automotive, elec-tric vehicles, commercialvehicles and rail.

“I have been here for 18months,” said transporta-tion marketing directorDermot Byrne, “and we

have set this up for thetransportation industry.Basically, if it has wheelsit is in my section.”

He said the companyhad been working with itsexternal suppliers to ex-pand the range of trans-portation products.

“We have now madeour sales people aware of

the types of products wecan sell into this seg-ment,” he said.

Among the companiesTTI has been workingwith is Delphi.

“We are now stockingtheir charging cables forelectric vehicle infra-structure plus their prod-ucts in the vehicles,” he

TTI sets up transportation division

said. “We are workingwith a couple of sportscar companies in the UKand with Delphi for prod-ucts for them.”

Out of TTI’s €460mturnover, he said about€60m went into sectorsthey can clearly see as au-tomotive and transporta-tion. But he said that 40%of the turnover went intoelectronic manufacturingservices and a good per-centage of that would alsobe in transportation.

“So it is a significantpart of our business,” hesaid. “Altogether, about20 to 25% is in trans-portation.”

He said that this was theright time for TTI tomake a push as predic-tions suggest the amountof electronics in vehicleswas going to rise 7 or 8%in the next five years.

“We hope to grow attwice that rate,” he said.“We are going in the rightdirection and getting sup-port from our suppliers.”

Dermot Byrne: “If ithas wheels it is in mysection.”

Knowles Capacitors in-troduced a range of auto-m o t i v e - q u a l i f i e dmulti-layer ceramic ca-pacitors from its Syfersubsidiary. The PSL prod-ucts are made using a

Caps like it toughscreen printing processand are suitable for de-manding applications.

“Automotive is the ob-vious application for theAEC-Q200 qualifiedparts but there are othersas well,” said productmanager Chris Noade.“They can be used in hightemperatures in suspen-sion systems, pedal posi-tion sensors and tyrepressure sensors.”

They use X7G dielec-tric with a C0G version

ChrisNoade

coming soon. Capaci-tance range is 220pF to1.5µF.

“We are concentratingon the harsh environ-ments not the benigndashboard areas,” saidNoade. “We are morelikely to be in the safetycritical applications.”

They can handle tem-peratures up to 125˚C,have a rated voltage from50V to 2kV and are com-pliant with RoHS andWeee directives. Theycome in case sizes from0805 to 2200.


Panasonic is banking onmaterials and technolo-gies such as gallium ni-tride, silicon carbide andsilicon on insulator tolead its push into growingthe automotive side of itsbusiness.

“We want to use thesekinds of technologies,”said technical marketingmanager Francois Per-raud. “The wideband gapmaterials will help us in-crease power density inapplications such as bat-tery monitoring. Theyhave high conductivity,low on resistance and canswitch very fast.”

He said this would helpthem reduce switchingand conduction losses.Using GaN in on-boardchargers and DC-DC con-verters in electric vehicleswould allow critical com-ponents to be downsized.

“We also believe wewill be able to save on thecooling system and re-duce weight,” he said.“We are starting samplingon GaN, and SiC will bethe end of next year. It isnot yet automotive quali-fied but we have OEMsand tier ones starting tolook at it.”

On silicon on insulator,the advantage he said wasthat it could be enclosedin insulated boxes.

“So, we have less leak-age current and bettertemperature characteris-tics,” he said. “You canexploit better the energyfrom the batteries in man-agement systems. One ICcan measure up to 20cells. This is samplingnow and it is being inves-tigated by some cus-tomers. The next step is touse it for 48V power

Material push for Panasonic

management.”Panasonic is also using

GaN on GaN for automo-tive LED lighting.

“We can have smallerchips,” said Perraud.“You can easily handlethe heat extraction andthey have good robust-ness.”

Though this technology

is already being used insome road cars, Perraudsaid the company wasworking with tier ones todevelop it further.

“We are trying to growin automotive with inno-vative materials and inthe future we will bedoing this with adas,” hesaid.

Francois Perraud: “We are trying to grow inautomotive with innovative materials.”

Infineon is targeting thegrowing number of elec-tric motors in vehicles aswell as the need for moreintelligence to controlpower consumption withthe launch of two Arm-based embedded powerbridge drivers, one fortwo-phase and one forthree-phase motors.

“Today, there are 28motors per car and that ismoving to 30,” saidTheodore Varelas, prod-uct marketing manager atInfineon. “It is a big mar-ket. The customer wantsintelligence in these mo-tors because of energy ef-ficiency. If you cancontrol the motors, youcan control the powerthey use.”

Integrated on one chipare a microcontrollerusing the Arm Cortex-M3processor, as well as non-volatile memory, ana-logue and mixed signalperipherals, communica-tions interfaces, and themosfet gate drivers.

The 32bit products aresampling now with theTLE097x for three-phasebrushless DC motors andthe TLE986x for two-phase DC motors. Pro-duction is scheduled forMarch next year.

“We can drive a widerange of brushless mo-

Infineon turns to Armfor motor control

Theodore Varelas: “Itis a big market.”

tors,” said Varelas. “Thepart can connect directlyto the battery. It can drivean external sensor or canbe used for functionalityin sensorless cases. Andthere is an installed Lintransceiver.”

The company combinedits automotive qualified130nm Smart Powermanufacturing technol-ogy with its experience inmotor control drivers intothe devices, available instandard QFN packagesmeasuring 7 by 7mm.

The products can re-duce the componentcount from today’sapproximately more than150 down to fewer than30, thus allowing integra-tion of all functionsand associated externalcomponents for themotor control in a PCB

area of 3cm2.“We selected the Cor-

tex-M3 to balance be-tween price andperformance,” said Vare-las. “We wanted to sup-port a wide range ofmotor control techniques.And they can be softwareprogrammable and theylet the engineer use sim-ple SPI communica-tions.”

Their peripheral set in-cludes a current sensor, asuccessive approximation10bit ADC synchronisedwith the capture and com-pare unit for PWM con-trol and 16bit timers.Both include an on-chiplinear voltage regulator tosupply external loads.

Their flash memory isscalable from 36 to128kbyte, and they oper-ate from 5.4 to 28V. Anintegrated charge pumpenables low-voltage oper-ation using two externalcapacitors. The currentslope control techniqueoptimises the systemEMC behaviour for awide range of mosfets.They can withstand loaddump conditions up to40V while maintaining anextended supply voltageoperating down to 3.0Vwhere the microcontrollerand the flash memory arefully functional.

The move to 48V will bekey if the vision of au-tonomous vehicles is tobe realised, said NorbertPieper, head of businessdevelopment at VishayIntertechnology.

“This is the first step to-wards autonomous driv-ing,” he said. “Thismeans we have devel-oped components to han-dle this high voltage.”

