Automotive

AEC-Q101-qualified MOSFETs are compact for ADAS and ECUs

Tue, Nov 03, 2020

Measuring just 1mm2, the RV8C010UN, RV8L002SN and BSS84X AEC-Q101- qualified MOSFETs are suitable for high-density applications such as ADAS and automotive ECUs.

Increased electrification has led to more electronic and semiconductor components used per vehicle. For example, the average number of multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) and semiconductor components installed in a single automotive ECU is expected to increase by 30 per cent, from 186 in 2019 to 230 in 2025. At the same time, such high density automotive applications demand greater miniaturisation, which has led to research into bottom electrode packages and their heat dissipation in a compact form factor.

One area that developers are investigating is mounting options for bottom electrode packages. For automotive parts, automated optical inspection (AOI) is performed after mounting to ensure reliability, but with bottom electrode components the solder joint cannot be verified because the terminals are not visible. This makes it difficult to conduct visual inspection that meets automotive standards, explains Rohm Semiconductor. Its Wettable Flank technology ensures a side electrode height of 125 micron in the 1.0 x 1.0mm package.

According to Rohm, the compact, high heat dissipation MOSFETs support high density mounting, achieving the same performance as 2.9 x 2.4mm packages (SOT-23 packages) in the smaller 1.0 x 1.0mm package (DFN1010 packages). As a result, the mounting area is reduced by approximately 85 per cent.

At the same time, adopting a high heat dissipation bottom electrode structure improves heat dissipation (which normally decreases with size) by up to 65 per cent over an SOT-23 package, says Rohm.

It is increasingly being adopted by vehicle manufacturers, says the company because it achieves high solder mounting reliability during AOI. In addition, the bottom electrode package provides miniaturisation and high heat dissipation, making it ideal for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and automotive electronic control units (ECUs) featuring higher board densities.

Application examples are switching and reverse connection protection, autonomous driving control ECUs, in-car infotainment systems, engine control ECUs, drive recorders and ADAS applications.

All three MOSFET series are in mass production.

http://www.rohm.com/eu

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Modem and tracker reference design accelerate IoT development

Tue, Oct 20, 2020

The LoRa Basics Modem-E software modem and LoRa Edge Tracker reference design lower development costs and eliminate design complexity for IoT applications, claims Semtech.

Both are designed for its LoRa Edge platform. LoRa Basics Modem-E is a software modem which complies with the LoRaWAN protocol for the LoRa Edge platform that runs inside the LoRa Edge transceiver.

LoRa Basics Modem-E is part of the LoRa Basics library of software tools and accelerators while the LoRa Edge Tracker reference design incorporates LoRa Edge hardware with the LoRa Basics Modem-E software modem in an industrial sensor design. The integrated LoRa Cloud services provide a ready-to-deploy reference solution for asset tracking, says Semtech.

“LoRa Basics Modem-E significantly simplifies the development of long range, low power IoT solutions. Leveraging the strengths of the LoRaWAN protocol, LoRa Basics Modem-E runs inside the LoRa Edge transceiver and by abstracting complexity allows IoT solution developers to focus efforts on developing value added solutions for their customers with less focus on connectivity development,” said Sree Durbha, director of LoRa product line management in Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products group.

The LoRa Edge Tracker reference design supports the rapid evaluation of LoRa Edge-based asset tracking applications, Durbha continued. It provides a blueprint for commercial asset tracking products and services, reducing time to market in a a variety of markets, including transportation, logistics and supply chain, cities and building infrastructure, home and communities, healthcare, agriculture, food services, he added.

LoRa Basics Modem-E embedded software will be tested and maintained by Semtech (along with the latest versions of the LoRaWAN protocol). It supports AES-128 bit encryption and enables the secure connection of sensors to any LoRaWAN -compliant gateway.

According to Semtech, because it is fully certified and production-ready, the LoRa Basics Modem-E fast tracks the LoRa Alliance certification process, to accelerate time-to-market. LoRa Basics Modem-E also has application programming interfaces (APIs) to integrate with Semtech’s LoRa cloud geolocation and LoRa cloud device and application services, including GNSS almanac updates, designed to further simplify development.

