The monthly magazine for automotive electronics engineers

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IN THISISSUE

Page 2: FPGAs foradas

Page 3: Digia onuser interfaces

Page 4: New life forDC-DC converterproject

Page 5: AdvantechWorld PartnerConference report

Page 6: Innovationin Britishmanufacturing

Page 12: Combinedinstrument forpowertrain testing

Page 13: Currentsensor aids electricvehicles

Page 14: Monolithicactive cell balancer

Page 14: Who’s whoin VehicleElectronics

Issue 00December 2013

What you are reading isthe pilot edition of a newmonthly magazine due tobe launched in the NewYear. Called VehicleElectronics, the magazineaims to cover all the newsand features of interest toautomotive electronicsengineers.

The magazine plans tofill the gap left by the clo-sure of Automotive Elec-

Welcome to anew magazine

tronics in summer 2013.The editor of that maga-zine – Steve Rogerson –will be editing VehicleElectronics. Also onboard is Martin Wilson,who will be looking afterthe web site.

“Automotive Electron-ics, I felt, was unique anddeserved rescuing,” saidRogerson, “however, thepublishing company wasunwilling to sell it to meso I decided to launch myown title in that field, andthat is what Vehicle Elec-tronics is about.”

The magazine will befree. If you received, thisyou may already be onthe circulation list, but ifnot go to vehicle-elec-tronics.biz and register.And please tell your col-leagues about the maga-zine so they can registeras well.

The web site will alsocontain regular news andfeatures updates as wellas an events listing. Themagazine itself will bedigital only, produced asa PDF that you can down-load to your computer ormobile device.

This pilot issue issmaller than the actualmagazine will be when itlaunches in January, but ishere to show the type ofstyle and content you canexpect when it launchesproperly.

Both the magazine andweb site are aimed atelectronics engineers –hardware and software –working in the automo-tive field. As this is a newproject, please feel free tooffer comments and sug-gestions about how wecan take the magazineforward.Steve Rogerson

NEWS NEWS

Vehicle Electronics Vehicle ElectronicsPage 2, December 2013 December 2013, Page 3

Lattice Semiconductor ishoping to use its experi-ence in producing FPGAsfor mass markets to helpcar makers bring driverassistance features downfrom high-end cars to abroader range of vehicles.

“Electronic systems arebecoming the differentiat-ing features in the cars,”said Gordon Hands, Lat-tice’s director of productmarketing. “I am talkingabout rear-view cameras,side mirror replacementtechnology and 360˚ viewtechnology.”

For many of these typesof applications, car mak-ers have tended to useasics (application specificintegrated circuits) orASSPs (application spe-cific standard products).

“Some even use a stan-dard chip, but how canyou differentiate fromyour competitors?” saidHands.

As such, the companyhas AEC-Q100 qualifiedsix low-cost FPGAs totarget this market. TheLA-Lattice ECP3 unitsinclude up six banks ofconfigurable IO and four3Gbit/s serdes to link au-tomotive-based networks,components and tech-nologies.

The sensor input hasbeen designed to workwith sensors from differ-

ent companies.“And if people want

different interfaces, wecan work hard to get themto work,” said Hands.“We have a programma-ble IO buffer. We changethe way you set up theinput buffer and then theoutput circuitry to fit. Asnew standards emerge,we will look at how wecan pre-configure and en-able that support for thecustomer.”

He said if customerswanted “unique require-ments” then Lattice wasprepared to have its engi-neers sit down with theirengineers to work to-gether at solving theproblems.

The devices includedigital-signal processing,high-density on-chipmemory, programmableDDR3 memory inter-faces, and 17k or 35klook-up tables. Packagesizes range down to 10 by10mm. They are builtusing 65nm technology.

“We are working on a40nm version,” saidHands, “and details willbe available in the fourthquarter. This will beavailable as a standardand automotive FPGA.”

Samples for the six65nm devices have beenwith some customerssince February and Lat-

Lattice targets FPGA rangeat driver assistance features

Gordon Hands: “Working on a 40nm version.”

tice has been workingwith some of them for ayear. These are tier onesand module suppliers.

BGA packages rangefrom 256 to 484 balls andthey are qualified for im-mediate production. The10 by 10mm 328-ballversion will cost aboutUS$6 each in 50,000quantities.

The company’s HDR-

60 development kit letsdesigners quickly proto-type camera systemsusing a choice of imagesensors, and various com-binations of camera tech-nologies. The kit alsomakes it easy to optimiseimage-processing code,use Ethernet or HDMI in-terfaces to display im-ages, drive lenses, or adddaughter boards.

