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The technology in the automotive industry is evolving rapidly in recent times. Thus, with the development of new technologies, the challenges are also ever-increasing from an Electromagnetic Interference and Susceptibility (EMI/EMC) perspective. A lot of the latest technologies in Adaptive Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), which include Rear Drive Assist, Blind Spot Detection (BSD), Lane Change Assist (LCA) to name a few, and other features like Anti-Braking System (ABS), Emergency Brake Assist (EBD) etc. rely heavily on different types of sensors and their detection circuitry. In addition, a lot of other internal functions in the Engine Control Unit (ECU) also depend on such sensors’ functionalities. Thus, it becomes imperative to study the potential impact of higher field emissions on the immunity behaviour of the sensors.

Autonomous driving systems and connected mobility are the next big developments for the car manufacturers and their suppliers during the next decade. To achieve the high computing power needs and fulfill new upcoming requirements due to functional safety and security, heterogeneous processor architectures with a mixture of different core architectures and hardware accelerators are necessary. To tackle this new type of hardware complexity and nevertheless stay within monetary constraints, high performance computers, inspired by state of the art data center hardware, could be adapted in order to fulfill automotive quality requirements. The European Processor Initiative (EPI) research project tries to come along with that challenge for next generation semiconductors. To be as close as possible to series development needs for the next upcoming car generations, we present a hybrid semiconductor system-on-chip architecture for automotive.

Current regulatory developments aim for stricter emission limits, increased environmental protection and purification of air on a local and global scale. In order to find solutions for a cleaner combustion process, it is necessary to identify the critical components and parameters responsible for the formation of emissions. This work provides an evaluation process for particle formation during combustion of a modern direct injection engine, which can help to create new aftertreatment techniques, such as a gasoline particle filter (GPF) system, that are fit for purpose. With the advent of “real driving emission” (RDE) regulations, which include market fuels for the particulate number testing procedure, the chemical composition and overall quality of the fuel cannot be neglected in order to yield a comparable emission test within the EU and worldwide.

Highly automated driving (HAD) is under rapid development and will be available for customers within the next years. However the evidence that HAD is at least as safe as human driving has still not been produced. The challenge is to drive hundreds of millions of test kilometers without incidents to show that statistically HAD is significantly safer. One approach is to let a HAD function run in parallel with human drivers in customer cars to utilize a fraction of the billions of kilometers driven every year. To guarantee safety, the function under test (FUT) has access to sensors but its output is not executed, which results in an open loop problem. To overcome this shortcoming, the proposed method consists of four steps to close the loop for the FUT. First, sensor data from real driving scenarios is fused in a world model and enhanced by incorporating future time steps into original measurements.

Functional safe systems fulfilling the ISO 26262 standard are getting more important for automotive applications where additional redundant and diverse functionality is needed for higher rated ASIL levels. This can result in a very complex and expensive system setup. Here we present a sensor product developed according ISO 26262. This sensor product comprises a two channel redundant and also diverse implemented magnetic field sensor concept with linear digital outputs on one monolithically integrated silicon substrate. This sensor is used for ASIL D applications like power-steering torque measurement, where the torque is transferred into a magnetic field signal in a certain magnetic setup, but can also be used in other demanding sensor applications concerning safety. This proposed and also implemented solution is beneficial because of implementation on a single chip in one single chip-package but anyway fulfilling ASIL D requirements on system level.

Functional safe products conforming to the ISO 26262 standard are getting more important for automotive applications wherein electronic takes more and more response for safety relevant operations. Consequently safety mechanisms are needed and implemented in order to reach defined functional safety targets. To prove their effectiveness diagnostic coverage provides a measurable quantity. A straight forward safety mechanism for sensor systems can be established by redundant signal paths measuring the same physical quantity and subsequently performing an independent output difference-check that decides if the data can be transmitted or an error message shall be sent. This paper focuses on the diagnostic coverage figure calculation of such data correlation-checks for linear sensors which are also shown in ISO 26262 part5:2011 ANNEX D2.10.2.

