Abstract
The increasing legal requirements for safety, the reduction of emissions, fuel economy and onboard diagnosis systems are driving the market for more intelligent systems. Therefore, the embedded systems that will have to control automobiles have grown to such an extent that they are now equivalent in scale and complexity to avionics systems. The requirements in terms of computational performance will increase by a factor 10 over the next 5 years. The introduction of the X-by-wire in Powertrain and Chassis will offer new possibilities. The formerly centralized system will have in some cases to be distributed to control the right functions at the right places. The challenge is not only to design a perfect engine, but also to take advantage of the right semiconductors. Beside this demand on high sophisticated electronics, the demand on cost reduction (especially for small cars) is one driving factor for a smart system partitioning.
Infineon offers sensors, micro-controllers and power semiconductors for automotive electronics, therefore owns the right technologies to manufacture those devices. This opens up the possibility to integrate more functionality in fewer devices compared to conventional partitioning and to define new electronics to better control the car.
This paper gives an overview about semiconductors for current and future Powertrain / Chassis management systems and will present an outlook how smart partitioning satisfies in a cost effective way the increasing demands on real time data fusion for high performance distributed Powertrain / Chassis systems.