Designing user interfaceson embedded devicescould be made easierthanks to Qt EnterpriseEmbedded, the latest ver-sion of Digia’s softwaredevelopment platform.

“The challenge in em-bedded is no longer abouthardware,” said Digia’sCTO Lars Knoll. “Thechallenge is about theuser interface. You wantsomething that looks ascool as the IPhone or An-droid tablets.”

Able to work with An-droid or embedded Linux,it contains all the toolsneeded for fast, easy,fully-integrated embed-ded device applicationdevelopment, allowingusers to get up and run-ning and focussed onwriting their own applica-tion from day one.

“You can get up andrunning with the embed-ded device in less than aday,” said Knoll. “It letsyou build advanced userinterfaces faster. It is veryintuitive.”

Qt Enterprise Embed-ded comprises two mainparts: a development en-vironment and a softwarestack, called Boot to Qt.The self-contained devel-opment environment isinstalled and updatedthrough a single onlineinstaller and features a

Digia aims to make userinterface designing easier

full Qt Creator IDE.Development is done

with Qt Enterprise li-braries and device de-ployment can be achievedwith one click directlyfrom Qt Creator to a tar-get connected via USB ornetwork. Alternatively,the application can be de-ployed to an emulator onthe host system that isrunning the same soft-ware stack as the targetdevice.

“It makes it fun to de-velop,” said Knoll. “De-velopers really like usingit.”

The Boot to Qt softwarestack is a lightweight, Qt-optimised, full softwarestack that is installed onthe target hardware. In-stallation is accomplishedby copying a pre-builtimage from the develop-ment environment on tothe target device’s mem-ory card or directly to thedevice’s internal memory.

The embedded Androidvariant, which is based onthe Android kernel andselected middleware, is alean software stack whereQt/QML replaces the en-tire top Java layer includ-ing graphics and theDalvik VM. It also hasthe Zygote process layerand Android home screenremoved, enabling bettercustomisation of the de-

vice’s user experience.The embedded Linuxstack uses the traditionalLinux kernel and is builtusing the Yocto Poky ref-erence system.

Qt’s ability to deliverimpressive graphics is en-hanced by the use ofOpen GL ES 2.0, the ver-sion of the graphics appli-cation programminginterface designed specif-ically for embedded sys-tems and mobile devices.This makes it easier to de-velop and deploy richgraphics with velvet-likeanimations and transi-tions as well as smoothlyrendered 2D and 3D ani-mations on devices withrelatively limited per-formance. In addition tothe versatile cross-plat-form Qt APIs, applica-tions built with Qt canalso use platform and de-vice-specific APIs di-rectly, giving thedeveloper the freedom tointegrate any functional-

ity their application re-quires.

The Qt Enterprise Em-bedded development en-vironment runs onUbuntu Linux 64bit 12.04LTS or later. Target hard-ware supported as stan-dard at time of launchincludes: Google Nexus 7tablet (Tegra 3, Arm Cor-tex A9); Beagle BoardxM (Arm Cortex A8);boundary devices Sabre-lite (Freescale i.MX 6);Raspberry Pi Model B(Arm 11); and Beagle-bone Black (TI AM335x).Digia is also able to portthe software stack to cus-tom hardware.

The company sees auto-motive dashboard user in-terfaces as a key market.

“If you buy a €40,000BMW and the touch-screen is slow and crappy,it destroys the value ofthe whole car,” saidJuhapekka Niemi, Digia’svice president of salesand marketing.

Lars Knoll (left) and Juhapekka Niemi

Toshiba sees device syn-chronisation in vehiclesas a key application for itsTransferJet wireless com-munications technology.

The 375Mbit/s technol-ogy has been designed tobe easy to use with noconnection set up andconfiguration needed.

“This makes it suitablefor elderly people andnon-techies,” said Armin

Derpmanns, general mar-keting manager.

The fledgling technol-ogy has potential applica-tions in a host ofconsumer, industrial,medical and professionalapplications, but there hasalready been interest fromthe automotive sector.

“It could be used forsynchronising content inautomotive,” he said.

Device synchronisation

NEWS

Page 4, December 2013 Vehicle Electronics Vehicle Electronics December 2013, Page 5

Steve Rogerson reports from the Advantech World Partner Conference in Suzhou, China

The ability to carry outreal-time analysis onlarge volumes of data isthe main hurdle facing thewidespread deploymentof intelligent transportsystems (ITS), accordingto Victor Jan, a senior di-rector at Advantech.

