Automotive Electronics

Several signs point to an easing of the shortages of semiconductors for automotive applications, says Semiconductor Intelligence. However, the production of light vehicles will likely remain below full potential through at least 2023. LMC Automotive’s July forecast of light vehicle production called for 81.7 million units in 2022, up 2% from 2021. LMC’s January forecast was for 13% unit growth ...

Power Integrations has announced a high-current member of its LinkSwitch-TN2Q automotive switcher IC family which provides up to 850 mA of output current without the need for metal heatsinking. The ICs support a wide input voltage of 30 to 550 VDC, enabling the devices to start up and operate below the required Safety Extra Low Voltage (SELV) threshold in functional safety EV ...

The European Space Agency (ESA) is looking to extend the use of space-related technology along European roads. It has has finalised a Memorandum of Intent with ERTICO, the organisation for the European Road Transport Telematics Implementation Coordination, a public-private partnership for the development of intelligent road systems. Specifically, the ESA’s Navigation Directorate finalised the agreement at ESTEC, the European Space ...

At this week’s HotChips 2022, UntetherAI has announced its second generation at-memory architecture to accelerate AI interference. SpeedAI (codenamed Boqueria) improves efficiency by up to 100x, compared to the company’s first generation architecture (runAI200) and has 80 times more throughput to accelerate neural networking. The second generation architecture also quadruples performance achieving 2Petaflops with a power budget of 30Tops per ...

Power module companies Semikron and Danfoss subsidiary Danfoss Silicon Power have completed their merger to form Semikron-Danfossmerge, majority owned by Danfoss. Of the two family-owned companies, Semikron is bringing in 3,000 staff from 24 subsidiaries worldwide, and there will be 500 from Danfoss Silicon Power. Where did Danfoss get resources to buy the significantly larger company? “We can’t go into ...

Andes and Green Hills are to develop an integrated automotive compute offering for IC designers based on the AndesCore 25-Series RISC-V processor IP including the safety-certified µ-velOSity RTOS, the ASIL-certified MULTI development environment with advanced system-level debugging and analysis tools and C/C++ Optimizing Compilers, along with the Green Hills Probe for JTAG and trace target connections. The combined product is designed for ...

Californian GaN power IC maker Navitas Semiconductor has bought Virginia silicon carbide company GeneSiC Semiconductor. “Navitas GaN ICs are optimised for 400V electric vehicle systems, and GeneSiC technology is ideal for 800V electric vehicle systems,” according to Navitas. “Navitas GaN ICs serve residential solar, while GeneSiC has immediate revenue in higher power commercial solar and energy storage customers. GeneSiC high-voltage ...

Diodes has announced a 600mA automotive-compliant dc-dc converter that can run from 4.5 to 40V. Called AP64060Q, the parts include a 600mΩ high-side and a 300mΩ low-side mosfet – the latter making an external Schottky optional. Quiescent current is typically 90μA, according to the company. Two resistors are needed to set output voltage, and anywhere up from 0.8V – with ...

Recom has launched a range of 500W IP-67-enclosed dc-dc converters for powering loads from off-highway electric vehicle batteries. Called RMOD500-W, the supplies have an input range of 32 – 96V, which spans nominal 48V, 60V, 72V and 80V batteries. Depending on the unit, the output is 24.5, 23.5, 13.7, 13, 12.4 or 11.7V, and paralleling can be used to increase ...

Murata has introduced a series of chip ferrite beads with a 20A current rating, aiming them at the battery charging systems and powertrains of electric vehicles, as well as in industrial equipment. Called the BLE32SN series, its members are 3.2 x 2.5 x 2mm (1210 or metric 3225) and operate over -55 to +125°C or -55°C to +150°C. “By leveraging ...