Power Supply Platform and Functional Safety Concept Proposals for a Powertrain Transmission Electronic Control Unit

Abstract

In the last decade, modern vehicles have become very complex, being equipped with embedded electronic systems which include more than a thousand of electronic control units (ECUs). Therefore, it is mandatory to analyze the potential risk of automotive systems failure because it could have a significant impact on humans’ safety. This paper proposes a novel, functional safety concept at the power management level of a system basis chip (SBC), from the development phase to system design. In the presented case, the safety-critical application is represented by a powertrain transmission electronic control unit. A step-by-step design guideline procedure is presented, having as a focus the cost, safety, and performance to obtain a robust, cost-efficient, safe, and reliable design. To prove compliance with the ISO 26262 standard, quantitative worst-case evaluations of the hardware have been done. The assessment results qualify the proposed design with automotive safety integrity levels (ASIL, up to ASIL-D). The main contribution of this paper is to demonstrate how to apply the functional safety concept to a real, safety-critical system by following the proposed design methodology.

Autonomous Vehicles Technological Trends

“…One of the aspects that is becoming increasingly important is energy efficiency. With it come different approaches, from the design and development of better power supplies [27], to the improvement of batteries for electric vehicles [28].…”

Design and implementation of a microcontroller training kit for blend learning

“…From the beginning of the 1970s to today, microcontrollers and microcomputers have evolved very quickly. Nowadays, most embedded systems created based on microcontrollers are used in many applications including industrial [5,21], consumer [33], commercial [3], automotive [13], medical [12,18], home appliances [17,31], telecommunications [2], spacecraft [14], military applications [8,15], and so forth. The total-global microcontrollers market was estimated to be USD 86.5 billion in 2020 and predicted to reach USD 116.2 billion by 2025 [4].…”