Automotive Electronics

For a week last November an internal combustion engine hummed away in a lab near Chicago. Why the excitement? This particular engine sets fire to fuel with lasers instead of spark plugs, burning fuel more efficiently than normal. Laser-fired engines could lead to cleaner, greener cars. In a normal combustion engine, a mix of fuel and air enters a chamber ...

Infineon is in volume production of its LITIX Basic family of LED drivers specifically designed for low-power to medium-power automotive exterior lighting applications.

Toshiba  has expanded its line-up of automotive N-channel power MOSFETs with the launch of two new devices: TK160F10N1, a 100 V, 160 A product and TK200F04N1L, a 40 V, 200 A class product. Target applications include EPS, DC-DC converters and load switches.

Murata has started mass production of its the XRCGB-F-A series of crystals for automotive applications.

Toyota is making 6000 patents on hydrogen fuel cell technology available free of charge to anyone who wants to use them.

Human interface technologies in cars, like touch-screens, head-up displays, haptic feedback, proximity sensing and gesture recognition, are going to be a big deal in 2015, said IHS.

The AA has warned against connecting cars to the Internet because of the dangers of hackers stealing cars or hacking into their control systems.

Ricoh has introduced an application processor supervisory IC with a wide operating voltage range up to 36V for automotive applications. The R5110 combines a LDO Voltage Regulator, Voltage Detector and Watchdog Timer in one chip.

Electronic Motion Systems (EMS) the Swansea automotive electronics specialist, has been bought by KSR International of Canada which provides electronic sensors and pedal assemblies to the automotive industry.

Auto is the fastest growing IC market, reports IC Insights, with a CAGR of 10.8% between 2013 and 2018.