“Real-time analysis is akey feature for transporta-tion,” said Jan. “This isthe key issue with bigdata. You need goodimage quality, and thus it

is a big problem.”Jian Lou, vice president

of Fullsee, an Advantechrepresentative in China,added: “The main equip-ment for traffic manage-ment is the video camera,but the video capturedneeds to be analysed. Andthere are long periods ofrecording, so the storageof that data is an impor-tant issue.”

They said that embed-ded systems are becom-

ing the main solution forbig data storage andanalysis problems.

“Embedded systemswill be the key players inthese markets in China,”said Jan. “These will bethe winners.”

As to the operating sys-tem used, Lou said thatwhereas Linux was morestable and secure, Win-dows was easier for soft-ware development. Thushe said that both systems

would have a role in ITS;the edge computerswould be Linux basedwhile the applications atthe control centres wouldrun on Windows.

However, they said thatboth systems should bebought from the samecompany.

“Otherwise, integrationcan be very difficult,”said Lou. “That is why itis better to choose onevendor.”

Data analysis is main challengefor intelligent transport systems

Columbia is leading theway as Advantech’sbiggest customer for itsin-vehicle bus computers,with some 10,000 out ofthe more than 20,000 in-stalled worldwide; andadvertising revenue fromdigital signage is the bigattraction.

According to Advan-tech senior manager VanLin, the systems havebeen installed in buses in30 cities worldwide.Other major countriesapart from Columbia in-clude Australia, Brazil,India and Peru.

Though the Trek-668computers can combinefunctions such as telemat-ics, surveillance, fleet

management, infotain-ment, GPS and in-vehicleWifi, the biggest financialbenefit for bus operatorsis the digital signage abil-ity, which lets them at-tract added revenue fromadvertising.

“Many bus companieswant to increase their in-come,” said Lin, “so in-vehicle signage is veryimportant to them. Somebus companies have al-most 50% of their rev-enue from signageadvertisements.”

The system can alsoprovide feedback to ad-vertisers by analysing theeye movements of pas-sengers to see how oftenthey look at each advert.

Digital signage revenue accountsfor half of bus company income

Van Lin in the mock-up bus at Advantech’s 2013World Partner Conference

Mark Willows

This can be linked with amobile app that passen-gers can download to getmore information on aparticular advertiser orspecial offers from an ad-vertiser.

The computers can beused as part of an intelli-gent transport system pro-

viding, for example, in-formation in advance tobus stops so passengersknow how long they willhave to wait for the bus toarrive.

This data can also besent to mobile phone appsso passengers can trackbus positions.

A project to design amulti-port DC-DC con-verter for hybrid electricvehicles has been given anew lease of life, accord-ing to Mark Willows,technical specialist atProdrive. Speaking at No-vember’s Advanced Engi-neering Show inBirmingham, UK, he saidthat the Flex DC-DCProject, which was due toend in December thisyear, will now be ex-tended.

The £1.7m project, sup-ported by the TechnologyStrategy Board, is devel-oping the converter usingsilicon carbide technol-ogy. As well as Prodrive,the consortium consists ofthe University of Man-chester, Tata Motors, ISTPower Products, Scisysand Raytheon.

“The project finishes inDecember 2013,” said

DC converter projectgiven new lease of life

Willows. “But there willnow be a follow-on proj-ect to bring the converterto technical readiness.”

He said that the need fora multi-port convertercould be shown from theToyota Prius, which wentfrom one DC-converter totwo in the jump from thesecond to the third gener-ation. A converter wasneeded in both to feed the12V vehicle electronicsbut the second generationalso needed a converterbecause of the jump to a

500V power train.He said that future vehi-

cles would need evenmore converters as theymoved from 12 to 48Vsystems and employeddifferent power sourcessuch as supercapacitors,fuel cells and electric fly-wheels. In fact, the TataVista electric vehicle theproject used as a demon-stration vehicle was fittedwith a bank of superca-pacitors in addition to thestandard 220V Li-ion bat-tery pack.

He said building thedemonstration systemmeant overcoming “anumber of design chal-lenges, typically aroundthe safety of the system”.

And he explained theuse of silicon carbide.“We were anxious tomake use of silicon car-bide because of the way itreduces losses,” he said.

Car manufacturers arespeaking directly withsemiconductor suppliersrather than with tier onesas they strive get the lat-est features into their ve-hicles, according toHervé Branquart, directorof automotive at OnSemiconductor.

