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Today's automotive software integration is a static process. Hardware and software form a fixed package and thus hinder the integration of new electric and electronic features once the specification has been completed. Usually software components assigned to an ECU cannot be easily transferred to other devices after they have been deployed. The main reasons are high system configuration and integration complexity, although shifting functions from one to another ECU is a feature which is generally supported by AUTOSAR. The concept of a Virtual Functional Bus allows a strict separation between applications and infrastructure and avoids source code modifications. But still further tooling is needed to reconfigure the AUTOSAR Basic Software (BSW). Other challenges for AUTOSAR are mixed integrity, versioning and multi-core support. The upcoming BMW E/E-domain oriented architecture will require all these features to be scalable across all vehicle model ranges.

Sophisticated electronic control unit (ECU) systems are required to achieve optimal performance in electric vehicles, especially in the areas of charge management and climate control. Some of the important control parameters for these systems include charge control and state of charge determination (SOC). Motorola's Automotive Group recently developed an electronic control unit (ECU) that controls and manages the heart of electric vehicles, the battery.

The new generation of drive-by-wire systems currently under development has demanding requirements on the electronic architecture. Functions such as brake-by-wire or steer-by-wire require continued operation even in the presence of component failures. The electronic architecture must therefore provide fault-tolerance and real-time response. This in turn requires the operating system and the communication layer to be predictable, dependable and composable. It is well known that this properties are best supported by a time-triggered approach. A consortium consisting of German and French car manufacturers and suppliers, which aims at becoming a working group within the OSEK/VDX initiative, the OSEKtime consortium, is currently defining a specification for a time-triggered operating system and a fault-tolerant communication layer.1 The operating system and the communication layer are based on applicable interfaces of the OSEK/VDX standard.

The Columbus Orbital Facility (COF) is being developed as the European Laboratory contribution to the International Space Station (ISS) program. The COF Active Thermal Control System (ATCS) is based on a single phase water loop for the collection of waste heat from payloads and subsystems and the rejection to the ISS Heat Exchangers (HXs). During 1993 the budget constraints and the shifting to November 2002 of the European Laboratory launch led to an incremental qualification approach for the COF ATCS water loop: to qualify the ATCS water loop by analysis using mathematical models correlated throughout a series of testing. The water loop testing has been developed through different incremental steps whose results were correlated by means of ESATAN-FHTS models. The water loop setup testing was upgraded, step by step, by using commercial and flight representative items on the basis of the equipment development status.

This paper describes a strategy that allows a vehicle builder to quickly design and build an electrical communication and control system infrastructure. The power, ground, and communication infrastructure connects readily available operator interfaces and other electromechanical devices together with high level controllers to provide a complete vehicle electrical system.

As features in vehicles and their associated loading on the vehicle's power supply increase, the existing 14V power supply system is being pushed to its limits. At some point it will be necessary to provide a complementary higher supply voltage for higher power loads to ensure reliable operation. Industry efforts have been underway to define the next step(s) toward a common architecture. These efforts are currently focused on a dual voltage 14V/42V system with specified voltage limits. A change in the vehicle's power supply voltage and over-voltage specifications have a direct impact on semiconductors. Cost, reliability, available process technology, and packaging are among the areas that are affected. Reducing or eliminating the load dump transient can provide cost reduction, especially for power switching devices. Smart semiconductor switches with integrated diagnostic and protection features provide the potential to replace fuses in the new architecture.

As the new generation of RISC powertrain MCUs propagate through the automotive development cycle, there will likely be more difficulty in debugging the ECU reliably and efficiently. Simply stated, there is less support for the development process in the new high-performance single-chip RISC MCUs, which could create critical and costly delays in the development cycle. Additionally, as powertrain MCUs continue to evolve, superscalar or multiple-issue RISC implementations may be used as the central processor. With the capability to issue multiple instructions in one clock cycle, this will only magnify the development support problem. Thus it is essential to address this impending problem with a strategy that both automotive and tools developers can agree. A strategy for development standards is presented in this paper, and a new powertrain MCU development interface standard is proposed.

