Design of a Low-Power, Small-Area AEC-Q100-Compliant SENT Transmitter in Signal Conditioning IC for Automotive Pressure and Temperature Complex Sensors in 180 Nm CMOS Technology.

Imran Ali,Muhammad Rehman,Muhammad Asif,Kang-Yoon Lee,Minjae Lee,Youngoo Yang,Dong-Soo Lee,Hamed Abbasizadeh,Dong-Gyu Kim,Keum Hwang,Behnam Rikhan

doi:10.3390/s18051555

Abstract

In this paper, a low-power and small-area Single Edge Nibble Transmission (SENT) transmitter design is proposed for automotive pressure and temperature complex sensor applications. To reduce the cost and size of the hardware, the pressure and temperature information is processed with a single integrated circuit (IC) and transmitted at the same time to the electronic control unit (ECU) through SENT. Due to its digital nature, it is immune to noise, has reduced sensitivity to electromagnetic interference (EMI), and generates low EMI. It requires only one PAD for its connectivity with ECU, and thus reduces the pin requirements, simplifies the connectivity, and minimizes the printed circuit board (PCB) complexity. The design is fully synthesizable, and independent of technology. The finite state machine-based approach is employed for area efficient implementation, and to translate the proposed architecture into hardware. The IC is fabricated in 1P6M 180 nm CMOS process with an area of (116 μm × 116 μm) and 4.314 K gates. The current consumption is 50 μA from a 1.8 V supply with a total 90 μW power. For compliance with AEC-Q100 for automotive reliability, a reverse and over voltage protection circuit is also implemented with human body model (HBM) electro-static discharge (ESD) of +6 kV, reverse voltage of −16 V to 0 V, over voltage of 8.2 V to 16 V, and fabricated area of 330 μm × 680 μm. The extensive testing, measurement, and simulation results prove that the design is fully compliant with SAE J2716 standard.

Highlights

With rapid improvement in technology, the utilization of complex electronic systems has increased in automotive applications for comfort, safety, and efficiency
The microphotograph of the implementation characteristics of the design. This sensor integrated circuit (IC) is designed with 1P6M 180 nm CMOS
The Single Edge Nibble Transmission (SENT) layout occupies only 13.456 mm2 of total IC, and its implementation needs only implementation characteristics of the design

Summary

Introduction

With rapid improvement in technology, the utilization of complex electronic systems has increased in automotive applications for comfort, safety, and efficiency. Electronic devices are rapidly taking the place of mechanical components in automotive industry. Today’s research focuses on reducing analog circuit complexity and on increasing the amount of digital signal processing to minimize cost, size, and power consumption, with enhanced reliability and improved efficiency. Sensors 2018, 18, 1555 automobiles are equipped with complex electromechanical systems comprised of dozens of inter-networked ECU devices and sensors [1]. The most critical components of these automotive electronic control systems are the sensors and actuators that convey physical quantities to ECU in the form of electrical signals [2]. The micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) sensors are attaining great attention in a variety of applications including automotive, IoT, medical, agricultural, industrial, etc. The controller area network (CAN) and local interconnect network (LIN) are typical in-vehicle networks to connect ECU and actuators [7]

Methods

Results

Conclusion