For inverters and con-verters in electric vehiclesand especially for 48Vboardnets, the companyhas developed a numberof specific, customisabletransformers and filters.Their switching and EMCbehaviour let users fastand flexibly implementdesign modifications.

“48V will become atrend in the market andwe are releasing the firstproducts with this,” saidPieper.

Vishaypreparesfor 48V

Norbert Pieper

TDK has developed anglesensors that operate onthe tunnel magneto-resis-tive (TMR) principle.They consist of two ferro-magnets separated by athin insulating layer. Ifthere is a change in themagnetic field, electronscan tunnel through thislayer and affect the con-ductivity of the ferromag-nets.

This can lead to an out-

put voltage of 3000mV,claimed to be more than30 times higher thananisotropic magneto-re-sistance (AMR) and eighttimes higher than forgiant magneto-resistance(GMR) components.

“The better accuracythey provide is requiredin automotive,” said Mar-tin Appel from TDK’ssales and marketinggroup. “They can be used

Angle sensors use TMRfor things such as throttlevalves, wipers and steer-ing. TMR has the highestaccuracy in the marketwith an output signifi-

MartinAppel

cantly higher. And thereare two elements in onepackage to give redun-dancy.”

The dynamic range is96dB and their thermalcoefficient is -13% from25 to 125˚C. The ana-logue output has an accu-racy of less than±0.6˚over magnetic fieldstrengths from 20 to80mT. Types with digitaloutputs and self calibra-tion can give an anglemeasurement accuracy ofless than ±0.2˚.


Shipments of adas unitsare forecast to grow at aCAGR of 18% from 40munits in 2011 to over160m by 2020, accordingto Yoshiki Hayakashi,chief specialist atToshiba. He was speakingat the launch of the com-pany’s TMPV760 seriesof image recognitionprocessors.

With 14 hardware-based image recognitionaccelerators, the first de-vice in this series is forimplementing next gener-ation adas.

The TMPV7608XBGsupports standard adasfeatures such as au-tonomous emergencybraking, traffic sign

recognition, lane depar-ture warning, lane keep-ing assist, high beamassistance and forwardcollision warning. It alsosupports applications thatwill become part of theEuro NCap testingprogramme in 2018, in-cluding traffic lightrecognition and pedes-trian detection at night-time.

“The number of appli-cations is increasing,”said Hayakashi. “One ispedestrian detection atnight time to be the sameas at day time.”

Adas applications areprocessed concurrentlywithin a typical time win-dow of 50ms inside the

Image processor targets adas growth

Toshiba’s TMPV7608XBG image processorimage recognition proces-sor and with relativelylow power consumptiondue to the purpose-builthardware accelerators andmedia processing units.

The device integratestwo enhanced co-occur-rence histograms of ori-ented gradients (cohog)accelerators that providehigher image recognitionaccuracy in low light andnight-time conditions.The device improvesnight-time pedestrian de-tection rates using colour-based gradient analysis ofimages supplied by fullHD 2Mpixel connectedcameras.

“Cohog gives colour tohelp describe shape andtexture,” said Toshibachief specialist YasuhiroTaniguchi.

It also supports a struc-ture from motion acceler-ator that detects objectsnot part of a pre-definedlibrary. This is 3D recon-struction technology

achieved by estimatingcamera motion using se-quential images providedby movement of amonocular camera.

“The single cameramoves to give 3D in thesame way as if you closeone eye and move yourhead from side to side,”said Taniguchi.

The processor can han-dle multiple applicationssimultaneously in realtime using its heteroge-neous multi-core archi-tecture. It has integratedimage processing acceler-ators and eight media pro-cessing engines supportedby floating point unitsthat perform double pre-cision floating point arith-metic calculations.

The chip is housed in aP-FBGA 796-ball pack-age measuring 27 by27mm. Ball pitch is0.8mm. Samples will beavailable in January withmass production sched-uled for December 2016.

A recent acquisition and apossible future acquisi-tion provided the automo-tive highlights on OnSemiconductor’s stand.From Aptina, the acquisi-tion of which was fi-nalised in October, camea fish-eye lens system forrear-view cameras. Andfrom RF Micron, a com-pany that On has its eyeson, was a sensor that har-vests the RF field thatcommunicates with it forpower, making it suitablefor tyre pressure moni-tors.

As well as rear-viewcameras, the Aptina tech-nology can also be usedfor other adas applica-tions such as road-signrecognition, lane keepingand as part of a pedes-trian-detection emer-gency braking system.

“This was Aptina tech-nology that we havebrought into On,” saidRalf Junker, On’s re-

Aptina and RF Micron providetechnology for On Semiconductor

gional technical manager.“It can also help providethe full view round thecar for parking assist.”

He said the next genera-tion would be up to2Mpixel compared withthe current 1Mpixel.

“We provide to all theEuropean OEMs,” saidJunker. “The latest appli-cation is an in-cabin onefor detecting if the driveris drowsy, for example.We may also use this forgesture recognition.”

On Semi hasn’t yet de-cided what to do with RFMicron, whether to buy itoutright or go into an IPsharing arrangement, butit definitely wants to getits hands on the technol-ogy.

“We make a tiny sensorthat harvests power fromthe RF field,” said GregPitner, RF Micron’s prin-

cipal system applicationengineer. “It uses thepower to run its logic andto communicate. There isno battery.”

Greg Pitner: “Itharvests power fromthe RF field.”

Ralf Junker: “We provide to all the EuropeanOEMs.”

This he said meant itneeded no microcon-troller or cabling thatmeant it could “take a$200 solution down to$20”.

As well as tyre pressuremonitoring, it can also beused for passenger detec-tion to provide seat-beltwarnings. As it can meas-ure water in bodies closeto it, it will distinguishbetween a human sittingdown and, say, a bag ofgroceries.

And one automotivemanufacturer is investi-gating this property forchecking for water intru-sion into a vehicle.

the shunt to make it morerobust.”• Twisted-pair will be theleading connectivitymethod for high-speeddata in vehicles becausecoaxial and fibre opticsare too expensive, be-

lieves Mertes. He alsothinks Ethernet will bebecome the dominantstandard.

“That is the trend,” hesaid. “Ethernet is the stan-dard and twisted pair isthe best for today.”

Delphi plans to set a newstandard for airbag con-nectors and had a pre-pro-duction version of itsABX-S model on display.

“We are the marketleader in airbag connec-tors and we are nowlaunching a new version,”said Gerhard Mertes,president of Delphi Con-nection Systems. “It ismore compact and morerobust.”

The company is plan-ning to launch the con-nector in the secondquarter of next year.

“We are the first to mar-ket with this kind of prod-

uct,” said Mertes. “It hasalready been accepted byone US car maker. TheJapanese are interested aswell.”

