The Search for Resilience Weak Spots in Automotive Mixed-Signal Circuits

Abstract

This paper presents the search for and resulting effects of resilience weak spots in a commercial Local Interconnect Network (LIN) transceiver. Industrial reliability simulations based on aging of devices have been used to locate these weak spots. The objective is to improve the resilience of the circuit during its design and validation phase after determination of the weak spots. In the case of our target chip, this complete cycle was successfully completed. Finally a new simulation principle is being proposed in order to automate the search for weak spots to speed-up and strengthen this search. It enables at an early design stage to take appropriate counter measures to improve resilience.

An efficient LIN MCU design for In-Vehicle Networks

“…EMI in the range of 50 ~ 60 MHz decreases 10 dB compared to conventional LIN Systems. Both systems comply with the vehicle EMI regulations [13]. However, the proposed LIN MCU system may provide functional safety in vehicles.…”

“…11 shows network efficiency on the number of messages from one to sixteen in the worst case. There is worst case (stress case) in LIN conformance test [12] for in-vehicle network, such as stress condition for physical layer and data link layer [13]. Measurements show that the LIN system improves network efficiency up to 12.16% in the worst case compared with conventional systems.…”

Reducing SEU sensitivity in LIN networks: Selective and collaborative hardening techniques

“…In [3] a LIN transceiver is analyzed in order to detect the weak spots of the circuit against permanent faults due to aging. The proposed method is focused on mixed-signal circuits.…”