This year, CTS will be held on January 9 in the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas. As part of the modern consumer lifestyle, CTS precedes the Consumer Electronics Show that will be held January 10-13 in Las Vegas. Car companies and their suppliers will be highly visible at both venues.

Later in the year, SAE Convergence 2012 will bring together the automotive electronics community to discuss and demonstrate connected vehicle technologies and more. With the continued recovery of the automobile industry, this year’s Convergence should have renewed excitement. It will be held at Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan on October 16-17.

Atmel’s new ultra-low power AVR microcontroller, the ATA5790N, announced today along with the AES-128 immobilizer protocol stack, takes aim at not only at power consumption but also at security issues. The MCU includes LF immobilizer functionality and a 3D LF receiver in a single 5mm x 7mm package. When combined with the companion device ATA5830 RF transmitter, the IC takes dead aim at high-volume uni- and bi-directional car key fobs for passive entry and passive start systems.

A built-in AES-128 cryptographic engine, along with the Atmel protocol stack, is expected to provide maximum security protection with fast authentication time, which is critical to immobilizer systems. As an open-source solution, AES-128 encryption is far more secure, Atmel says, than competitive proprietary solutions since peer reviewing increases fault detection.

So how much current does this MCU consume? Not much. Listening mode consumption is less than 4.5 microampere. Lower current consumption, of course, can extend the battery life significantly for car key fobs.

Other features of the MCU are 16k Flash and 2k EEPROM. Within the 16k Flash, 14kB is available for the application software, while 2kB is available for the immobilizer functionality. The core is surrounded by specific hardware accelerators, which allows designers to implement any immobilizer protocol in the software without the typical current consumption impact. Samples of the ATA5790N are now available in 5mm x 7mm QFN38 packages. Pricing starts at $1.80 USD for 10,000-piece quantities.

To simplify and accelerate product development, the device hosts the application code in Flash and is supported by the standard AVR development tool chain (automotive-grade C compiler and AVR Studio® IDE). Additionally, a remote keyless entry development kit (ATAPMxxxx) with several daughter boards provides complete reference designs for both hardware and software.

The first study displays both spatial and spectral results for the Spread Spectrum Clock Generation (SSCG) feature. In the baseline test, the design team turned the SSCG function “Off” and then compared results with the SSCG turned “On.” The highly visual results display the obvious change in electromagnetic emissions.

The second study compared a second-generation half-duplex SERDES system with the third-generation full-duplex design. The methodology quantified and visually displayed the sources of emissions and documented compliance with test specifications developed by SAE (formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers).

The EMSCAN EMxpert for Real-time results provides examples of imaging results and more details about very-near-field EM scanning technology.

Americans spend more than 500 million “commuter hours” per week in their automobiles. Source: U.S. Department of Transportation.

The number of Americans 65 and older is expected to double by 2050 to 88.5 million. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

In contrast to the 82% usage of seatbelts by front seat passengers, rear belt usage rate in the U.S. is 61%. Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data.

Some 78% of U.S. consumers have expressed interest in mobile health solutions. Source: CTIA-The Wireless Association and Harris Interactive survey.

Medical and healthcare apps was the third fastest-growing category of smartphone applications in early 2010. Source: MobileStorm.

Major software application stores, such as the Apple App Store, now have upward of 17,000 available health apps for download and nearly 60% are aimed at consumers rather than healthcare professionals. Source: Research2Guidance.

Nearly 26 million adults and children are currently living with diabetes in the U.S. - over 3 million more than there were just four years ago. Source: American Diabetes Association.

Some 60 million Americans have asthma and/or allergies. Source: Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

Heart attacks are not always accompanied by severe chest pain. Since some victims suffer no pain at all and an American study found that a third of people who suffered a heart attack did not call an ambulance. Source: UK National Health Service.

Across the European Union in 2008, men were nearly twice as likely to die from a heart attack as women. Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and European Commission.

At the beginning of the 21st century, more than one quarter of the world’s adult population suffered from high blood pressure. That figure is expected to increase by 60% by 2025. Source: European Union Public Health Information System.

Diseases of the heart accounted for 40% of all deaths inside the European Union in 2008. Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and European Commission.

Safety applications where cars are in close proximity to each other need low latency, high availability short-range communication between cars that goes beyond normal Wi-Fi. “This is 802.11p stripped of all the handshaking,” says Schulman. The broadcast message is quite simple: ten times a second, it transmits the vehicle’s presence for another vehicle to detect it. “The trick is how do you get it on all cars,” asks Schulman.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) plans to write a regulation starting in 2013 technology requiring the technology on all new vehicles. “Next year there will be a trial in the United States of about 1500 cars, trucks, buses, and intersections,” says Schulman. The trial will run for about a year and after that, if everything goes as planned, the standards will be finalized.

The Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) network uses 5.9 GHz with 75 MHz of spectrum allocated by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC). “Were using one channel out of seven as a safety channel,” says Schulman. He considers safety as the leading application for DSRC and that NHTSA may regulate that drivers have at least one channel in their car dedicated to this communication.