The aim is to get theproduct accepted as anISO standard and Mertessaid he intended to startthat procedure soon as itwould take two to three tobe accepted.

“We have taken all therequirements of the dif-ferent markets and put itinto one product,” hesaid. “It is the first gener-ation of shuntless connec-tors. We have takenadvantage of removing

Delphi aims to set airbag connector standard

Gerhard Mertes: “We are first with this kind of product.”

Vehicle ElectronicsPage 15, December 2014

An automotive version ofProtek’s PESD3Can over-voltage protection diodeis due for launch by theend of the year.

The industrial versionwas announced at theshow but the Pam2Canautomotive device is inthe pipeline.

The component canprotect two Can bus linesfrom electro-static dis-charge and other electri-cal fast transients.

“Some of the chal-lenges for ICs is that theyare going to higher andhigher voltages,” saidProtek Devices marketingdirector Ian Doyle. “And

Industrial protection moves to automotive

Ian Doyle (left) andVP Pai

you can no longer usestandard TVS diodes. Youneed devices that matchthe chipset otherwise youwill stress the chipset andit will fail.”

This problem is height-ened by in-car connectiv-

ity going to higher speedEthernet.

“These chipsets havebasic ESD protection andthey are going into sys-tems that need more pro-tection,” said Doyle.

VP Pai, group vice pres-ident, added: “We aregearing our portfoliolooking at the future of aninternet-driven car. Weare focusing on every-thing in the car.”

He said an importantdistinction in the Protekdevices was they offeredsurge protections as wellas ESD protection.

“That is an importantdistinction for our parts,”

said Pai. “We are ESDplus.”

Doyle also criticisedsome alternative productsthat could not handle tem-peratures above 85˚C andonly one or two surge hitsbefore the performancestarted to degrade.

“Users don’t want to re-call and replace varis-tors,” said Doyle. “Theywant silicon that canwithstand multiple hits.”

The current versioncould be used for somein-car infotainment appli-cations, said Pai, but itwill be the automotiveversion that can handlethe higher surges.

The increase in DC mo-tors in cars is one of thetarget markets for the14- and 20-pin versionsof Microchip’s PIC16F(L)161x 8bit micro-controllers launched atthe show.

“We are looking at allthe DC motors for seats,windows, fans and soon,” said MCU marketingdirector Greg Robinson.“And it has Lin bus capa-bility.” He also said it wassuitable for safety criticalapplications.

“They want to be ableto shut down the MCUsafely if there is someissue,” he said.

Key for automotive isthe angular timer, a core-independent peripheral.This hardware modulecalculates the rotationalangle in functions such asmotor control, triac con-trol or capacitive dis-charge ignition systems.

Regardless of speed, itallows recurring inter-rupts at a specific rota-tional or sinusoidal anglewithout using the core’scomputation. The periph-eral can be configured toperform a host of givenfunctions that increaseexecution speeds and de-crease software require-ments.

Electronics manufactur-ing services companySanmina believes its ex-perience in other sectorsgives it an advantage inhelping car makers andtier ones integrate con-sumer technology.

“If you look at what theOEMs are doing,” saidBernd Enser, vice presi-dent for global automo-tive, “they need to useconsumer components toget these features in-stalled. But these compo-nents may also go intoautomotive safety appli-cations, and that is the bigchallenge. How do youuse these components to

give you the functionalitybut still meet the needs ofISO26262?”

He said that Sanminaprovided intelligent test-ing for components.

“When you understandhow a component be-haves under differenttypes of applications, youcan set criteria to filter outweak components andmake sure only certainones go into the vehicle,”he said. “There can be abig gap between what thechip can offer and whatthey need to deliver. Youneed to reduce that gapand reduce the applica-tion mission profile.”

Angular peripheralfor motors in vehicles

Experience tohelp car makers

2015 FEATURES LIST

Follow us on Twitter: @velectronicsmag

vehicle-electronics.biz

JanuaryInfotainmentVehicle networks

FebruaryTelematicsTest & measurement

MarchDriver assistanceIn-vehicle computers

AprilM2MSoftware tools

MaySensorsInfotainment

JunePower technologiesSimulation & modelling

JulyConnected carWireless

AugustV2X communicationsMicrocontrollers & microprocessors

SeptemberVehicle networksTelematics

OctoberIn-vehicle computersHigh-temperature components

NovemberSoftware toolsInfotainment

DecemberPower technologiesTest & measurement

• Each issue will be published early in the month.• Suggestions for features should be sent to the editor at leasttwo months before publication. These should be sent by email [email protected]• To advertise, email [email protected]

TEST & MEASUREMENT TEST & MEASUREMENT


Fork on the road

Test instruments are playinga key part in the jointdevelopment of a familyof cost-effective electric

vehicles

Scopecorder monitoringsignals from the Karabag500E electric car


Vehicle Electronics December 2014, Page 20Vehicle ElectronicsPage 19, December 2014

Fork-lift truck manufacturerLinde Material Handling ofAschaffenburg and Karabag

based in Hamburg have converteda conventional Fiat 500 into anelectric car. The Karabag 500E isa conventional Fiat 500 retrofittedwith an electric drive. The vehiclehas a three-phase asynchronousmotor, providing 20kW of nomi-nal power, and a 125V 11kWlithium polymer battery. It canreach a top speed of 105km/h witha range of 100km.The conversion components

come from a Linde forklift withappropriate modifications. Lindedevelops and manufactures theelectronics and motors for all itsvehicles, producing around 50,000

inverters and 400,000 electricmotors per year, and is the marketleader in Europe in its perform-ance class.Karabag was searching for a

partner to convert a convention-ally powered car into an electricvehicle and approached Linde atthe end of 2010. Being a Fiatdealer, Karabag had already beenoffered a way to do this by an Ital-ian supplier, but this was found tobe too expensive. The first con-version was done very pragmati-cally. Linde simply tried mostthings and changed as little aspossible on the car. After fourdays, the prototype was running.It was able to use existing forklift

Fig. 1: The Karabag 500E is based on a Fiat 500 fitted with an electric drive system supplied byforklift truck manufacturer Linde Material Handling

Fig. 2: Typical screen display from the Yokogawa WT1800 preci-sion power analyser used for testing the Karabag 500E electric car

components such as the motor, in-verter, controller, fuse and charg-ing circuits, and basically leftthem unchanged.Next, came the definition of

driving behaviour, the risk analy-sis, EMC testing and manufac-turer’s declaration. After ninemonths the project was complete.To reduce the cost drastically,

the battery capacity was halved.Despite the small (11kWh) bat-tery, the range was only reducedfrom 140 to 100km. With the opti-mal balancing of the motor, in-verter and controller, losses couldbe reduced, and moreover thedriving behaviour is now manytimes better than before.

