Today’s cars are full of the latest electronic toys, making them a moving office and entertainment center all in one.
We have CD players, iPod ports, Bluetooth connections to our smartphones, Sat Nav with instant traffic feedback, front/rear view cameras, sensors, radar distance control to the car in front and voice activated controls, to name just a few. And this trend is increasing – cars are really becoming connected, mobile computing platforms that happen to have a steering wheel.
The growth of automotive electronics
However how many of us actually think about what’s there and what makes it work? We probably take it for granted, as these electronics are now an integral part of what makes our driving experience so engaging and safe. So what powers these systems and where are they located?
The current trend in automotive design seems to favor putting the electronic hardware in the trunk (boot). These little boxes of electronics need a power supply, which is easily supplied from the nearby battery, to be kept cool and safe behind rear panels hidden away from prying fingers and the sun, and most importantly incoming and outgoing data signals.
Let’s take a closer look at the data requirements of today’s modern car. It has grown from audio at 5.6Mb/s through basic video at 25Mb/s to HD video at 150Mb/s and now 1Gb/s for perimeter monitoring cameras. As in every environment, demand is forever growing as new applications and sensors are added all the time.
The current trend in automotive design seems to favor putting the electronic hardware in the trunk (boot). These little boxes of electronics need a power supply, which is easily supplied from the nearby battery, to be kept cool and safe behind rear panels hidden away from prying fingers and the sun, and most importantly incoming and outgoing data signals.
Let’s take a closer look at the data requirements of today’s modern car. It has grown from audio at 5.6Mb/s through basic video at 25Mb/s to HD video at 150Mb/s and now 1Gb/s for perimeter monitoring cameras. As in every environment, demand is forever growing as new applications and sensors are added all the time.
The options for getting data quickly around the car
So having established that there is a growing requirement for high data rates in automotive wiring system what are the options available to manufacturers?
Essentially they split into three groups:
Essentially they split into three groups:
- Copper twisted pair
- Co-axial cables
- Fiber optic connections
- Glass
- Plastic Optical Fiber (POF)
Each has its strengths and weaknesses:
- Copper twisted pair – Mechanically strong, robust and simple interconnect technology but limited on data rates at higher levels and suffers from possible interference from other devices in the vehicle platform.
- Co-axial cables – Mechanically strong, robust and simple interconnect technology but bulky, less flexible and heavy, making it bad for overall vehicle weight.
- Fiber Optics (glass) – while glass has a fantastic data rate capability it needs a good sheath package to make it robust, it is not easy to terminate and there are question marks over how it handles vibration.
- Fiber Optics (POF) - has good mechanical strength, easy to cut and terminate on the manufacturing shop floor (as no splicing or polishing is required), robust with respect to vibration, lightweight, no danger of interference, and ideal for short transmission distances. It now has volume deployments in vehicle platforms. POF does have bandwidth and distance limitations compared to glass fiber, although current research aims to increase capacity to gigabit levels.
Today’s cars are full of the latest electronic toys, making them a moving office and entertainment center all in one.
We have CD players, iPod ports, Bluetooth connections to our smartphones, Sat Nav with instant traffic feedback, front/rear view cameras, sensors, radar distance control to the car in front and voice activated controls, to name just a few. And this trend is increasing – cars are really becoming connected, mobile computing platforms that happen to have a steering wheel.
The growth of automotive electronics
However how many of us actually think about what’s there and what makes it work? We probably take it for granted, as these electronics are now an integral part of what makes our driving experience so engaging and safe. So what powers these systems and where are they located?
The current trend in automotive design seems to favor putting the electronic hardware in the trunk (boot). These little boxes of electronics need a power supply, which is easily supplied from the nearby battery, to be kept cool and safe behind rear panels hidden away from prying fingers and the sun, and most importantly incoming and outgoing data signals.
Let’s take a closer look at the data requirements of today’s modern car. It has grown from audio at 5.6Mb/s through basic video at 25Mb/s to HD video at 150Mb/s and now 1Gb/s for perimeter monitoring cameras. As in every environment, demand is forever growing as new applications and sensors are added all the time.
The current trend in automotive design seems to favor putting the electronic hardware in the trunk (boot). These little boxes of electronics need a power supply, which is easily supplied from the nearby battery, to be kept cool and safe behind rear panels hidden away from prying fingers and the sun, and most importantly incoming and outgoing data signals.
Let’s take a closer look at the data requirements of today’s modern car. It has grown from audio at 5.6Mb/s through basic video at 25Mb/s to HD video at 150Mb/s and now 1Gb/s for perimeter monitoring cameras. As in every environment, demand is forever growing as new applications and sensors are added all the time.
The options for getting data quickly around the car
So having established that there is a growing requirement for high data rates in automotive wiring system what are the options available to manufacturers?
Essentially they split into three groups:
Essentially they split into three groups:
- Copper twisted pair
- Co-axial cables
- Fiber optic connections
- Glass
- Plastic Optical Fiber (POF)
Each has its strengths and weaknesses:
- Copper twisted pair – Mechanically strong, robust and simple interconnect technology but limited on data rates at higher levels and suffers from possible interference from other devices in the vehicle platform.
- Co-axial cables – Mechanically strong, robust and simple interconnect technology but bulky, less flexible and heavy, making it bad for overall vehicle weight.
- Fiber Optics (glass) – while glass has a fantastic data rate capability it needs a good sheath package to make it robust, it is not easy to terminate and there are question marks over how it handles vibration.
- Fiber Optics (POF) - has good mechanical strength, easy to cut and terminate on the manufacturing shop floor (as no splicing or polishing is required), robust with respect to vibration, lightweight, no danger of interference, and ideal for short transmission distances. It now has volume deployments in vehicle platforms. POF does have bandwidth and distance limitations compared to glass fiber, although current research aims to increase capacity to gigabit levels.