“About 80% of innova-tion in cars is enabled bysemiconductors,” he said,“so they need us to inno-vate. It is not just micro-controllers. In the past,only the microcontrollermakers have dealt withthe OEMs but now we areinteracting about powerproducts.”

He was speaking at thelaunch of two AEC-qual-ified ICs for powertrainand in-cabin applications.The NCV8876 is a non-synchronous boost con-troller and theNCV896530 is a step-down DC-DC converter.• On Semiconductor hasset up a plant in Belgiumto act as a pilot line for itsproposed gallium nitride(GaN) technology, whichit expects will be used forproducts by 2016.

“GaN gives car manu-facturers the opportunityto decrease the cost of thepowertrain,” said Bran-quart. “That is one of thebenefits. It has a betterRDS(on) and you canmake smaller devices,which reduces the cost.”

Suppliers getdirect accessto car makers

ST Microelectronics hasregistered the softwarestack for its flagshipvideo-processor system-on-chip as compliant withthe latest Genivi specifi-cation. STM is a coremember of the GeniviAlliance supporting theGenivi open-source plat-form for in-vehicle info-tainment (IVI) systems.

The Genivi platformbrings together approvedsoftware modules as mid-dleware that supportscore IVI-system functionssuch as telephony, audiorouting, Bluetooth con-nectivity, and interfacesto items such as sensors,cameras and user con-trols. This approach,which employs open-

source Linux-based soft-ware selected by theGenivi Alliance to meetIVI requirements, enablesOEMs and tier-ones toproduce IVI systems cost-effectively and quicklyintroduce products.

STM is advancing itsIVI SoC roadmap to-wards a fully automotive-qualified SoC family.

STM registers software stack with Genivi

MANUFACTURING MANUFACTURING

Vehicle ElectronicsPage 6, December 2013 Vehicle Electronics December 2013, Page 7

Graham Dewhurst

Innovation is the process ofgenerating new ideas andbringing those ideas to life. It

is arguably the most powerfulweapon manufacturers have intheir armoury to achieve competi-tive advantage. Innovative manu-facturers are more productive andtypically grow at twice the rate ofthose that fail to innovate. Theyalso tend to be more competitive,and respond better to change.Quite simply, if a company

doesn’t make time for innovation,its prospects for success and long-term viability as a commercialconcern are slim.Structural changes over the past

three decades have meant the UKhas a manufacturing capabilitythat is technology-led and highlyinnovative. British manufacturershave always led the innovationcurve and today the country ishome to major players in automo-tive engineering disciplines.Britain is the fourth largest vehi-

cle producer in Western Europe.Last year, it produced 1.58 millionvehicles, according to the Societyof Motor Manufacturers &Traders, with a car, van, bus ortruck rolling off a UK productionline every 20s – more than 80% ofwhich are exported to over 100countries.With 2.63 million people cur-

rently employed directly inBritain’s manufacturing sector, thefuture of the industry depends onits ability to maintain its techno-logical competitive edge. Engi-neering-based manufacturing,with its need to invest for the fu-ture and remain internationallycompetitive, has been leading theway back to recovery. The UK’s

Innovatingindustry

Graham Dewhurst, director general of the ManufacturingTechnologies Association, discusses some examples ofautomotive innovation in action in the UK

Office for National Statistics esti-mates that engineering-basedmanufacturing industries con-tributed £212bn to the UK econ-omy and accounted for £129bn ofexports in 2012. In 2013 Britishcompanies invested in machinetools and related equipment at afaster pace than for most of lastyear.

Technology strategyFor decades, the UK’s industrialbase was at best unfashionableand at worst dismissed as a hang-over of the past. Perhaps one ofthe best illustrations of this wasthe misfortune of British LeylandMotor. Formed in 1968 by themerger of Leyland Motor andBritish Motor Holdings, the newcompany was meant to represent ajewel in Britain’s industrialcrown, but by 1975 it had enteredadministration and the nextdecade would see a changing ofthe guard as industry gave way tofinancial services as the nation’seconomic poster child.Though British Leyland’s his-

tory was chequered and endedwith the 2005 demise of MGRover, manufacturing, especiallyin the automotive sector, is enjoy-ing a resurgence. In May 2012,Vauxhall announced a £125m in-vestment in its Ellesmere Port fa-cility, which would lead to anestimated £1bn spend in the UKcomponent sector. This is part of awider trend that has led the Finan-cial Times to forecast that the UKwill exceed its historic peak levelof vehicle production in 2017 – arecord that was set in 1972.It stands to reason then, now