Compared with the previousconversion kit, Linde was able todispense with the complete cool-ing system. In addition, the cur-rent setup is smaller and lighter.The electronics fit into a singlebox, and can be easily replaced ifnecessary.

TestingFor testing purposes, a YokogawaDL850V Scopecorder and aWT1800 power analyser wereconnected to the electric vehicle.The Scopecorder combines a

high-speed oscilloscope with atraditional data-acquisitionrecorder in a single, portable in-strument. The power analyser also

Maik Manthey (left) and Erich Flach (right), both from Linde, explain toRainer Becker (Yokogawa) the electric drive of the Karabag 500E



incorporates a Can bus monitoringfunction, making it suitable fortroubleshooting and debuggingthe Can in-vehicle serial bus.Using the analyser, an engineer

can decode the Can signal and re-trieve information on physicaldata such as engine temperature,wheel speed and braking from theCan bus signal and compare thiswith the data coming from realsensors. The result is a great dealof time saved compared withother approaches such as analysison a PC or using other software.The instrument has sampling

rates as high as 100MS/s, 16bitresolution and input channel isola-tion providing a withstand voltageup to 1kV. By direct storage of thedata on its internal hard drive,longer duration recording is possi-ble. In the Linde application, itwas used to monitor the starting(inrush) currents and voltages ofthe three phases of the motor. For

voltage measurements, a 100MS/splug-in module was used. Thethree voltages can be directly con-nected using standard measuringcables, with current transformersbeing used for current measure-ment. In parallel, the transmittedCanbus payload is recorded.Using the manufacturer-specific

Can DBC files, the status of vari-ous vehicle functions is extractedfrom the Canbus messages andviewed. This data can be shown aswaveforms or as a multimeter dis-play. The queried vehicle func-tions include direction indicators,lights, parking brake, doors,charging status, battery tempera-ture, battery voltage and batterycurrent.The power analyser can perform

up to six power input measure-ments, which makes it possible toperform efficiency tests betweenthe input and output of the invert-ers. The high-resolution 21.3cm

XGA display can show up to 12different pages of measurementitems in formats such as numeric,waveforms and trends. A vectordisplay is available for voltageand current phase analysis.For motor testing applications,

the analyser has a motor evalua-tion function that provides, in asingle unit, measurements of allthe relevant electrical power pa-rameters along with rotationalspeed, torque, mechanical power,synchronous speed, slip, motorefficiency and total systemefficiency.Harmonic analysis can be car-

ried out up to the 500th orderfrom a 50 or 60Hz fundamentalfrequency. This facility is impor-tant for measurements on newpower conversion and power elec-tronics devices.An industry first dual harmonic

measurement function makes itpossible to measure simultane-

Anna Krone, Ugur Gürsoy, Rainer Becker (all Yokogawa) and Erich Flach (Linde, standing)at Linde Material Handling in Aschaffenburg

Fig. 3: Schematic of electric car drive train

ously the harmonic content andperform harmonic analysis on twodifferent sources, such as the inputand output of an inverter, vari-able-speed motor drive, lightingballast, uninterruptible power sup-ply or similar devices. The normalpower parameters and harmonicdata are measured simultaneously,providing for faster and more ac-curate power analysis.An event trigger function is in-

corporated to capture only a par-ticular event. A trigger can be setfor measured values that fall outof a pre-selected range, and the

analyser will only store, print orsave data that meet the triggercondition.Currents up to 50A RMS and

voltages up to 1kV RMS can bemeasured directly. Current trans-formers are required for highercurrents.A wide range of options for rep-

resenting the measured values onthe display is available. Fig. 2shows a display of typical currentand voltage waveforms from theinverter in the new electric car.Karabag’s future strategy in-

cludes using similar technology in

a large van aimed at the marketfor delivery vehicles in city cen-tres and for shorter distances suchas those involved in site traffic forlarge companies – where reducedcosts, lower noise levels and theabsence of emissions are key con-siderations. The company wouldalso like to offer conversion kitsfor small workshops. These willbe preassembled and will containall the necessary parts. It justneeds the battery to be procured,mechanical adjustments to bemade and the TÜV authorisationto be carried out.

CONNECTED CARS CONNECTED CARS


Those who have had thegood fortune to drive thelatest Porsche Panamera S

or Cayenne S hybrids will havefound that they contain a neatpiece of connectivity – also avail-able as options on other models –that links the car to a smartphone.This technology comes from Ital-ian company Cobra and couldsoon be made more widely avail-able following the firm’s takeoverby Vodafone earlier this year.For Porsche, the technology is at

the heart of its e-mobility push.“It works through a phone app,”

said Porsche spokesperson RobPunshon. “You click on it and allthe functionality is there on thehome page in front of you.”The my-car feature lets the user

see immediately on the phone theamount of fuel and the range – iteven has a map to show how far itcan go either on fuel or on electriccharge from its bank of Li-ion bat-teries, the state of charge of whichis also displayed.“As it charges, the range goes

up on the map,” said Punshon.“And it gives you all you need toknow about your plug-in status.You can even set times to startcharging and pre-heat the cabin orturn the aircon on.”A find-my-car function lets driv-

ers locate the car if they’ve forgot-ten where they parked it.

Rattling the CobraSteve Rogerson speaks with Vodafoneabout its plans in automotive followingthis year’s takeover of Cobra

Cobra, the company behind thistechnology, is not a new firm, infact it has been around since theend of the 1970s.“Today, we are the only com-

pany is this field that came fromthe automotive sector rather thanfrom IT or services sectors,” saidLudovico Fassati, who was untilthe Vodafone takeover chief exec-utive officer, but is now head ofbusiness development and strat-egy. Vodafone’s M2M directorEric Brenneis has taken over asCEO.Among Cobra’s achievements

over the years have been the in-vention of remote keyless entrysystems and technology that sendsthe owner a text message if the carwindow is broken.“We have always been a bit

ahead of the big ones such asContinental and Bosch,” saidFassati.The data from its black boxes

are managed and analysed fromits own service centres in Italyand the UK and from centres in 39other countries that license thesoftware.“Most of the luxury car makers

are our customers,” said Fassati.“We are the market leader in theUK on these types of systems.Porsche is our main customer inthe automotive sector.”The company also works a lot

Demonstration Porsche fittedwith the Cobra technology

CONNECTED CARS CONNECTED CARS


with the insurance companies fordriver behaviour monitors and oneof its biggest customers is insur-ance giant Generali.“We initially founded our own

insurance company in the UKbecause we were so convincedabout our system,” said Fassati.“That led us to the contact withGenreali.”The takeover by Vodafone was

finally completed in August and itraised a few eyebrows as to why amobile phone company wouldwant to be so intimately involvedin this business; after all, Cobrawas already one of its customersand so profits from this businesswere helping the Vodafone bank

balance anyway.“The automotive market is one

of the biggest growth markets inM2M,” explained Brenneis. “Lessthan ten per cent of vehicles havebuilt-in connectivity today. Evenmost of the new cars don’t havebuilt-in connectivity. As such, wesee this as a huge growth area.”He said companies such as