This paper is going to discuss typical requirements for micromachined sensors. The most common examples today are pressure and acceleration sensors. We will discuss the function and applications of pressure and acceleration sensors. There are two differences between accelerometers and pressure sensors: sensor technology and signal conditioning. Pressure sensors employ bulk micromachining techniques where accelerometers use surface micromachining. Pressure sensors are typically signal conditioned with bipolar circuitry. Acceleration sensors use CMOS signal conditioning. We will also explain the electrical characteristics of both pressure and acceleration sensors along with mechanical package styles. We will be focusing our effort on automotive based applications. Some typical applications for pressure sensors in the automotive environment are MAP, BAP, lumbar seat, air bag and tire pressure. The requirements of the MAP/BAP application will also be discussed in detail.

The automotive pressure sensor is one of the most widespread applications of a micromachined device, and has evolved into a relatively mature technology, expanding beyond its original use as an engine control sensor into other vehicle control and diagnostic systems. The need for flexibility in various applications, low cost, high volume manufacturing capability, and survivability in harsh environments has strongly influenced sensor signal conditioning, calibration, element design, and packaging. Many of the issues affecting the development and commercialization of micromachined automotive pressure sensors are also relevant to other emerging microfabricated devices. This paper shows how the commercial success of a product using microfabricated technology is highly dependent upon other core competencies, beyond just the capability to perform the micromachining operations necessary to create the sensing device.

A monolithic sensing solution for manifold absolute pressure (MAP) is presented. This work includes examination of design, fabrication, temperature compensation, packaging and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing of the fully integrated monolithic sensor. The circuit uses integrated bipolar electronics and conventional IC processing. The amplification circuit consists of three op-amps, seven laser trimmable resistors, and other active and passive components. Also discussed is a summary of an automotive application MAP sensor general specification, test methods, assembly, packaging, reliability and media testing for a single chip solution.

An Integrated Barometric Absolute Pressure Sensor (IBAP) solution for barometric pressure sensing is presented here. The IBAP is a silicon bulk micromachined monolithic pressure sensor. This work includes an examination of the design, fabrication, temperature compensation, and testing aspects. In addition, options and issues related to the mounting of the IBAP device will be presented. Two techniques, including surface mounting the sensor on the engine control unit (ECU) PWB are discussed.

This paper describes a series of power ICs designed specifically for powertrain control applications. The series includes low-side drivers and high-side drivers. The drivers are capable of fault detection and reporting to the Micro-Control Unit (MCU). Reported faults include short circuit detection, thermal limit, over-voltage protection, “on” open load detection, and “off” open load detection.

As more automobile designs utilizing serial multiplex network protocols such as SAE J1850 and CAN go into production, automotive system designers must now seek ways to lower the cost of the multiplex communication devices used in order to allow the number of components communicating across the multiplex bus to expand. The first generation of J1850 multiplex devices were designed as the different versions of the protocol were being developed and as a result seem better suited for use as development tools rather than for use in cost-sensitive production applications. As the next generation of multiplex devices is being defined, a hard look needs to be taken at the actual system requirements for communication on a multiplex bus.

Battery cell operating characteristics were determined for a unique load profile planned for the Motorola Iridium™ spacecraft. The Iridium™ mission requires that the battery be on line at all times and operated for extended periods with a short duration, high rate, charge/discharge duty cycle. The effort reported here reflects a repetitive duty cycle of 1.3 milliseconds discharge and 2.9 milliseconds charge, with discharge rates in the range 2.0 C to 3.0 C and charge rates in the range 0.9 C to 1.4 C. Cell transient characteristics were determined for candidate cell types including nickel-hydrogen individual pressure vessel (IPV), nickel-hydrogen common pressure vessel (CPV), Super nickel-cadmium, and fiber nickel-cadmium (FNC). Experimental approach, cell performance data, derived transient characteristics, and cell electrical models are presented.

Now that the SAE J1850 recommended practice has essentially been completed, attention has turned to the message schemes which the network will be using. SAE J2178 has been developed to define the message strategy for SAE J1850 networks. This paper will describe the message strategy incorporated in SAE J2178 and possible transaction classes to drive SAE J1850 networks.