manufacturing is recognised as

holding as important a place in theeconomy as sectors such as finan-cial and professional services, theUK government is looking to re-balance the economy, rebuild sup-ply chains and nurture artisanskills. One organisation taskedwith furthering these objectives isthe Technology Strategy Board(TSB).Established in 2004 by the De-

partment for Business, Innovation& Skills (BIS), the TSB was spunout of government in 2007 andbecame the UK’s de-facto innova-tion agency. Today it works acrossbusiness, academia and govern-ment to help companies take ideasthrough to commercialisation byproviding access to finance,knowledge, skills and equipment.The TSB is overseeing the cre-

ation of a network of world-lead-ing technology and innovationcentres known as Catapults, whichcover a range of sectors, one ofwhich is high-value manufactur-ing, including automotive. Total

MANUFACTURING MANUFACTURING

Vehicle Electronics December 2013, Page 9Vehicle ElectronicsPage 8, December 2013

Car manufacturing is growing in the UK

Bloodhound Supersonic Car Picture by Stefan Marjoram

public and private sector invest-ment in the Catapults to date is£1.4bn, while a commitment hasbeen made to invest in two newCatapults in 2015 and 2016.The high-value manufacturing

Catapult is building on thestrength of seven constituent insti-tutions, one of which, the Univer-sity of Sheffield’s AdvancedManufacturing Research Centre(AMRC), has been a great exam-ple of ground-up collaboration be-tween academia, government andindustrial partners, including play-ers involved in automotive such asMitsubishi Electric. Established in2001, it provides a centre for ad-vanced machining and materialsresearch for aerospace, automo-

tive and other high-value manu-facturing sectors.As a £15m collaboration be-

tween the University of Sheffieldand Boeing, AMRC has since re-ceived support from YorkshireForward and the European Re-gional Development Fund, as wellas other commercial partners in-cluding Rolls-Royce, BAE Sys-tems and Messier-Bugatti-Dowty.

Supply chainsIn its first year, the high-valuemanufacturing Catapult was in-volved in 830 projects and en-gaged with almost 2000 small andmedium sized enterprises that oth-erwise would not have had accessto support from major manufac-

turers, AMRC resources and ex-pertise. Indeed, this is what’s soimportant about this Catapult: itties all the members of the UKsupply chain together – from theglobal original equipment manu-facturers (OEMs), prime contrac-tors (primes) and tier-onesuppliers providing expertise andinvestment, through tier two, threeand four suppliers to academia.Some great ideas come out of

academia – just look at the fa-mous Ariel Atom, which beganlife as a student design project in1996 – and the high-value manu-facturing Catapult is now helpingto move those ideas very quicklyand effectively into the marketthrough more collaborative busi-

ness models across the supplychain. Although there has beensome frustration among smallerplayers in respect of gaining ac-cess to the support networks of-fered through developments suchas the Catapults, it is hoped that ascollaboration between institutionsgrows, best practice will be sharedmore widely.Certainly, the Catapults repre-

sent a win-win scenario, wherebyBritain’s engineering and sciencegraduates and apprentices are nur-tured in a high-technology and in-novative environment that willensure they are fit for purposewhen they enter the global econ-omy. A prosperous high-tech auto-motive industry depends andthrives on a highly skilled andknowledgeable workforce, so astrong foundation of trained staff

and well-educated students willenable the UK to continue to com-pete successfully on the interna-tional stage.Collaborative approaches such

as the Catapult scheme betweengovernment, industry and acade-mia are in the ascendancy and setto continue to drive innovation. In2013 Jaguar Land Rover and War-wick University announced thatthey would be building a £100mNational Automotive InnovationCampus to be opened in 2016,supported by the UK ResearchPartnership Investment Fund. Thecampus will double the size ofJaguar’s research team and pro-vide a wealth of research opportu-nities for university academics –consolidating the UK’s role as aninnovator in automotive manufac-turing.