BMW had paved the way for thisgrowth with technologies such ase-call.“We at Vodafone are one of the

leaders in providing connectivityin devices for cars,” he said. “Sowe want to look at offering moreM2M services and not just con-nectivity. We scanned the market

and we found Cobra.”For a couple of years, Cobra had

been using Vodafone sim cards forits stolen-vehicle recovery serv-ice. And the phone company hadits cards in the car-connect blackboxes fitted into the Porsche cars.“Cobra has also developed the

software that reads the data fromthe black boxes, manages thatdata and analyses the data,” saidBrenneis. “They also developedthe app for the smartphone. Theyimpressed us so much we thoughtif we take over this company weimmediately become a majorplayer in connected cars. We cannow offer services such as stolen-vehicle tracking. That is the main

reason we bought Cobra.”The second reason, he said, was

that it let Vodafone offer the com-plete value chain for automotive –the hardware, the network, appli-cation services and service centresthat manage the data.“These are the four parts of the

value chain,” he said. “We arenow with Cobra the only companythat fully controls every singlepart of the value chain.”For the future, he said there

were plans to grow in severaldirections, taking advantage ofVodafone’s global sales force toincrease the potential market forCobra products.“With Vodafone, we can address

many more customers and wehave a strong brand in countriesthat Cobra doesn’t, such as SouthAfrica, India and Australia,” hesaid. “We are also going to con-tinue to strengthen the technicalteam that builds the underlying

Rob Punshon: “It gives you all you need to know about your plug-in status.”

Ludovico Fassati shows off some of Cobra’s products

hardware and platforms.”This is important because it can-

not just sell the same black boxused by Porsche to other car mak-ers as every car is different.“In the Porsche, it connects di-

rectly to the car’s diagnostic sys-tem,” he said. “Also, differentinsurance companies have differ-ent algorithms to give them whatthey want. We have alreadystarted to put the Cobra teams towork on the hardware and soft-ware sides to develop for adjacentmarkets to automotive.”He said it was too early in the

development cycle to announcewhat these markets would be indetail but said there were workingon developing a fully managedasset tracking service for yet-to-be-announced vertical segments.To help Vodafone take CobraWill Cameron: “The Vodafone name opens a lot more doors.”

CONNECTED CARS POWER TECHNOLOGIES


into more companies, Mark Rose,Vodafone’s head of automotive,has been transferred to the Cobrateam.“What we have now with Cobra

is a very sophisticated usage-based insurance service and alarge customer with Generali,”said Rose. “We used to have abasic usage-based insurance serv-ice with Vodafone and that givesus contacts within the insurancecompanies. Now, with the Cobracapability, we can use the Voda-fone sales teams to take that capa-bility to them.”Brenneis said this had brought

surprising success in a short pe-riod of time.“We have found another large

insurance company that has takenthat and we have found anothercar manufacturer that will take

Eric Brenneis: “Cobra is stronger than Vodafone in the garages.”

Mark Rose: “There is greatpotential for growth.”

something similar to the Porscheone,” he said. “But we cannot an-nounce either of them.”Will Cameron, Vodafone’s sen-

ior communications manager,added: “The Vodafone nameopens hell of a lot more doorsthan the Cobra name. We can nowstart thinking of more capabilitiessuch as infotainment and Wifi.”The long-term plan, said Bren-

neis, was that all these serviceswould be offered in the Vodafonename, but because of Cobra’s rep-utation in some areas, especiallysecurity and insurance, it waslikely to continue as a brand.Some of the products will also beoffered through aftermarket chan-nels, and these will include thefully managed tracking services.“Cobra is stronger than Voda-

fone in the garages,” said Bren-

neis, “and we have never servicedthem as an indirect channel butCobra has and we will use that.”Rose pointed out that there were

a billion cars on the road and 90%of them had no connectivity:“These indirect channels can beused to push these products there.I am talking about things likeusage-based insurance. This is an-other real strength we gained fromthe acquisition. There is great po-tential for growth.”Another area that Cobra is in is

ultrasonics for parking sensorsand Vodafone is working with tierones who use these sensors as partof its new push into automotive.“On the R&D side,” said Bren-

neis, “we had started work beforewe bought Cobra to make sure ournetworks can support the futureneeds of autonomous driving andtraffic management systems. Thenetwork at the moment is not suit-able as there are too many laten-cies. But our teams are alreadyworking with car makers and oth-ers to develop the systems. Wewill bring all this together.”And he said that there was no

need to wait for the arrival of 5Gto start addressing these issues.This is not likely to arrive until2020 but he said that the evolutionwas already starting.“We have time to make our net-

work ready,” he said.

Mitsubishi’s 52.4km/litreOutlander plug-in usesan energy recovery sys-

tem to harvest electricity thatwould otherwise be lost. Over160km of mixed driving, up to15kw/hr of potentially wasted en-ergy is harvested and put backinto the vehicle’s Li-ion battery.This means that in a year, driving16,000km, a single MitsubishiOutlander plug-in could createenough spare electricity to keepon the lights and appliances in150 homes for a day – Ofgem fig-ures put average daily electricityuse in UK homes at around10kw/hr.Recovery of kinetic energy – a

function of weight and speed – is

increased using a paddle-shift sys-tem that selects from five preciselevels of regenerative braking.Driver control of when and wherekinetic energy is harvested in-creases the mix of electricalpower in the vehicle’s hybriddrive-train. Replenishing the bat-tery in this way extends thepetrol-free driving range and off-sets the need for power that wouldotherwise be drawn from thecharging infrastructure.The full-sized family 4x4 SUV

combines electric and petrolpower. Unlike most hybrid vehi-cles, it can travel significantly fur-ther on electrical power alone –52km in fact. The electric rangegives the vehicle its environmen-

tal credentials. It emits just44g/km of CO2 and the officialcombined fuel consumption figureis 52.4km/litre.The on-board computer accu-

rately displays harvested energyand usage in real-time. The paddleshift levers are on the steering col-umn, letting the driver comfort-ably optimise the level ofregenerative braking with chang-ing road and driving conditions.Steep descents and motorway

speeds allow for stronger regener-ative braking using level five.Levels two, three and four providea productive level of regenerationin and around urban areas. Levelone provides a lighter level of en-ergy recovery.

