In automotive applications, it’s essential to protect sensitive semiconductor components against power surges, transients and electrostatic discharge (ESD). A single transient voltage spike could easily damage or disrupt a component, while electrical noise of even relatively low energy can cause significant interruption to digital communications.
Automotive OEMs are migrating to BLDCs in order to maximize efficiency and reliability. This article looks at the important parameters engineers should consider during the design process, in order to meet these objectives.
During the life of the vehicle, its battery may need to be disconnected for maintenance work or to replace it if it has developed a fault. During reconnection it is possible to reverse the polarity of the battery connection, which can result in potential short-circuits and other problems with loads connected to the battery.
Move over CANbus, PCI Express is the latest communications technology found in automotive infotainment.
Daylight running lamps for motor vehicles are now a legal requirement in Europe. They became mandatory for new cars manufactured from February 2011 and for commercial vehicles from August 2012. Although they now need to be incorporated in vehicles by law, the daylight running lamp provides a number of opportunities for car and van designers to improve multiple aspects of the driving experience and their own brand image.
While it’s been said many times before, the automotive electrical environment is tough! As demonstrated in figure 1, the nominal battery voltage of an automobile can vary from -12V DC, under reverse battery condition, to +125V DC due to load transients and inductive field decay. Factor in wide variations in operating temperature, numerous interconnections and an open environment that is subject to possible ESD damage from human interactions, and you have an operating environment that is far more challenging than, for example, that of the consumer market segment.