The LoRa Edge Tracker reference design has been developed in collaboration with Actility and Tago.IO, and includes LoRa cloud Geolocation capabilities and Tago.IO’s cloud-based dashboards and analytics. Actility will also provide a complete tracking kit including the LoRa Edge Tracker reference design and a pre-provisioned gateway operating on the LoRaWAN protocol to enable customers to quickly evaluate a complete end-to-end IoT tracking system.

http://www.semtech.com

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Arm unveils processors for safe, autonomous applications

Wed, Sep 30, 2020

Aimed at safe, autonomous decision-making across automotive and industrial applications, Arm has announced a suite of IP which includes the Arm Cortex-A78AE CPU, Arm Mali-G78AE GPU and Arm Mali-C71AE ISP. All are engineered to work together with supporting software, tools and system IP to enable silicon providers and OEMs to design for autonomous workloads. Target applications are enabling more intelligence and configurability in smart manufacturing to enhancing ADAS and digital cockpit applications in automotive designs.

The Arm Cortex-A78AE CPU is Arm’s latest, highest performance safety capable CPU. It offers the ability to run different, complex workloads for autonomous applications such as mobile robotics and driverless transportation. It delivers a 30 per cent performance increase, compared to its predecessor and supports features to achieve the relevant automotive and industrial functional safety standards, ISO 26262 and IEC 61508 for applications up to ASIL D / SIL 3.

It also has enhanced split lock functionality (hybrid mode). This is designed to enable applications that target lower levels of ASIL requirements without compromising performance and allow the deployment of the same SoC compute architecture into different domain controllers.

The Mali-G78AE is Arm’s first GPU to be designed for safety and is intended for heterogenous compute to safety-critical autonomous applications. Flexible partitioning pioneers a new approach to autonomous GPU workloads, says Arm. It enables up to four fully independent partitions for workload separation for safety use cases.

GPU resources can now be utilised for safety-enabled human machine interfaces or for the heterogenous compute needed in autonomous systems, explains Arm. For example, an infotainment system, an instrument cluster with ASIL B requirements and a driver monitoring system can now all run concurrently and independently with hardware separation within an automotive application.

Autonomous workloads need to be aware of their surroundings, often through cameras that must operate in a wide range of lighting conditions. To support a broad range of vision applications across automotive and industrial, the Mali-C71AE can support both human and machine vision applications such as production line monitoring and ADAS camera systems.

Enhanced safety features, supports features to achieve ASIL B / SIL2 safety capability. There is support for four real time cameras, or 16 buffered cameras, delivering a 1.2Gpixel per second throughput.

http://www.arm.com

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4D imaging radar for autonomous driving is based on Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC

Thu, Sep 24, 2020

Continental has announced the Advanced Radar Sensor 540 (ARS540), claimed to be the industry’s first production-ready 4D imaging radar for autonomous driving. It is based on the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC platform. According to Xilinx, this collaboration enables newly-produced vehicles equipped with the ARS540 to realise SAE J3016 Level 2 functionalities and will pave the way toward Level 5 autonomous driving systems.

4D imaging radar determines an object’s location in range, azimuth, elevation, and relative speed to provide detailed information about the driving environment – earlier automotive radar systems capture only the speed and azimuth or angle between the sun (or moon) and the North to determine the direction of the sun/moon.

Continental’s ARS540 is a premium, long-range 4D imaging radar with high resolution and 300 meter range. Its wide, ± 60 degrees field of view enables multi-hypothesis tracking for precise prediction while driving. This helps drivers manage complex driving scenarios, such as the detection of a traffic jam under a bridge. The ARS540 system’s high horizontal and vertical resolution detects potentially hazardous objects on the road and responds appropriately. The ARS540 is scalable, supporting SAE Level 2, where the human driver is responsible for supervising vehicle control, and extending to fully autonomous Level 5.

Cédric Malaquin, technology and market analyst, RF Devices and Technology at Yole Développement (Yole), believes “4D imaging radar provides greater range, field of view, and perception and is a critical sensor enabling Level 2 to Level 5 developers to deliver systems that help create a safer driving environment. We expect 4D imaging radar to take place in luxury cars and robotaxis at first, leading to over US$550 million, a rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 124% between 2020 and 2025.”

Norbert Hammerschmidt, head of program management radar at Continental, said “Continental recently won designs with leading European and US OEMs and is in ongoing discussions with additional OEMs worldwide regarding the ARS540”.

The Xilinx Automotive (XA) Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC is an adaptable platform that allows Continental’s 4D imaging radar to be agnostic to multiple sensor-platform configurations and adapt to OEM specification. Parallel processing within the device’s programmable logic delivers optimal performance and enables the fully independent, yet simultaneous processing pipelines for ARS540’s 4D sensing. The multiple DSP slices enable hardware acceleration of real-time radar sensor inputs, added Xilinx.

http://www.xilinx.com

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