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More than ever, microcontroller performance in cars has a direct impact on the driving experience, on compliance with improved safety, ever-stricter emissions regulations, and on fuel economy. The simple microcontrollers formerly used in automobiles are now being replaced by powerful number-crunchers with incredible levels of peripheral integration. As a result, performance can no longer be measured in MIPS (Millions of Instructions Per Second). A microcontroller's effectiveness is based on coherent partitioning between analog and digital, hardware and software, tools and methodology. To make an informed choice among the available devices, the designer needs benchmarks that are specific to automotive applications, and which provide a realistic representation of how the device will perform in the automotive environment.

More than ever, microcontroller performance in cars has a direct impact on the driving experience, on compliance with improved safety, ever-stricter emissions regulations, and on fuel economy. The simple microcontrollers formerly used in automobiles are now being replaced by powerful number-crunchers whose performance can no longer be measured in MIPS. Instead, their effectiveness is based on a coherent partitioning between analog and digital, hardware and software, tools and methodology. To make an informed choice among the available devices, what the designer needs are benchmarks that are specific to automotive applications, and which provide a realistic representation of how the device will perform in the automotive environment. This presentation will explore the role of new benchmarks in the development of complex automotive applications.

The increasingly stringent requirements in relation to emission reduction and onboard diagnostics are pushing the Chinese automotive industry toward more innovative solutions and a rapid increase in electronic control performance. To manage the system complexity the architecture will require being well structure on hardware and software level. The paper introduces GEMS-K1 (Gasoline Engine Management System - Kit 1). GEMS-K1 is a platform being compliant with Euro IV emission regulation for gasoline engines. The application software is developed using modeling language, the code is automatically generated from the model. The driver software has a well defined structure including microcontroller abstraction layer and ECU abstraction layer. The hardware is following design rules to be robust, 100% testable and easy to manufacture. The electronic components use the latest innovation in terms of architecture and technologies.

Infineon's latest high-end automotive microcontrollers like TC1796 are complex Systems On Chip (SoC) with two processor cores and up to two internal multi-master buses. The complex interaction between cores, peripherals and environment provides a big challenge for debugging. For mission critical control like engine management the debugging approach must not be intrusive. The provided solution are dedicated Emulation Devices which are able to deal with several 10 Gbit/s of raw internal trace data with nearly no cost adder for mass production and system design. Calibration, which is used later in the development cycle, has different requirements, but is covered by the Emulation Devices as well. The architecture of TC1796ED comprises the unchanged TC1796 silicon layout, extended by a full In-Circuit Emulator (ICE) and calibration overlay memory on the same die. In most cases, the only debug/calibration tool hardware needed is a USB cable.

Driven by factors like consumption, power output per liter, comfort and more stringent exhaust gas standards the powertain control area, has developed rapidly in the last decades. This trend has also brought with it many innovations in the ignition application. Today we can see a trend to Pencil-coil or Plug-top-coil ignition systems. The next step in system partitioning is to remove the power driver from the ECU and place it directly in/on the coil body. The advantages of the new partitioning - e.g. no high voltage wires, reduced power dissipation on the ECU - are paid with different, mainly tougher requirements for the electronic components. By using specialized technologies for the different functions - IGBT for switching the power, SPT for protection, supply and diagnostics - in chip-on-chip technology all required functions for a decentralized ignition system can be realized in a TO220/ TO263 package.

In terms of modern technical systems, the automotive sector is characterized by escalating complexity and functionality requirements. The development of embedded control systems has to meet highest demands regarding process-, time- and cost-optimization. Hence, the efficiency of software development becomes a crucial competitive advantage. Systems design engineers need effective tools and methods to achieve exemplary speed and productivity within the development phase. To obtain such tools and methods, semiconductor manufacturers and tool manufacturers must work closely together. Within the joint efforts of ETAS and Infineon, the software tool suite ASCET-SD was enhanced to generate efficient C code for Infineon's TriCore architecture mapped on ETAS's real-time operating system ERCOSEK. The processor interface to application & calibration tools was realized using the ETK probe based on a JTAG/Nexus link at very high bandwidth.

The concept of “Simulatable Specifications” is applied to a Smart Bridge-Driver-IC in order to support an integrated development process of a Direct Injection System. It is demonstrated that the impact of the IC concept on system performance can be investigated long before first Silicon is available. Thus, considerable time in systems development can be saved and, in addition, the feedback loop for conceptual redesigns of the chip is reduced by up to 60 percent.

A cooperation of several research partners supported by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education proposes a new active matrix LED light source. A multi pixel flip chip LED array is directly mounted to an active driver IC. A total of 1024 pixel can be individually addressed through a serial data bus. Several of these units are integrated in a prototype headlamp to enable advanced light distribution patterns in an evaluation vehicle.