Outlandish energy recovery

Under the bonnet of theMitsubishi Outlanderplug-in

SAFETY SAFETY


SAFETY FIRSTToyota reveals its plans to introduce

advanced safety systems into its vehiclesover the next few years

SAFETY SAFETY


Toyota has revealed some ofthe smart technologies andsystems it will be featuring

in future models to make drivingsafer. As part of the company’s in-tegrated safety management con-cept, these have been designedfrom the start to work together tohelp cut the number of road acci-dents.The features, announced at a

safety seminar in Toyota city inJapan, will be rolled out in modelsfrom 2015. Toyota is also creatingwhat it is calling Safety Sense ac-tive safety packages, tailored tosuit different size vehicles thatwill be made available worldwideby the end of 2017.The four main pillars of the

scheme are:

• Vehicle-to-infrastructure andvehicle-to-vehicle communica-tions for safer manoeuvres andhazard alerts;• Vehicle-to-vehicle communica-tions for smarter, safer and moreefficient cruise control driving;• Better night-time illuminationwith adaptive LED headlightarrays; and• Advanced active safety packagesfor new models.

V2XWhen a driver pulls up to a blindjunction, sometimes even the beston-board cameras and sensorscan’t give clear warning of the po-tential hazards. Toyota hasworked to eliminate the risk withvehicle-to-infrastructure and vehi-

cle-to-vehicle communications,using a wireless frequency re-served for ITS – integrated trafficsystem – services.For example, when the driver ar-

rives at a junction with no clearview, sensors above the road willdetect on-coming traffic or pedes-trians crossing the road and sendthe information to the car – thevehicle-to-infrastructure system.Vehicles approaching the inter-

section will signal their presenceusing the vehicle-to-vehicle link,activating visual and audio driverwarnings when necessary to helpprevent an accident.The car maker has also devel-

oped a communicating radarcruise control that uses vehicle-to-vehicle communications to make

The P and C systems combine multiple sensors for recognition and reliability

Three key technologiesThe three key technologies that will make up the Toyota Safety Sense package are:

Automatic high beam (left)

Pre-collision system (below)

Lane departure alert (left)

it easier for preceding and follow-ing vehicles to keep a safe dis-tance apart. It uses aforward-facing millimetre-waveradar to monitor the distance be-tween a vehicle and the oneahead, their relative speed and theacceleration and deceleration ofthe car in front. This improvestracking performance in traffic,being safer and more fuel-effi-cient, and helping avoid one of thecommon causes of congestion.Toyota is developing its ITS-

compatible systems working incollaboration with governmentbodies, agencies and private com-panies, with the aim of launchingthem as soon as practically possi-ble. In 2013, it participated in theITS Green Safety public-privatecollaborative demonstration proj-ect to assess the social effects ofsuch systems.It will also be participating in

the ITS Connect Promotion Con-sortium to support the develop-ment of environments for thesmooth introduction of suchsystems and their widespreadadoption.

LEDsThe company has already madeadvances in automatic high beamand adaptive lighting systems.Now its next-generation system isready to deliver better night-timeillumination – the LED arrayadaptive high beam.This system uses multiple, inde-

pendently controlled LEDsarranged in a single row. Thisgives a wider illumination withoutdazzling drivers of on-coming orpreceding vehicles. It can light upthe gaps between vehicles aheadand those approaching, making iteasier to spot pedestrians; lightdistribution is also linked to theuse of the steering wheel, givingbetter visibility as the driver turnsinto a bend.The development of next-gener-

ation illumination technologies ispart of the company’s efforts tohelp prevent accidents at night.The new Safety Sense activesafety package will include an au-tomatic high beam function.

Safety packagesFrom 2015, Toyota will launch a

set of active safety technologies tohelp prevent or mitigate collisionsacross a wide range of vehiclespeeds. They will be offered intwo packages, initially in Japanand subsequently in the USA andEurope, by the end of 2017.The two packages – designated

C and P for mid-size and largervehicles, respectively – bring to-gether several of the company’sexisting active safety technolo-gies, including the pre-crashsafety system, lane keep assist andautomatic high beam. The C pack-age uses a laser radar and the Ppackage a millimetre-wave radar,each combined with a camera tosecure high performance and reli-ability.The C contains three and the P

five active safety systems.A separate active safety pack-

age, Lexus Safety System+, willbe marketed for Lexus models, in-cluding a road sign assist func-tion. This recognises speed limitsand road signs when travellingoverseas, presenting the informa-tion on the driver’s instrumentdisplay.

PRODUCTS


PRODUCTS

An automotive dead reck-oning (ADR) modulewith integrated motion,direction and elevationsensors is available fromU-Blox. The NEO-M8Lintegrates gyro and ac-celerometer with the M8GNSS platform for in-door and outdoor posi-tioning for road vehicleand high-accuracy navi-gation applications.

In addition to accessingthe integrated module’sgyro and accelerometerdata, accident reconstruc-tion systems can providethe location of an acci-dent to facilitate insur-ance claims even if a

collision occurs in a tun-nel or park house.

The module measures12.2 by 16.0 by 2.5mm,and requires little host in-tegration with uncriticalorientation of the in-stalled module, odometerfunction and autonomousdata logging.

Embedding the firm’s3D ADR chip technology,it uses the vehicle’s speedinformation and module’sonboard sensors to enableaccurate positioning inthree dimensions, evenwhen satellite signals arecompletely lost and theend-device installation isnot horizontal. An

Module tracks position evenwhen satellite signals are lost

odometer function, basedon the ADR technology,also provides accurateand continuous distancetravelled.

It can track all visibleGNSS satellites including

GPS, Glonass, Beidou,QZSS and SBAS. Con-current reception of twoGNSS systems is sup-ported. The module canoutput a position up to 20times per second.

The Arbor TechnologyARTS-4770 is an in-vehi-cle PC for surveillance,in buses, lorries and othervehicles. With four-portPoE module, Intel thirdgeneration Core i7processor and one to fourIP cameras, it can monitorin-vehicle events.

All video images can bedisplayed on the screenbeside the driver andrecorded onto a solid stor-age disk, which provideshigher protection for pas-sengers’ safety. It is easyto track when some unde-sirable situation occurs

It includes a smartpower ignition function toprotect the PC itself, GPSwith 3G and 4G telecom-munications for locationtracking, Wifi, USB andremovable SSD for datatransference, rigidity forvibration and shock, com-pact size for all kinds ofvehicles such as ambu-lances, buses and lorries,and over-voltage powerprotection.

With the four-port PoEmodule, it doesn’t need tohave a PoE switch in thevehicle, which can savethe cost of the PoE deviceand wiring.

In-vehiclePC forsurveillance

A low-frequency initiatorIC consists of two highpower, independentlyprogrammable LF driversplus built-in immobilis-ers. The MLX74190 de-vice from Melexis issuitable for wireless com-munications deploymentswhere power efficient op-eration is of prime impor-tance, in such sectors asautomotive, safety andbuilding automation.