Getting a Spec

Initial V2V efforts started in 1995, when CAMP members decided to work together on pre-competitive specs. By 2006 the group had determined that some useful functionality could be obtained so they focused their efforts on enhancing the tool with smart intersections in 2009. That’s when the members and U.S. Department of Transportation Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) determined that the technology really needed to be pushed through to deployment.

For the current testing, the goal is to have the 1500 vehicles interact everyday so they need to be reasonably close proximity to each other on a routine basis. Even though a lot of testing has been performed on the test track researchers need to see how these messages come together in real world application. The actual test location is still being determined.

The technology is reasonably low cost because vehicles already have Wi-Fi and GPS it just requires a modified version of Wi-Fi 802.11 P.

“This is a low-cost option but it doesn’t work until everybody’s got it,” says Schulman. “We’re looking at retrofit kits that we can put on existing cars.” Ford demonstrated the avoidance of several typical crash scenarios at the event using V2V technology.

As a result, a battery model for simulating high-voltage rechargeable batteries is the latest addition to dSPACE Automotive Simulation Models (ASM) simulation package. The model is designed to virtualize the rechargeable lithium-ion, nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) and lead- acid batteries used for electric propulsion in vehicle drivetrains.

“Our customers have recognized the limitations imposed by alternatives and have shown a keen interest in the adoption of the dSPACE solution to complement their HIL [hardware-in-the-loop] test setups for Battery Management System (BMS) software validation and verification,” says Mahendra Muli, New Business Development Manager for dSPACE Inc.

Developed in parallel to the increasing adoption of Li-Ion batteries, a comparable alternative to simulate batteries did not exist prior to dSPACE solution. Some development and testing happened with static and/or limited capacity cell simulation with programmable analog voltage sources, or in some cases, real cells.

“With these setups, it is not possible to accurately re-create test conditions, validate state-of-charge (SOC) detection algorithms that require a precise, high-resolution analog cell voltage simulation and exercise diagnostics software by creating fault conditions,” says Muli.

The dSpace model facilitates function development for the BMS and also the testing of close-to-production electronic control units (ECUs). In addition to supporting the elementary functions of current battery management systems, such as cell balancing, the new ASM multicell battery model simulates every single battery cell to represent the cell-specific charges, voltages and currents. Physical parameters such as internal resistance, diffusion and double-layer capacities can be defined for each cell.

Texas Instruments recently introduced the industry’s first microcontroller (MCU) with embedded FRAM (Ferroelectric Random Access Memory). According to Morry Marshall, director strategic technologies and automotive specialist at Semico Research, a semiconductor market research firm, FRAM combines the best characteristics of SRAM, DRAM and Flash. It has nearly SRAM speed, is low-cost like DRAM and is non-volatile like Flash. In addition, endurance (the number erasure possible before failure) is not an issue with FRAM, as it is with Flash memory.

“This chip is aimed at industrial markets, but there is no reason it could not be used in automotive markets,” says Marshall. “ It is a low memory-density part, initially 4KB, 8KB and 16KB, but this enough memory for many control applications.”

Also called F-RAM and FeRAM, automakers including Mercedes, GM, BMW, Ford, Porsche, and others, already use FRAM in their vehicles but in standalone form.

Another milestone announcement came earlier this year from Everspin Technology, a pioneer in magnetoresistive random access memory or MRAM. Everspin added AEC-Q100 automotive temperature products to its MRAM portfolio, including x 8, x 16 and serial SPI interfaces. MRAM also has significant advantages over Flash memory including fast and unlimited read/write endurance coupled with 20-year data retention.

The new MRAM products operate over an extended temperature range (-40ºC to 125ºC) and provide extreme reliability. Because MRAM is always non-volatile, power loss after writes to MRAM does not affect data integrity. The temperature range and high reliability make these products a natural for automotive applications including this in harsh mounting locations for applications including engine and transmission control. BMW has already chosen MRAM technology to solve a data retention problem in its Motorrad Motorsport engine control unit.

“As far as MRAM goes, there is opportunity here as some new designs are replacing SRAM with MRAM,” says Susie Inouye, research director and principal analyst at databeans, Inc., a market research firm, “Everspin has been targeting automotive with this newer technology because of the relationship with Freescale [Semiconductor], one of the largest component suppliers to the automotive segment,” she says.

Databeans estimate for embedded memory in automotive for 2010 was $2.5 billion and is expected to increase by 10 percent in 2011.

We’ll just have to wait and see how future automotive applications take advantage of these new memory alternatives to Flash.

As a major tier two supplier to automotive with over two million wireless modules delivered to carmakers and first tier suppliers, Sierra Wireless is a key stakeholder in the success of wireless technology in vehicles. The company’s latest announcement promises to protect that stake and advance wireless technology.