Integration and innovationNew ways to realise design andnew modes of production arechanging the way products aremade. Coming under the umbrellaterm of “advanced manufactur-ing”, we are seeing the implemen-tation of innovative technology toimprove products and processesfrom design, concept and proto-typing, through machining of rawmaterial to delivery of the finishedproduct.Such technologies include: com-

puter-aided design (cad) for devel-oping designs; computer-aidedmanufacturing (cam) for translat-ing cad information for produc-tion; as well as controls such asmaterial flow, testing, storage andretrieval systems. There is alsogreater adoption of new technolo-gies such as additive manufactur-

MANUFACTURING MANUFACTURING

Vehicle ElectronicsPage 10, December 2013 Vehicle Electronics December 2013, Page 11

Many of the innovators and innovations shaping Britain’s future manufacturing technologiessectors will be at Mach 2014. Mach, which is organised by the Manufacturing TechnologiesAssociation, is the largest manufacturing event in the UK, attracting in the region of 500exhibitors and more than 20,000 visitors. Taking place from 7 to 11 April 2014 at the NECin Birmingham, the biennial exhibition brings together blue chip OEMs and tier onemanufacturers such as Airbus, Messier-Bugatti-Dowty and Rolls Royce, as well asmanufacturers of all sizes and verticals – including those participating in the Catapultsestablished by the Technology Strategy Board and sponsored by the Department for Business,Innovation & Skills. For more information visit www.machexhibition.com.

ing. Also known as 3D printing,additive manufacturing is a tech-nology where products are builtlayer by layer rather than by sub-tractive machining. In metals, thetechnology works by using a high-power laser to fuse fine powdersinto 3D objects, direct from 3Dcad data.One of the most exciting devel-

opments in this area is the Amazeproject, which launched recentlyat the Science Museum in Lon-don. An acronym for “additivemanufacturing aiming towardszero waste and efficient” produc-tion of high-tech metal products,the Amaze project brings together28 institutions to develop metalcomponents that are lighter,stronger and cheaper than conven-tional parts. Tungsten alloy com-ponents that can withstandtemperatures of 3000˚C were un-veiled at the launch, while the Eu-ropean Space Agency (ESA) saidthat printing metal parts for rock-ets and planes would cut wasteand save money.Although additive manufactur-

ing is being adopted on a rela-tively small scale at present, it hasthe potential for rapid growth.This year, the University ofSheffield announced that, workingwith Rotheram-based Metalysisand a Renishaw 3D printer, it hadprinted cost-effective titanium au-tomotive parts for the first time –demonstrating feasibility for thewider industry. This is just one in-stance of a culture of innovationthat continues apace.

Process innovationsAdvanced manufacturing also en-compasses manufacturingprocesses and techniques such asjust-in-time (JiT) manufacturing,

total quality management (TQM)and supply chain management.These technologies are beingadopted by leading manufacturersto realise greater flexibility andspeed in manufacturing practices,as well as to improve quality andvisibility across the supply chain.This is essential as global OEMsand primes continue to push forgreater efficiencies and ensurerapid response and a much shortertime-to-market.Much of the innovation we are

seeing today in advanced manu-facturing technology is aroundprocesses rather than hardware.For example, with the design andprototyping done in the office, thesoftware can be downloaded di-rect to the machine tools, and themanufacturing process controlledand refined remotely. Any kind ofnon-conformative errors acquiredthrough measurement, for exam-ple, can now be addressed bydownloading further adjustmentsinto the machine tool, as it isworking, to realise consistency inmanufacture.Advanced manufacturing is

much more than improvingprocess and product on the shopfloor. It’s about applying thesetechniques across all areas of thebusiness – including R&D and de-sign, as well as marketing and dis-tribution of the final product.Integration of the supply chain,for example, entails bringingmembers across the chain into theplanning cycle of the manufac-turer. This way, distributorshipsconstantly feed information backthat helps manufacturers shape fu-ture product development strategy– a technique known as demandpull. Even full vertical integrationof the supply chain is considered

to be a form of advanced manu-facturing and there are manufac-turers that now collect every pieceof information just once for usethroughout their business.

Step change not revolutionWhile much has changed in engi-neering and manufacturing overthe past 15 years, it is important torecognise that this is an industrywhere innovation drives constantevolution rather than revolution.Mechanical engineering is gov-erned by the laws of physics, soany advances are a step-changerather than big-bang discoveries.This is perhaps one reason whythe sector has in the past struggledto capture the imagination of theyounger generation.One example is the worm gear

developed in 1957 that is 98.5%efficient. Today, this design hasyet to be improved upon, but thepoint is that when this level of ef-ficiency has been realised, whywaste time and effort attemptingto better it? As a more recent ex-ample, there are some fantastictechnologies being developed forthe wheels on the Bloodhound Su-personic Car (SSC), the British-led project to break the world landspeed record. Yet ultimately, thesewheels still need to be round!Nevertheless, mechanical engi-

neering and manufacturing pro-vide long-term and excitingcareers, where white coats andclean techs have replaced the bluecoats and out-dated smoke belch-ing technologies of the past. De-spite being ignored for some time,the innovators have continued toinnovate, ensuring Britain stillboasts truly world-class and high-value-added industries. In termsof value, the UK’s automotive