Air charge calibration of turbocharged SI gasoline engines with both variable inlet valve lift and variable inlet and exhaust valve opening angle has to be very accurate and needs a high number of measurements. In particular, the modeling of the transition area from unthrottled, inlet valve controlled resp. throttled mode to turbocharged mode, suffers from small number of measurements (e.g. when applying Design of Experiments (DoE)). This is due to the strong impact of residual gas respectively scavenging dominating locally in this area. In this article, a virtual residual gas sensor in order to enable black-box-modeling of the air charge is presented. The sensor is a multilayer perceptron artificial neural network. Amongst others, the physically calculated air mass is used as training data for the artificial neural network.

The constant motivation for lower fuel consumption and emission levels has always been in the minds of most auto makers. Therefore, it is important to have precise control of the fuel being delivered into the engine. Gasoline Port fuel injection has been a matured system for many years and cars sold in emerging markets still favor such system due to its less system complexity and cost. This paper will explain injection control strategy of today during development, and especially the injector dead-time compensation strategy in detail and how further improvements could still be made. The injector current profile behavior will be discussed, and with the use of minimum hardware electronics, this paper will show the way for a new compensation strategy to be adopted.

It has become an important trend to implement safety-related requirements in the road vehicles. Recent studies have shown that accidents, which occurred when drivers are not focused due to fatigue or distractions, can be predicted in advance when using safety features. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are used to prevent this kind of situation. Currently, many major tiers are using a DSP chip for ADAS applications. This paper suggests the migration from a DSP configuration to a Microcontroller configuration for ADAS application, for example, using a 32bit Multi-core Microcontroller. In this paper, the following topics will be discussed. Firstly, this paper proposes and describes the system block diagram for ADAS configuration followed by the requirements of the ADAS system. Secondly, the paper discusses the current solutions using a DSP. Thirdly, the paper presents a system that is migrated to a Multi-core microcontroller.

The newly released Distributed System Interface 3 (DSI3) Bus Standard specification defines three modulation levels form which 16 valid symbols are coded. This complex structure is best decoded with symbol pattern recognition. This paper proposes a simplification of the correlation score calculation that sharply reduces the required number of operations. Additionally, the paper describes how the pattern recognition is achieved using correlation scores and a decoding algorithm. The performance of this method is demonstrated by mean of simulations with different load models between the master and the sensors and varying noise injection on the channel. We prove than the pattern recognition can decode symbols without any error for up to 24dBm.

The electrification of the powertrain is still one of the main challenges and innovation drivers for modern cars. With the introduction of the Toyota Prius, launched in Japan in 1997 the first commercially available hybrid car in mass production, the development continued towards the BMW i3 launched in July 2013. One main component for all kind of hybrid cars is still the power semiconductor, which is used for DC/DC converters and for the inverter to drive the electric motor for the traction control. What makes the selection of the right power semiconductor complex, is the variety of different voltage levels within the car (from standard 12V board net, the new 48V board net all the way up to 400V and above) plus different requirements in terms of switching and conduction performance, or accordingly power losses. The selection of device by application and voltage will be discussed in this paper.

Trans Tech recently debuted the all-electric eTrans school bus providing a total zero emission school bus. The presentation will demonstrate Smith Electric Vehicles and their history with electric vehicles. The presentation will help ensure that everybody has an idea of what the electric school bus will do and to dispel any rumors about the vehicle. Presenter Brian S. Barrington, Trans Tech. Bus

The BMW Group has introduced electric cars to the market with the MINI E already in 2009. The next step will be the launch of the BMW ActiveE in 2011, followed by the revolutionary Mega City Vehicle in 2013. The presentation will explain the BMW Group strategy for implementing sustainable mobility. A focus will be emobility, the use of carbon fiber and the holistic sustainability approach of BMW Group?s project i. Reference will be made to the research results of the MINI E projects in the US and in Europe. Presenter Andreas Klugescheid, BMW AG

The quality of the paint application in automotive industry depends on several process parameters. Thus, finding an optimal solution based on experimental configuration is tedious and time consuming. A first step to reduce the effort is to model the application within the framework of a simulation environment. In this study, we present an approach for the systematic variation of design parameters of the paint process to quantify their influence on the quality of the paint application. Using that information the design space is reduced by neglecting the parameters with low impact and later used to predict an optimal set of input parameters for an optimal paint application.