Designed specifically for automotive manufacturers, Sierra Wireless claims its AirPrime AR Series intelligent embedded modules are the first to achieve the highest level of compliance with automotive specifications. The series meets the Automotive Industry Action Group’s (AIAG’s) Advanced Product Quality Planning (AQPQ) and Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) qualifications as well as Product/Process Change Notice (PCN), Eight Disciplines (8D), and other requirements imposed by automotive manufacturing and quality processes.

The modules in the new series have demonstrated tolerance for 1000 thermal shock cycles as part of Highly Accelerated Life Test (HALT) stress testing and are capable of operation over the automotive passenger compartment temperature range of -40 to +85°C. The modules have also passed automotive requirements for constant vibration and humidity.

Housed in an automotive land grid array (LGA) surface mount package measuring 40 x 40 x 4.12 mm, the module provides a solder-down form factor for high reliability. In addition, there is a common form factor for all of the new AirPrime AR Series including the AR3550, AR5550, AR8550, and AR8552.

The AR3550 is a dual-band 1xRTT wireless module. The AR5550 EV-DO Rev A has open platform for customer application development, including dedicated APIs for telematics applications.

The AirPrime AR855x is an automotive-grade High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSPA) wireless module available in two different tri-band versions for North America (AR8552) and for Europe, Australia and Japan (AR8550). The AR855X have a peak downlink rate of 14.4 Mbps and a peak uplink rate of 5.76 Mbps. The AirPrime AR Series are based on Qualcomm CDMA Technologies Brew Mobile Platform and MDM6600 chipset. The MDM6600 supports HSPA+ data rates of up to 14.4 Mbps. Other wireless interfaces include EDGE, GPRS, and GSM.

The module includes a standard SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) interface and has the option for the embedded SIM (SON8) and a SMI switch between an internal and external SIM. Embedded SIM reduces installation costs, simplifies logistics, and reduces SIM theft security threats.

In-vehicle Wireless Applications

The AirPrime AR Series targets infotainment, telematics, integrated phone, roadside assistance, and emergency calling. One application that is poised to drive wireless growth is the European eCall currently being pursued by the European Commission. The in-vehicle emergency calling system is expected to be mandatory on all new passenger cars in Europe starting in 2014.

When activated by a serious accident, the in-vehicle system (IVS) automatically initiates an eCall resulting in a 112-voice connection and emergency message. The message contains a minimum set of data including key information about the accident including the time, location, driving direction, and vehicle description.

While eCall can be accomplished either by an embedded network access device (a GSM module) or a mobile phone, Sierra Wireless believes the critical nature of the service dictates an embedded system to achieve sufficient reliability. The fully embedded system would have an embedded GSM module, embedded SIM, and the ability to manage devices over the air.

Of course, an embedded system plays right into the capabilities of the AirPrime AR Series. In addition to Europe, automobile manufacturers are incorporating wireless communications into luxury as well as economy vehicle models in other regions of the world. All of applications can benefit from reliable wireless connectivity designed to minimize the total cost of ownership, from production to customer service.

Having worked with network operators worldwide, Sierra Wireless has high confidence in its systems and modules, especially in the more demanding applications, such as remote diagnostics and stolen vehicle tracking and recovery.

Volume shipments of the modules are scheduled to begin in mid-2011 but the company says it already has multiple design wins for the AirPrime AR Series with leading automotive manufacturers.

SpotOn GPS is based on a platform from LocatioNet that has been white-labeled by international carriers and service providers including Bouygues France, Orange Israel, Vodafone Romania and Telegate Germany. TechnoCom has licensed the platform for the U.S. market.

The hosted solution delivers customizable interactive and location-aware advertising, offers, coupons, and loyalty building promotional messages. It provides access to international local search databases, and text and voice prompted instructions in 13 languages, with more being added.

“Early evidence suggests location-based advertising, or LBA, yields significantly higher conversion rates with direct response modes, such as click-to-locate and click-to-navigate, compared to non-location-based advertising,” said ABI Research practice director Dominique Bonte. “LBA and navigation are a winning combination, mutually reinforcing each other. For the end-user ad-funded navigation represents a highly valued balance between exposure to advertising and access to reduced-cost, or potentially free, navigation, thus driving adoption of both.”

At the Telematics Update conference in Novi, Michigan last week, QNX demonstrated a multi-node infotainment system with integrated Pandora support.

Pandora senior vice president Jessica Steel said Pandora is pleased to partner with QNX, “because we believe our service is essential to achieving the goal of a truly personalized infotainment experience in the car.” She added, “By offering QNX-based infotainment systems equipped with the Pandora service, automakers will allow drivers and passengers to enjoy the same personalized radio experience on the road that they now enjoy at home or at work.”

The QNX CAR program offers technologies including a connected application platform, sample applications, reference implementations, and a mechanism for delivering software updates and new features to the vehicle. The application platform includes integrations with consumer media devices, Bluetooth, content management, and other third-party technologies in addition to Pandora Internet radio.