Automotive Electronics

Mentor Graphics has acquired a German company specialising in hardware reference platforms for the automotive sector. XS Embedded (XSe) is an established company which has developed an approach to accelerate system design and verification by providing automotive-grade hardware and software to reduce the time to SOP. Mentor said thi swill allow it to address the cross-functional collaboration needs required to address the trends towards integration of advanced ...

Vehicle-to-vehicle communications, LED headlights and image processing are emerging as the most interesting electronics technologies for car design writes Richard Wilson.

Molex has announced a sealed in-line connector family with 4mm pitch and 1.2mm terminals for automotive and commercial vehicle harnesses. Called MXP120, it can handle up to 13A and is claimed to ba able to replace common 1.5mm systems. Compatible with AK and USCAR interfaces, the MXP120 is designed according to the international AK cavity definition. Connectors in yellow housings ...

Spansion is sampling its Traveo automotive microcontroller S6J3100 series with a CAN FD interface for in-vehicle networking.

AMS, the sensor specialist and analogue chip supplier, has announced a new series of integrated magnetic position sensors. Designed to provide very accurate angle measurements of rotors spinning at high speed, they are suited for motor control and angle measurement related applications. The “47 series” features the company’s DAEC system – dynamic angle error compensation – to help eliminate measurement ...

Motor isolation for Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) requirements can be met without electromechanical relays, claimed Allegro MicroSystems. To do it, it has introduced the A6861 for safety-critical automotive applications where motor isolation is an essential requirement – in electronic power steering and electric braking, for example. All the chip needs is three power mosfets, and a few passives. “This ...

Melexis Technologies has introduced a Hall-effect switch/latch device with an integrated voltage regulator and on-chip non-volatile memory. On-chip EEPROM is used to enable the various tolerances that need defining for a specific application to be set, via the device’s VDD pin, and if necessary readjusted, before finally being locked. “The range and resolution of programmable magnetic thresholds and thermal sensitivity coefficients allows the sensor working ...

Automotive suppliers must work with transport industries and government agencies to solve standards and security issues if connected and autonomous vehicles are to become ubiquitous. This was one of the messages from experts in the automotive and telecommunications industries speaking at the Cambridge Wireless conference this week. Speakers at the ‘State of the Nation’,  hosted by the Hethel Innovation Centre included Mike Short of Telefonica, Roger C. Lanctot, from Strategy Analytics, Ireri ...

GaN Systems will speak of lateral GaN power transistors in automotive appliations at PCIM next week. The paper ‘Lateral GaN transistors – A replacement for IGBT devices in automotive applications’ will discuss GaN devices in drive trains for hybrid and electric vehicles. “Worldwide, several groups of researchers are undertaking work on replacing silicon IGBTs in these applications,” said the firm. ...

Overall, 2014 is expected to be a great year for the supercapacitor industry. This is the prediction of technology market analyst IDTechEx which looked at last year’s industry results and estimated a 30% CAGR for the supercapacitor market in the next 10 years. The supercapacitor market will reach a value of $6bn in 2024. In an application segment such as ...