manufacturing industry is growingin both stature and technical ex-pertise.There is now a definite willing-

ness by government to supportmanufacturing, both in the formof the Catapults, tax efficienciesfor R&D and the Patent Boxscheme. The results of this re-newed focus are starting to be feltacross UK manufacturing indus-tries including the automotive sec-tor. According to researchpublished earlier this year by TheManufacturer, spending on R&D

across manufacturing sectors rep-resents 72% of all business R&Dinvestment in the UK.Furthermore, Britain is again

one of the most attractive loca-tions globally as a base for high-value and innovativemanufacturers – as evidenced bythe decision of global precisionengineering company Renishaw topurchase the 780,000m2 Miskinsite near Cardiff from RobertBosch last year. Renishaw has in-vested £15m in its manufacturingoperations at the Miskin site to

date, and plans to capitalise on thesite, building a business park tar-geting engineering and logisticsfirms and their supply chains.Smaller companies too are play-

ing an essential role in driving in-novation and with better access tofinance and support from acrossthe supply chain, will continue toflourish. When combined withcloser links between educationand enterprise, Britain’s manufac-turing industries are in an idealposition to maintain their compet-itive edge. �

PRODUCTS

Vehicle Electronics Vehicle ElectronicsPage 12, December 2013 December 2013, Page 13

A linear Hall-Effect IC,which features a pro-grammable sensitivityrange from 5 to150mV/mT and is suit-able for measuring DCand AC currents up to200kHz, has been intro-duced by Melexis.The MLX91209CA can

be applied in all currentsensing situations, partic-ularly in alternative vehi-cles such as hybridelectric, electric and start-stop equipped mild hy-brids.“It is the fastest Hall-

based current sensor onthe market,” said PeterRiendeau, marketingmanager.A linear analogue out-

put permits use of thesensor in applicationswhere a response of 3µsis required.The thermal and life-

time stability provides de-sign engineers with fullyprogrammable criticalcharacteristics, allowing

Current sensor aidselectric vehiclesone single part to meet awide variety of currentsensing applications.“It is programmable so

customers can match thedevice to the applica-tion,” said Riendeau. “Itlets us produce one de-vice for many applica-tions.”Parameters such as sen-

sitivity and offset arestored in an internal eep-rom. Calibration is doneusing the company’s PTC(programming throughconnector) protocol. Thismodulates the supplyvoltage and does not re-quire any additional pinfor programming, en-abling efficient produc-tion flows.Custom calibration is

best performed in-situafter the sensor is fixed

with respect to the currentconductor and ferromag-netic core so a calibratedcurrent sensitivity isachieved. Typical accu-racy of the current sens-ing system based on thedevice is better than

±0.5% at room tempera-ture or ±2% from -40 to+125˚C when applyingin-circuit end of line cali-bration. The device issupplied in a four-pin sip,RoHS compliant lead-free package.

Engineers prototypingpowertrains for hybridelectric vehicles are thetarget for the vehicle edi-tion of the latest com-bined oscilloscope anddata acquisition recorderfrom Yokogawa. TheDL850EV Scopecordercan combine the electricaland other signals with in-formation from a vehi-cle’s Can or Lin bus togive an overall synchro-nised view of a power-train during prototyping.ADC power option lets

the unit be used inside thevehicle with power sup-plied from the vehicle’sDC battery. This meansAC and DC power sup-plies can be used to-gether; if the AC powergoes down, it instantlyswitches to a DC inputwithout interrupting themeasurements.The instrument is an en-

hanced version of thethird generation of theproduct released in 2010,with the main differencebeing the addition of a G5electrical power option.This means trend calcula-tions such as activepower, power factor, inte-grated power and har-monics can be carried outat data update rates up to100kS/s using a dedicateddigital signal processorthat can calculate and dis-

