The standard automobile is becoming more of a computer on wheels than simple transportation. By some estimates, 40% of a car’s value now comes from its electronics, and that share is only growing. Four newly announced products aim to support the continued development and implementation of electronic systems within the automotive industry.

1. Nuvoton's Automotive-Grade Microcontroller

We kick off our roundup with Nuvoton's new automotive and industrial MCU. The NuMicro M2A23 series (datasheet linked) 72-MHz 32-bit Arm Cortex-M23 microcontroller features processing speeds that are nearly doubled from the previous generation of this processor. The M2A23 comes with a high-temperature rating of 125°C and a wide operating voltage range of 2.5 V to 5.5 V to better serve automotive and industrial markets. It supports up to 256 KB of embedded flash, 4 KB of flash loader memory (LDROM), 24 KB of SRAM, and 2 KB of SPROM (serial programmable read-only memory).

Block diagram of the Nuvoton M2A3 series MCU. Image used courtesy of Nuvoton

The new MCU includes generous I/O protocol support, including: 

• Three CAN FD interfaces for automotive and industrial communications
• Local interconnect network (LIN) interface
• Dual UART (including One-Wire, IrDA, and RS485 functionality), I2C, and SPI
• Two USCI modules that can be configured as UART, I2C, or SPI
• Up to 55 GPIO and 12-channel, 144-MHz PWM

The MCU feature set is weighted heavily toward automotive applications and includes three CAN FD interfaces and a dual LLSI interface. CAN is a primary automotive bus used for in-vehicle networking with critical and non-critical systems. CAN is also used in industrial settings due to its resistance to noisy environments. The LED Light Strip Interface (LLSI) is a newer interface standard to control addressable RGB LED lights. Addressable LEDs are daisy-chained RGB LEDs with individual microcontrollers. Digital signals are passed through the chain, and orders are sent based on an individual LED's position in the chain. 

Nexperia's ASIL-B 12-Channel LED Driver

Nexperia has announced the NEX13120FPC-Q100 ASIL-B-safe 12-channel LED driver. The new chip is an AEC-Q100-qualified, 40-V high-side LED driver with 12 channels. The part is designed for automotive safety integrity level B (ASIL-B) functionally safe automotive lighting. This includes taillights, brake lights, turn signals, and in-cabin illumination.

The chip (datasheet linked) has a low dropout of 600 mV at 100 mA current draw. The chips can deliver up to 100 mA per channel and can be paralleled for higher current operation. The drivers support phase-shift pulse width modulation (PWM) and communicate via CAN bus or directly to the processor via UART.

Function block diagram of the NEX13120-Q100. Image used courtesy of Nexperia

The ASIL-B standard refers to medium-risk level devices such as lighting, cameras, and instruments. While failures in ASIL-B devices may cause disruption and require the driver to pull off the road and stop driving, they are unlikely to cause an immediate crash. ASIL B has less stringent requirements than ASIL C, so B components have lower costs than C components. The standard is rigorous enough, however, for the NEX13120FPC-Q100 LED driver to be used in just about any automotive application, from headlights to interior lighting.

The NEX13120FPC-Q100 comes with a series of chip-level safety features that enhance its reliability. This includes extensive diagnostics, LED open-circuit, short-to-ground and short-circuit detection, and a configurable watchdog timer.

TDK's Automotive Inductor

TDK has launched automotive power-over-coax (PoC) inductors for up to 1600 mA. The new parts add to TDK's ADL3225VF wire-wound inductor line. Advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) cameras currently require separate cables for data and for power. The new PoC inductors (datasheet linked) target circuitry that allows a single coax wire to carry both power and signal. 

Impedance vs. frequency characteristics of the ADL3225VF. Image used courtesy of TDK

Power over coax differs from the more familiar power over Ethernet (PoE) in that while PoE is mixing power with Ethernet protocol digital signals, PoC is mixing power with unprocessed camera feed that communicates over coax cables. 

Structural improvements and proprietary materials in the new inductors enable 1.6 A, a 20% increase in power over previous parts. In addition, its mounting is approximately 45% smaller than previous components.

Microchip's PolarFire FPGA Gets AEC-Q100 Qualified

Finally, Microchip has announced that its PolarFire system-on-chip (SoC) field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have received AEC-Q100 qualification. AEC-Q100 is a reliability standard for integrated circuits that requires extensive failure and lifecycle testing. Components qualified under AEC-Q100 specifications can be used in the harsh automotive environment without additional component-level qualification testing.

Block diagram of the PolarFire SoC. Image used courtesy of Microchip

PolarFire SoC FPGAs (datasheet linked) incorporate embedded security and safety features to protect physical, device, design, and data integrity. They are designed with single event upset (SEU) immunity, which, for FPGAs, is a critical reliability factor.

PolarFire chips are equipped with an embedded 64-bit, quad-core RISC-V processing unit. The chips can also run Linux and real-time operating systems (RTOS). The FPGA section of the SoC has a mid-range density of up to 500K logic elements (LE).

Safety for Automotive Electronics

AEC-Q100 is an integrated circuit safety and reliability standard, while the ASIL-B documents a risk-level category. In general, individual components deemed adequate for the standards will help the final product meet the same standard. All four of the products discussed in this article are available for purchase now.