EPN Automotive Electronics Blog

Steer and turn

Steering-angle sensors measure the steering wheel's actual position, the value which an increasing number of systems use to determine the direction the driver wants the vehicle to take. Bosch’s new sensor LWS6 measures relatively over an unlimited measuring range. Its typical signal resolution is 1.5°.

The future at your fingertips

Just imagine you wouldn’t need to press button anymore? Just with a soft fingertip you’ll start the car, point where you want to go or start the infotainment system by intuitively using your fingertips to quickly and easily adjust temperature, change audio volume, or find a location on the map. This all could be possible, promises Cypress Semiconductor  as the company has introduced the “world's broadest Automotive-Qualified Touch-Sensing Portfolio featuring industry's first capacitive touchscreen solution”, acclaims Hassane El-Khoury, Automotive Business Unit Manager at Cypress.

Two transceivers for two wires

Over the last years, LIN has gained significant global interest beyond its initial roots in the European automotive industry. The wide availability of tools which support design, development, simulation, analysis, calibration and testing of distributed networks have been the driving factors for the success of the cost-effective de-facto standard LIN. Even though the physical layer is very simple and due to the simplicity of the protocol there is not much need for processing units, no semiconductor manufacturer would want to miss the enormous volume. That’s why Microchip , specialized in unpretentious high-tech like 8-Bit-Microcontrollers, announced two stand-alone Transceivers for LIN 2.1 and SAE J2602 these days. The company’s promise: The low-power transceivers exceed German automotive manufacturer requirements.

Car, house, grid

Japan sets the Trend: Instead of seeing the electrical vehicle individually as Europeans and Americans tend to do, Japanese cars and houses have more in common than a garage, at least when a German building company is part of the deal. In marketing terms this translates as “environmental friendly mobility meets ecological building”. This is also quite attractive for semiconductor manufacturers and as such a good reason for TI to join the HomeGrid Forum board of directors.

Power to the car

During the trade show PCIM 2010 which took place from May 4th to 6th in Nuremberg, the power semiconductor manufacturer Semikron presented its second generation of power electronic systems: SKAI. With power densities of 20 kVA/litre, SKAI is supposed to provide significant size reduction compared to the other standard products available. The systems are designed to operate with supply voltages between 24V and 850V and with output power ratings between 10 kVA and 250 kVA.

E-mobility by decree

Chancellor Angela Merkel urges car manufacturers not to miss yet another opportunity - Germany’s government and automotive companies meet at the first summit on electromobility and start a “national platform electromobility”.