Combined instrument aimedat powertrain developers

play up to 126 types ofelectrical power relatedparameters in real time.This lets the user dis-

play raw waveform sig-nals such as voltages andcurrents along with calcu-lated power parameters aswell as the capability totrigger on any or all ofthem. Trend waveformsof each order of harmon-ics, bar-graphs and vectordisplays can be displayed.Both RMS and poweranalysis modes are avail-able. The option also con-tains all the functionalityof the G3 real-time math-ematics option.“And on the vehicle

edition you can add Canand Lin signals to theelectrical and sensor sig-nals,” said Kelvin Hage-beuk, product marketingmanager at Yokogawa.“For prototyping electri-cal drivetrains, this can

combine the differentmeasurements in one syn-chronised view.”The instrument can

have up to eight swap-pable input modules withbuilt-in signal condition-ing. Users can choosefrom 17 types of moduleand they can be config-ured to provide up to 128channels. The acquisitionmemory allows storage ofup to 2Gpoint of data andsample rates up to100MS/s on multiplechannels simultaneously.A history function auto-matically divides the ac-quisition memory in up to5000 history waveforms.“But what makes this

different,” said Hage-beuk, “is that you cancapture the Can and Lindata and decode the mes-sages that are transmitted.For example, RPMmeas-urements. That informa-

tion is in the Can bus. Wecan take that informationand trend it as an ana-logue waveform on thescreen.”Up to 120 messages can

be acted on in this way.These can be combinedwith the electrical meas-urements and sensor datato provide detailed infor-mation about the dynam-ics of the powertrain.In a typical powertrain

application, the combineddata could include the de-coded Can bus messages,temperature of the bat-tery, DC voltage and cur-rent output of the battery,temperature of the in-verter drive system, ACvoltage and current out-put of the inverter, stresson the motor from strainand acceleration sensors,and data from rotary en-coders measuring themotor output.

DSpace has upgraded inMicro Autobox compactprototyping system tomake it more able to pro-vide the higher number of

Can channels required byengineers to prototype ad-vanced controls systemsfor electric and hybriddrives.

Prototyping system upgradedMicro Autobox II has

increased analogue inputand output (IO) channelsto address the require-ments for advanced emis-sion control applicationsfor combustion engines.The DS1513 IO board

increases the number ofCan channels to six, andanalogue IO to 32 ADCsand eight DACs. TheseIO interfaces can be eas-ily configured via a user-

intuitive real-time inter-face blockset in theSimulink environment.The Can messages andcommunications strategycan be programmed usingthe RTI Can or RTI CanMultimessage blocksets.The DS1513 is de-

signed to meet future re-quirements for partialCan networking. This letsengineers prototype en-ergy optimisation strate-gies by allowing selectiveswitching of Can nodes.

PRODUCTS

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Vehicle ElectronicsPage 14, December 2013

Editor and Publisher:Steve Rogersoneditor@vehicle-electronics.biz

Web Site ManagerMartin Wilsonadmin@vehicle-electronics.biz

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

Web site: vehicle-electronics.biz

© 2013 Vehicle Electronics

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.

A monolithic flybackDC-DC converter fromLinear Technology is foractively balancing high-voltage stacks of batteriesas commonly found inelectric and hybrid vehi-cles as well as fail-safepower supplies and en-ergy storage systems.Because these batteries

are stacked in series, thelowest capacity batterywill limit the entire bat-tery stack’s run-time. Ide-ally, the batteries wouldbe perfectly matched, butthis is often not the caseand generally gets worseas the batteries age. Pas-sive energy balancingprovides no improvedrun-time as it dissipatesthe added energy of thehigher capacity batteriesto match the lowest one.The LT8584 provides

active balancing, whichredistributes the charge

from the stronger cells(higher voltage) to chargethe weaker cells duringdischarge. This lets theweaker cells continue tosupply the load, extract-ing 96% of the entirestack capacity where pas-sive balancing usually ex-tracts about 80%.The device includes an

integrated 6A, 50V powerswitch, enabling an aver-age discharge current of2.5A while providing asimple and compact ap-plication circuit. Its iso-lated balancing designcan return charge to thetop of the battery stack orto any combination ofcells in the stack or evento a 12V battery used asan alternator replacement.It runs off the cell that it

is discharging, removingthe need for complicatedbiasing schemes. It inte-grates seamlessly via the

2.5A monolithic active cellbalancer with telemetry interface

enable pin with theLTC680x family of bat-tery stack voltage moni-toring ICs without anyadditional software. Italso provides systemtelemetry, including cur-rent, resistance and tem-perature monitoring whenused with the LTC680xfamily of parts.When the LT8584 is

disabled, it draws lessthan 20nA of quiescentcurrent from the battery.For applications that re-

quire higher balancingcurrent, multiple devicescan be paralleled. It ispackaged in a 16-leadtssop and is FMEA andISO 6262 compliant.An industrial tempera-

ture version is guaranteedto operate from a -40 to+125˚C junction temper-ature. The automotiveversion, the LT8584HFE,is tested and guaranteedto operate from a -40 to+150˚C operating junc-tion temperature.