Single Edge Nibble Transmission (SENT) is a promising low-cost solution for communication between off-ECU sensors and a microcontroller. First, this paper analyses the advantages of digital sensors with a special focus on position sensors. The possible integration of SENT in other application fields (such as pressure sensors) is also discussed. Secondly, it describes possible solutions for handling SENT communication on microcontrollers and it gives practical examples based on Infineon's TriCore and XC2000 families. It discusses the constraints and limitations on software level and how they could be solved by dedicated hardware implementations. Finally, this paper presents the Short PWM Code (SPC) protocol, which is a further extension of the SENT protocol. SPC aims at increasing the performance of the communication link and reducing system costs at the same time. By allowing bidirectional communication, SPC opens the way to new system relevant functionalities.

Today the majority of power electronics is developed based on the requirements set by the main fields of application e.g. power generation, power supply, industrial drive and traction. With introduction to automotive applications new requirements have to be taken into account. This paper discusses how interconnection technologies for power semiconductors can be improved to meet the demand for higher temperature capability in HEV applications.

Position detection and control is necessary in modern automotive applications because of remotely controlled actuators, such as window lifters or windshield. In recent years, the demand for reliable actuators for safety critical systems, such as power steering systems, has also increased significantly. This creates a growing demand for fast, accurate and efficient servo motor systems that are increasingly smarter, smaller and cheaper. One interesting option is to use Giant Magneto Resistive (GMR) angle sensors to replace the resolvers, Hall, inductive and Anisotropic Magneto Resistive Effect (AMR) Sensors commonly used today for shaft-angle measurements. In principle, there are functional differences among various angle measurement technologies; thus, the effect of switching between them needs to be analyzed.

In the case of a side impact the decision to deploy an airbag has to be taken much faster as it would be required for a front impact. Furthermore, there is a significant spread of the measurable acceleration depending on which pillars of the cars side are hit. Measuring the pressure inside the door as a direct result of an impact, the deformation of the door becomes observable. Based on pressure measurements side impacts can be detected much faster and more reliable. Therefore side airbag pressure sensors are established as add-on or replacement for side airbag acceleration sensors. This paper will present a Side Airbag Chip Set comprising of a side airbag pressure sensor and a satellite receiver. The system architecture and the partitioning between a single chip solution for the side airbag pressure sensor module plus the compatible satellite receiver will be described.

This paper shall present advancements in electronic transmission control circuits addressing new challenges in the gearbox striving for improved vehicle efficiency and comfort of driving. Efficient chipset design, requires finding the optimal partitioning, that is the mapping of functionality to hardware or software and analog or digital circuit technology. The efficiency will be judged by minimal cost whilst achieving improved functionality and required scalability for a platform approach. Specific examples demonstrated are smart sensor architecture and new mapping of control strategies, realized with a novice integrated current control IC concept. Comparisons on system level are used to evaluate different function mappings as well as component partitioning. Details of the most optimized mapping and partitioning will be elaborated and first results of implementation in silicon components will be shown.

The signal delivery and quality of sensor data is of growing importance for modern automotive control applications. Sensors tend to be calibrated subsystems that are designed to stay in a defined tolerance and thus can easily be modeled. Compared to this deterministic behavior the transmission channel is time variant due to EMC and aging of contacts for example. The use of analog signaling, which is the actual state of realization in many cases, is sensitive to the time variant effects mentioned before. This time variance is hard to consider for the control system development. In this paper we will analyze the role of the sensor in the signal supply chain and discuss approaches for digital sensor-ECU communication and their potential to establish a link, which allows neglecting low level effects of the channel.