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Automotive Electronics

News articles relevant for automotive content, whether in terms of components, power, communications, infotainment or testing.

Future electric vehicles will use GaN and SiC, says supplier

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GaN Systems is presenting a paper on new wide-bandgap semiconductors and their role in automotive power electronics at the Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Conference & Expo in Michigan 17 – 19 September. With manufacturers are currently designing vehicles to be launched onto the market in 2018, it is predicted that by this date gallium nitride semiconductors will attain price parity ...

Automotive motor controller has 16bit CPU and LIN

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Melexis has announced a motor controller IC for dc and single or dual phase brush-less dc motors in vehicles. Intended for environments with elevated temperature levels, MLX81150 has a 16bit embedded microcontroller with 32kbyte flash to deal with specific motor control applications, plus a 4bit CPU to take care of the LIN protocol. http://www.melexis.com/DC-Motor-Control-ICs/General/MLX81150-710.aspx Also on board are: a voltage ...

Chip protects mains outputs from electric vehicles

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Mains not only flows into electric cars for charging. Some electric or hybrid vehicles include inverters to allow the mains equipment to be powered by the vehicle battery, including for use when the owners house has a power cut. To protect the users of such mains outputs, Rohm is offering an automotive grade chip for built-in RCDs (residual current devices) ...

IP67 connectors are tough for industry and vehicles

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Molex has introduced an industrial connector family that exceed IP67 and can be submerged in various fluids. Called MX150L, it “supports low-level signals as well as power applications up to 40A”, said the firm. “Customers can choose from wire-to-wire, wire-to-panel and wire-to-board configurations and a wide range of wire styles and insulation thicknesses.” Applications are expected in commercial vehicles, marine ...

Electronics patent of the month: Improving battery modules for hybrid vehicles

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One of the 'quiet' technological revolutions of the past ten to twenty years has been in relation to the efficiency and performance of batteries. As our world has become increasingly mobile, we rely on compact and effective portable power supplies to achieve best performance from our cameras, laptop computers, tablets, mobile phones and more recently, cars.

Designing battery management systems for electric vehicles

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Until recently, NiMH was the battery chemistry of choice for electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). However, the economic justification was marginal at best. Next-generation Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) batteries provide a more viable solution since they offer an energy storage density improvement of 150%.

Cambridge University’s supercapacitors could be used to power electric vehicles

Cambridge University’s supercapacitors could be used to power electric vehicles Harry Yeates Researchers at Cambridge University are developing electrode materials for very high performance supercapacitors that could be used to power electric vehicles. The university is also looking for investors to help commercialise the technology. By coating multi-walled carbon nanotubes with a very thin layer of a conductive polymer called polypyrrole, ...