One of the main appli-cations is automobile re-mote passive start, whereit is used to transmit ahigh power LF signal towake up the key insidethe car. The key sends outits encrypted identifica-tion number to the car viaa UHF signal, enablingthe engine to start. It canalso serve a similar pur-pose with other vehicles,such as motorcycles,

scooters, all-terrain vehi-cles, jet skis, snowmo-biles and motorboats,where the key holder canbe detected when ap-proaching the engine andwill be able to activate itfrom a start button.

Conversely it can serveas a dead man switch sothat if the driver falls offthen the engine is auto-matically cut. In addition,it may be incorporatedinto building access, tyrepressure monitoring sys-tem initiators and petidentification systems.

Both of the LF driverscan be programmed togenerate sine (1A peakmaximum) or square(2.5A peak maximum)waves with frequenciesbetween 109 and 140kHzand an output amplitudefrom 0.25 to 32V peak-to-peak. These drivers

Initiator IC aids passive startcan be used in either full-bridge or half-bridge con-figurations and haveprotection mechanismsthat safeguard themagainst over-current andover-temperature condi-tions.

Amplitude-shift keying(ASK) or phase-shift key-ing (PSK) modulationcan be used to transmitLF telegrams to the keyor LF receiver. A flexibledata programing methodsupports various encod-ing types.

The two built-in immo-bilisers support ASK andfrequency-shift keying(FSK) modulations.

These can be employedshould the key’s batterybecome depleted andtherefore unable to gener-ate a signal. Under suchcircumstances, passiveRFID communicationscan be initiated when thekey comes close to theinitiator device.

The immobilisers arecompatible with the mostpopular types of passivetransponders.

The diagnostic capabil-ities make it possible todetect various forms ofmisconnection with theLF antenna, such as shortto ground, short to Vbat,open load or incorrectresonance frequency.

The device comes in a48-pin TQFP package.Operational temperatureis -40 to +105˚C.

MCUs aim to be de-facto adas standardThe RH850/P1x-C, ahigh-end version of theRenesas RH850/P1x se-ries of 32bit automotivemicrocontrollers, is forsensor fusion, gateway

and advanced chassis sys-tem applications.

“We anticipate that thenew series will becomethe world’s de-facto stan-dard for the sophisticated

driver assistance systemsof the future,” said RyujiOmura, executive vicepresident for RenesasElectronics.

The device has been de-signed with functions tosupport functional safetyand comply with Asil D,the highest safety levelstipulated in ISO 26262.

Two CPUs with identi-cal configurations operatein a lockstep system.Error check and correct(ECC) functionality de-tects and corrects data er-rors affecting memory,such as flash memory,

and the internal buses.Fault detection functionsfor system diagnostics arealso included in the pe-ripheral functions.

The built-in self-testfunction can detect faultsin the fault detectionfunctions themselves.The error control modulelets users manage errorsignal inputs from thevarious functions, therebyhelping maintain systemsafety and reliability.

There is up to 8Mbyteflash, up to 960kbyteglobal ram and operatingspeeds up to 240MHz.

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Configurable to meet userrequirements, the ETR10smart power relay in-cludes a timer functionand electronic overcur-rent protection.

Made by E-T-A CircuitBreakers, the remotelycontrollable solid-statetimer relay fits a standardfour- or seven-pole auto-motive relay socket for 12or 24V systems and canswitch currents between 1and 30A.

Programmable timerfunctions include a time

Combined accelerometerand gyroscope sensor de-vices aimed at tough en-vironments such as thosein automotive and indus-trial applications areavailable from Murata.

The SCC2000 serieshas shock sensitivity andbias stability characteris-tics and consists of alow-g three-axis ac-celerometer with two an-gular rate sensor optionsof either x or z-axis detec-tion, together with a 32bitdigital SPI interface.

The sensor has a soft-ware selectable 10 or60Hz low pass filter thatcan be configured viaSPI. Gyro range is±125˚/s with sensitivityof 50 LSB per degree per

Automotive grade pataand sata FerriSSD prod-ucts for in-vehicle info-tainment (IVI) systemswere shown by SiliconMotion at Electronica.

They are designed to re-place traditional sata andpata hard disk drives usedin a wide range of embed-ded applications such asautomotive IVI systems.By integrating NAND flashwith the company’s con-trollers in a BGA pack-age, they can deliversfaster performance withbetter endurance and reli-ability than hard diskdrives. Thy support AEC-Q100 and an operatingrange of -40 to +85˚C.

“The increasing amountof technology being em-bedded into automobilestoday – from real-timeGPS, to streaming inter-net multimedia content tointerfacing with smart-phones – requires betterperforming and more re-liable IVI systems,” saidNelson Duann, SiliconMotion’s vice president.“Our FerriSSD is easy toimplement without com-promising safety or per-formance.”

The embedded storagesystem encompasseshardware and firmware tosupport an array of capa-bilities using proprietarytechnologies. Features in-

Solid-state timer relay canbe remotely controlled

delay, pulsing or blinking.Equipment protection

in the event of a faultoccurring is also in the

component.Status and signal out-

puts enable remote moni-toring. It is remotelyresettable after overloadtripping if an overloadhas caused the relay toswitch off.

Suitable for on-boardelectrical systems wheremagnetic valves, motorsor lamps have to beswitched and protected, itwill find typical applica-tions in road vehicles ofall kinds, constructionand agricultural vehicles,

rail vehicles, leisure andworkboats, as well as inindustrial process controland production systems.

The electronic switch-ing removes the soundand wear problems asso-ciated with mechanicalcontacts, and at the sametime makes the compo-nent insensitive to shock,vibrations and dust.

The device measures 30by 30 by 40mm deep, fit-ting a standard ISO Miniautomotive relay socket(to ISO7588).

Accelerometer andgyroscope combined

second. Typical ac-celerometer offset tem-perature drift is ± 6mg forthe 2g sensor and ±12mgfor the 6g version.

Gyroscope offset tem-perature drift is typicallyin the range ±0.5˚/s forthe 125˚/s x and z-axisversions. The gyroscopehas a typical offset short-term bias stability of 1˚/hrfor the 125˚/s x-axis de-vice and 2˚/hr for the

125˚/s z-axis product. Acombined sensor with agyro having a range of upto 300˚/s is also availableon request.

The devices come in a24-pin pre-moulded plas-tic RoHS compliant soichousing for SMD mount-ing measuring 15 by 12.1by 4.35mm. The com-bined sensor is compliantwith ISO26262 and AEC-Q100 stress test.

Kemet introduced its firstautomotive grade poly-mer capacitors at Elec-tronica. The T591automotive grade poly-mer tantalum series issaid to deliver stabilityand endurance underharsh humidity and tem-perature conditions.

