Antoni Ferré

42-V/3-V Watkins-Johnson converter for automotive use

In this paper, the Watkins-Johnson (WJ) converter was found to best step down the future automotive 42-V power network to 3 V or lower for the supply of microcontrollers and semiconductors. The particularity of the WJ converter is that it only employs a tapped-inductor and three other components. The use of a tapped-inductor is well-known and gives an extra-degree of freedom by the insertion of the winding ratio of the tapped-inductor into the transfer function of the WJ converter. It also permits the duty cycle to be adjusted to a value at which the efficiency of the converter is improved. The converter can be slightly modified and used as a multiple output converter while employing few components, diminishing the weight, size, cost, and complexity of a system. Practical test results for the single-output WJ converter are presented

Energy Efficient Vehicles for Road Transport – EE-VERT

EE-VERT is a project funded under the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission concerned with improving the energy efficiency of road vehicles. In particular EE-VERT targets a 10% reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 generation as measured on the standard NEDC. The central concept to EE-VERT is the deployment of an overall energy management strategy that coordinates energy demand and consumption by a network of smart generators and smart actuators. This paper describes the EE-VERT concept and the activities that will be undertaken to realise the project’s goals.

ASISTE - Intelligent transportation systems integration platform for industrial vehicles

There exists a growing trend towards the use of ADAS and IVIS into the cab. The distraction caused by these devices questions the positive contribution to the road safety. CABINTEC presents an intelligent cab development to improve the entire driver-vehicle-environment system efficiency and safety, creating a global control concept. ASISTE, its central module, integrates all information sources and devices to assist driver: it assess the driving situation and decides how and when interact with him. This paper proposes an open architecture adapted to heavy good vehicles and buses special features.

IWCM: Infrastructure Wireless Communication Module for vehicle communication with recharge infrastructure

CENIT VERDE was a R&D collaboration program focused on the development of a complete electrical vehicle, together with the appropriate infrastructure. This included the study of a reliable connection between recharge infrastructure and the PHEV/EV. The result was the development of a standardized communication interface module between the recharge infrastructure and the vehicle, named ICWM (Infrastructure Wireless Communication Module). This enables the implementation of a large number of specific services for electric vehicles in a cost-effective manner since it reuses components already available in the vehicle.

Autodoor. Microsystem for Automotiove Door Module

In this paper a multichip module system for automotive applications is described. The MCM substrate is a IMS (Isolated Metal Substrate), which has been used for integration of analog signal processing stages, complex logic circuits and even power switching transistors. The main functionality of the door module implemented with this MCM, is the control of the power window motor with antipinch feature, although the prototype has been completed with communication (LIN-bus).

Advanced Sensorless Distributed Seat Concept

Electrical complexity in products yielded from Automotive Industry goes on the increase. During the last years, new functionality and cost-effective strategies have been introduced, for reducing for instance: weight, packaging and assembly labours of components and devices. Several concepts and approaches have been put forward and developed in literature. Among these concepts and solutions, those regarding the chance of improvement as technology integrators are most accepted. As mentioned supplier, Lear is working on advanced designs for reaching this market’s common aiming. Involved in a wider dual voltage concept design, that ensure scalable integration and platform’s differentiation, a ripple counting strategy, by means of application and developing of an intelligent switch module that plays the role of a CAN-gateway in a automotive seat has been carried out. This new module connects the seat to the rest of the car driving and storing the position of the different loads reducing the number of wires involved in integration. As major that allows cost-effective integration, an embedded hybrid HW/SW implementation has been selected under 8-bit microcontroller programming.