The automotive industry experiences a major change as vehicles are gradually becoming a part of the Internet. Security concepts based on the closed-world assumption cannot be deployed anymore due to a constantly changing adversary model. Automotive Ethernet as future in-vehicle network and a new E/E Architecture have different security requirements than Ethernet known from traditional IT and legacy systems. In order to achieve a high level of security, a new multi-layer approach in the vehicle which responds to special automotive requirements has to be introduced. One essential layer of this holistic security concept is to restrict non-authorized access by the deployment of embedded firewalls. This paper addresses the introduction of automotive firewalls into the next-generation domain architecture with a focus on partitioning of its features in hardware and software.

ISO 26262 is the actual standard for Functional Safety of automotive E/E (Electric/Electronic) systems. One of the challenges in the application of the standard is the distribution of safety related activities among the participants in the supply chain. In this paper, the concept of a Safety Element out of Context (SEooC) development will be analyzed showing its current problematic aspects and difficulties in implementing such an approach in a concrete typical automotive development flow with different participants (e.g. from OEM, tier 1 to semiconductor supplier) in the supply chain. The discussed aspects focus on the functional safety requirements of generic hardware and software development across the supply chain where the final integration of the developed element is not known at design time and therefore an assumption based mechanism shall be used.

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.

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 number of safety critical automotive applications employing high current brushless motors continues to increase (Steering, Braking, and Transmission etc.). There are many benefits when moving from traditional solutions to electrically actuated solutions. Some of these benefits can include increased fuel economy, simplified vehicle installation and packaging, increased feature set, improved safety and/or convenience, simplified unit assembly and modular testability prior as well as during vehicle manufacturing. The trend to implement brushless motors in these applications (which require electronically controlled commutation) has also brought with it the need for powerful inverters, which primarily consist of Power MOSFETs and MOSFET Driver ICs. This paper reviews the challenges associated with the design of safety critical electronic systems which combine sensing, control and actuation.

Automotive powertrain and safety systems under design today are highly complex, incorporating more than one CPU core, running with more than 100 MHz and consisting of several 10 million transistors. Software complexity increases similarly making new methodologies and tools mandatory to manage the overall system. The use of accurate virtual prototypes improves the quality of systems with respect to system architecture design and software development. This approach is demonstrated with the example of the PCP/GPTA subsystem for Infineon's AUDO-NG powertrain controllers.

For the past approximately 20 years, the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) has been the established standard for serial communication between a host or central microprocessor and peripheral devices. This standard has been used extensively in control modules covering the entire spectrum of automotive applications, as well as non-automotive applications. As the complexity of engine control modules grows, with the number of vehicle actuators being controlled and monitored increasing, the number of loads the central microprocessor has to manage is growing accordingly. These loads are typically controlled using discrete and pulse-width modulated (PWM) outputs from the microcontroller when real-time operation is essential or via SPI when real-time response is not critical. The increase of already high pin-count on microcontrollers, the associated routing effort and demand for connected power stages is a concern of cost and reliability for future ECU designs.

This paper will give an overview of multicore in automotive applications, covering the trends, benefits, challenges, and implementation scenarios. The automotive silicon industry has been building multicore and multiprocessor systems for a long time. The reasons for this choice have been: increased performance, safety redundancy, increased I/O & peripheral, access to multiple architectures (performance type e.g. DSP) and technologies. In the past, multiprocessors have been mainly considered as multi-die, multi-package with simple interconnection such as serial or parallel busses with possible shared memories. The new challenge is to implement a multicore, micro-processor that combines two or more independent processors into a single package, often a single integrated circuit (IC). The multicores allow a computing device to exhibit some form of thread-level parallelism (TLP).

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.

Vehicle manufacturers are challenged by rising costs for vehicle recalls. A major part of the costs are caused by software updates. This paper describes a feasibility study on how to implement software update over the air (SOTA) in light vehicles. The differences and special challenges in the automotive environment in comparison to the cellular industry will be explained. Three key requirements focus on the drivers’ acceptance and thus are crucial for the vehicle manufacturers: SOTA must be protected against malicious attacks. SOTA shall interfere as little as possible with the availability of a vehicle. Long update processes with long vehicle downtimes or even complete fails must be avoided. The functional safety of the vehicle during operation may not be limited in any way The study gives options how those objectives can be achieved. It considers the necessary security measures and describes the required adaptations of the board-net architectures both on software and hardware level.

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.

In Engine Management System, more accurate control is required to improve engine performance. Especially generating the precise ignition signal has a direct effect on better engine performance. In the beginning of this paper, a basic software structure to synchronize the engine crank signal and generate ignition signals will be explained. Several cases which can generate dwell timing error will be introduced based on this software structure. In addition, each impact level for each error case will be described. For cases of major error, compensation ways will be proposed in order to obtain more accurate dwell timing. The compensation ways by both microcontroller hardware and user software will be explained in detail. In conclusion, this paper will show the accuracy of ignition signal which implements proposed compensation ways that can be improved as compared to conventional ignition signal.