It is available in capaci-tances up to 220µF andrated up to 10V. Operat-ing temperature is up to125˚C and it is manufac-tured in an ISO TS 16949certified plant.

The qualification planwas based on AEC-Q200guidelines and is avail-able for PPAP, PSW andchange control. Addi-tional products areplanned with temperatureratings up to 150˚C andvoltages up to 63V.

Typical uses includesdecoupling and filteringof DC-to-DC convertersin automotive infotain-ment and driver assis-tance applications, aswell as industrial applica-tions where harsh condi-tions such as highhumidity and temperatureare of concern.

Polymercapacitors

SSD replaces sata and pata in IVIclude intelligent scan anddata refresh with a built-in temperature sensor toenhance the reliabilityand extend the lifespan ofthe SSD. Monitor and re-mote firmware updatabil-ity ensures that each driveremains healthy and uses

the latest firmware.Two complementary

features provide fast dataaccess and high-speedsustained data transfers.Hardware-level quick-erase and full-disk AESencryption provide dataprotection.

Software upgrade for location platformCSR has announcedsoftware releases for theSirfstar V 5ea automo-tive-grade quad-GNSSlocation platform. Sup-port has been added forconcurrent use of GPSand Beidou (BDS) satel-lite constellations, alongwith updates to the Sirf-drive software dead reck-oning algorithms.

By adding support forChina’s BDS constella-tion to the existing GPSand Glonass capabilities,

the software gives auto-motive OEMs the flexi-bility to performconcurrent GPS andGlonass or GPS and BDSoperations. The platformis also Galileo-readythrough future softwareupgrades.

“Automotive OEMsfrom around the globe allhave something to gainfrom the new additions toour cutting edge automo-tive location platform,”said Anthony Murray,

senior VP at CSR.They include the firm’s

latest dead reckoning al-gorithms that work along-side concurrent GPS andGlonass operations.

It is designed forAEC-Q100 qualificationrequirements as a stand-alone location engine. Itsuits in-dash navigationand telematics applica-tions in cars, lorries andother moveable assets re-quiring automotive-qual-ified devices.


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Editor and Publisher:Steve [email protected]

Advertising Manager:Jayne [email protected]

Web Site Manager:Martin [email protected]

Published by: Vehicle Electronics Magazine,72 Westwood Road, Nottingham NG2 4FS, UK

Web site: vehicle-electronics.bizTwitter: @velectronicsmag

© 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.

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Epoxy-coated mini sen-sors have been optimisedfor automotive tempera-ture probes. Built on NTCthermistor technology,the AEC-Q200-qualifiedNTCLE213E3 sensorsfrom Vishay Intertechnol-ogy can deliver responsetimes quicker than 5s inair, thanks to a body di-ameter that is less than2.5mm. They also have arugged design to with-stand thermal shocks.

The devices are de-signed to provide fast and

accurate temperaturesensing for automotiveengine coolant tempera-ture and temperaturemanifold absolute pres-sure sensors, HVAC sys-tems, and consumer,commercial and industrialappliances.

They are available inbulk with extra-long41mm tinned nickel leadsor tape-on-reel for auto-matic mounting.

The RoHS-compliantdevices provide resist-ance at +25˚C from 2.1 to

Fast temperature sensing

100kΩ, with tolerancedown to ± 1%, and beta(B25/85) from 3511 to4190K, with tolerancedown to ± 0.5%. The sen-

sors have a maximumpower dissipation of100mW and operate overa temperature range of-55 to +150˚C.

The NCV78763 smartpower ballast and dualchannel LED driver fromOn Semiconductor is asingle-chip automotivelighting device capable ofdriving two strings ofLEDs up to 60V. DC of1.6A can be supported oneach output.

The built-in current-mode voltage boostercontroller enables inputcurrent filtering. An inter-nal PWM dimming func-tion, covering frequenciesup to 4kHz, is also in-cluded in addition to theoption of PWM direct-feed for full frequencyand resolution controlfrom the external micro-controller.

Optimised for frontlighting applications, thisdevice can be employed

Chip can drive two strings of LEDs

in high beam, low beam,turn indicator, static cor-nering, fog and daytimerunning lights.

For each individualLED channel there is anindependent buck switchoutput through which theoutput current and volt-

age can be configured tomeet application criteria.Configuration is done viathe device’s serial periph-eral interface (SPI). Inte-grated diagnostic featuresmean less of the systemmicrocontroller’s re-sources need to be de-

voted to safety monitor-ing, thereby improvingeffectiveness of the light-ing design.

If more than two LEDchannels are needed onone lighting module, thenmultiple devices can becombined. Due to the SPIprogrammability, this isflexible, permitting thescaling up of designs sothat more LED stringscan be used. This resultsin multiple system con-figurations that can ad-dress an expansive rangeof automobile models.

It supports high operat-ing frequencies and thuspermits specification ofsmaller inductors.

There are three packagevariants – 5 by 5mmQFN-32, 7 by 7mmQFN-32 and 36-pin ssop.

As an extension to itsUSB2 controller hubportfolio, the automotive-grade, four-port USB84604 IC from Microchipuses Flex Connect tech-nology and an upstreamport that supports USB2.0and high-speed inter-chip(HSIC) connectivity. It issuitable for automotiveinfotainment system de-signs, where USB portexpansion and connectiv-ity are needed.

The downstream port-one can swap with the up-stream host port, thustransferring the host capa-bility to the product con-nected to the hub,including smartphonesand tablets. This capabil-ity allows for the smart-phone ecosystem ofsoftware and applications

Controller hub connectssmartphones to infotainment

to be connected to the au-tomobile infotainmentsystem.

It can be connected on acircuit board to use theUSB2.0 protocol, de-creasing power consump-tion. This powerreduction is most obviouswhen actively transfer-ring data, and has beenmeasured to be one sev-enth of the power con-sumed by a pair oftraditional USB2.0 physi-cal-layer transceivers.

It can attach to an up-stream port as a full-speed hub or as a full andhigh-speed hub.

When connected to ahigh-speed host, the fourdownstream-facing portscan operate at low speed(1.5Mbit/s), full speed(12Mbit/s) or high speed(480Mbit/s). Addition-ally, the integrated bat-tery-charger-detectioncircuitry supports down-stream battery detectionand charging, providing

the ability to replace ex-ternal battery chargerswith advanced battery-charging modes such asUSB-IF BC1.2 batterycharging and Apple.

To ensure optimisedsignal strengths and ro-bust operation in theharsh EMI environmentstypical of automotive ap-plications, the company’sVarisense and phy-boosttechnologies have beenintegrated.

Functionality and con-figurations can be loadedfrom external flash. On-chip OTP memory can beused to load permanentconfigurations and its SMBus slave interface can beused to customise thefunctionality.

It comes in a 64-pinQFN package.

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