Automotive Electronics

Audi has adapted its models with V6 engines to run on hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO). Renewable fuels, or reFuels,  are a short-term means of defossilisatio until EVs take over. Audi models with V6 diesel engines up to and including 210 kW (286 PS) that were made from mid-February onwards  can be filled up with the HVO fuel in accordance with ...

The University of Nottingham Racing Team picked up prizes at the Formula Student UK Competition, reports Caroline Hayes. Student design competition, Formula Student, brings student teams from engineering universities all around the world together to design, build and race an open-wheel, open-cockpit, go-kart- style car every year. The competition originated in the US (where it is known as Formula SAE, ...

Vehicle network speeds have come under scrutiny, says César Esteban of KDPOF, who believes optical is the engineering choice for higher data rates. With advances such as electric vehicles, automated driving and automated vehicles to everything interconnection being deployed, automotive applications, utilisation and safety requirements are boosting necessary network speeds. In-vehicle networks are on the brink of speeds from one ...

NXP Semiconductors has launched the S32G GoldVIP to help address real-time and application development challenges of software-defined vehicles using S32G vehicle network processors. This vehicle integration platform offers multiple value propositions for S32G processor evaluation, software development and rapid prototyping efforts. Users can observe S32G performance out-of-the-box with real-time use cases and resource monitoring. Pre-integration of NXP, open source and ...

STMicroelectronics has announced a microcontroller for electric vehicle on-board chargers, particularly those using silicon carbide power components. “Typical automotive MCUs in the market today cannot execute the charging-control algorithms at a rate that can support the higher SiC switching frequencies,” claimed ST. “Instead, additional DSP chips are needed specifically to handle the control loop.” The new parts are “automotive-qualified MCUs ...

Powell Electronics is stocking Full Nelson heat shrink boots and AutoShrink cold-action shrink boots and sleeves from Glenair in Dublin for short lead times across Europe. Operation temperature is -75 to 175°C for heat shrink boots, and -65 to 300°C for cold-action shrink boots and sleeves. Both product ranges are lightweight and flexible, and neither require back-shells or break-out adapters. ...

Diodes has added diagnostics to two-wire Hall-effect switches to ready them for ISO 26262 automotive functional safety. “They monitor main device blocks, supply voltage and temperature, with a third lower current output state,” according to the company. “This enables them, as a ‘safety element out of context’ [SEooC] to support ISO 26262 functional safety system integrations.” Applications are foreseen in automotive ...

Taylor Vogt, of Texas Instruments, examines the differences between wired and wireless battery management systems in electric vehicle design. One area of interest for electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers looking to improve performance in safe and cost-effective ways is improving battery management systems (BMS). These work in real time to monitor the performance of individual battery cells within the EV. By ...

Aimed at nominal 72V and 110Vdc inputs, the 500W RMD500-EW power supply series from Recom is intended for baseplate-cooled railway use, and similar 300W and 150W rolling stock and trackside PSUs are in the pipeline. Inputs can span 43 to 154Vdc (4:1), and peak at 170V. Output is 24V at up to 500W even with the baseplate at 95°C. Efficiency is up ...

Power Integrations has switched from a 900V silicon mosfet to a 1,700V silicon carbide transistor to make its automotive-qualified InnoSwitch3-AQ dc-dc converter compatible with 600, 800 and 1200V electric vehicle batteries. What sort of transistor is it? “We don’t go into details of the device,” Power Integrations’ director of automotive business Peter Vaughan told Electronics Weekly. “It looks like a mosfet, ...