Abstract
Low power-consumption and flexible power management have become increasingly important features for microcontrollers used in automotive body ECUs, such as Body Control Modules (BCM) and Dashboard Control Modules. The Infineon Technologies’ XC2200 family, the latest generation of 16/32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) has been developed for a wide range of automotive body applications where low power consumption and flexible power management capability is required. A dedicated System Control Unit (SCU) has been developed to systematically handle tasks of system clock control and power management. As a result, XC2200 MCUs are equipped with four different mechanisms to carry out power management tasks for both on-chip and external circuitry. These mechanisms include 1) comprehensive supply voltage management; 2) various power-saving modes; 3) powerful clock generation & management; 4) flexible on-chip peripheral & analog module management. With the parallel utilization of any of above four mechanisms, an unprecedented level of low yet flexible power consumption can be achieved in ECUs when controlled by an XC2200 MCU.
This paper also introduces a programmer’s Guide which provides an explanation of how to set-up the supply and clock system of the XC2200 in a practical, expedient, and robust way, to help the designer understand the complexity of the SCU and the associated power management system. Furthermore, an SCU Low-Level Driver including C-Level Expert Level Functions (ELFs) is addressed. Such driver provides reliable modular software to realize and manage transitions between different operating modes.
Keywords: XC2200 Microcontroller Family, ECU, Power Management, System Control Unit, SCU Driver