How advances in automotive systems are changing passive components requirements

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The automotive industry is entering a period of rapid change. Car makers will have to adapt to multiple, concurrent challenges such as new market entrants, tougher emissions standards, vehicle electrification and the shift to mobility platforms, as well as customer demands for greater safety, autonomy and connectivity.

The good news for passive component makers is that addressing many of these issues will demand additional and more sophisticated vehicle electronics in which their parts will play a wide variety of key roles. According to a recent McKinsey report, car makers face four key challenges, which will, in turn, set the context for automotive component makers until at least 2025.

The first is to cope with the increasing complexity and cost pressures caused by tightening safety and environmental standards, the trend to create more derivatives from each vehicle platform to service niche markets, and the need to keep developing alternative powertrain options to serve as-yet undefined future demand.

The second big challenge, according to McKinsey, is to move car manufacture and its associated supply chains closer to fast-growing emerging markets, whose share of the global car market is expected to grow to 60 per cent by 2020. This will also create demand for new models to match local preferences, such as for smaller vehicles.

The third big challenge is driven by the digital revolution, which is driving customers’ expectations of vehicle cabin environments. Where once an SUV was sold, in part, on its deployment of cupholders, today the right choice of hook-ups for mobile phones, tablets, and internet connectivity has become equally important.

The fourth major challenge is the shifting car industry landscape, in which component makers will supply more of the value-added content of a vehicle,
production will move closer to growing markets, the European market will be restructured, and new entrants, be they Chinese e-vehicle makers or Apple, Google, and Uber, will challenge the incumbents.

The third big challenge is driven by the digital revolution, which is driving customers’ expectations of vehicle cabin environments. Where once an SUV was sold, in part, on its deployment of cupholders, today the right choice of hook-ups for mobile phones, tablets, and Internet connectivity has become equally important.

The fourth major challenge is the shifting car industry landscape, in which component makers will supply more of the value-added content of a vehicle, production will move closer to growing markets, the European market will be restructured, and new entrants, be they Chinese e-vehicle makers or Apple, Google, and Uber, will challenge the incumbents.

Drivers for increased use of passives

What do these macro-economic and industry-wide trends mean for the makers and buyers of passive components? Many market intelligence companies, of varying credibility, offer trend analysis reports, market forecasts, and expert insights. Taken together, they paint a picture of a car industry that is increasing the electronics content of every vehicle it makes, and applying electronics to a growing variety of tasks, not just up-and-coming features such as vehicle autonomy.

For example, customer and regulatory pressure to improve driver, passenger and pedestrian safety, is driving a wave of safety innovation that, in turn, demands greater use of passive components.
 

Global car sales are expected to top 100 million units by 2020. (Source: AlixPartners)
 

In the longer term, the shift from Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), such as lane-keeping and adaptive cruise control, to increased levels of vehicle autonomy, is also creating demand for passives. Increasingly sophisticated ADAS systems are setting the scene for vehicle autonomy by introducing radar systems for cruise control and collision warning, multiple camera systems for interpreting the surrounding environment, ultrasonics for proximity sensing and, eventually, LIDAR to provide another view of the driving environment with which to correlate other inputs.

Again, each of these devices needs onboard passives to condition the sensor for best operation, as well as to stabilise the power supply and ensure the sensor’s data is transmitted successfully to whichever centralised system will interpret its signals and act upon them. Analysts ResearchandMarkets.com forecast that the global market for ADAS and autonomous driving related components will grow at a robust 22.31% a year, each year from 2018 to 2028.
 

Infotainment systems are also demanding more passives. What used to be a car dashboard has evolved into a powerful combined information and entertainment centre whose facilities are expected to match, or at least not lag too far behind, the leading edge of consumer smartphone and tablet design. Car buyers expect sophisticated navigation systems, extensive vehicle monitoring, onboard multimedia playback as well as personal device integration (Android Auto and Apple CarPlay), and increasingly, connectivity both for passenger internet access and vehicle services such as the OnStar safety and security system. Analysts Data Intelligence suggest that the global market for automotive infotainment systems will grow in value from $1.45bn in 2018 to $4.2bn in 2022, creating further demand for passives. The increasing complexity of infotainment systems is matched, if not outstripped, by the growing complexity of behind-the-scenes systems such as Engine Controller Units (ECUs), body controllers and the myriad subsystems that handle everything from keyless entry to vehicle security. Together they form a complex distributed network of sensing, computing and control that has to be tied together by sophisticated bus structures, over which signals are sent and received by transceivers. Analysts Global Market Insights reckon that global shipments of automotive transceivers will rise to 7 billion units a year by 2024. Many of these transceivers will be used to enable increasingly sophisticated control of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) powertrains, to achieve better emissions control and greater economy.

The transition to hybrid and eventually fully electronic powertrains will also increase demand for passive components. Hybrid vehicles need sophisticated ECUs to manage the transition between electric and ICE driving, as well as regenerative-braking and battery-charging strategies. Fully electric vehicles exchange the complexity of managing a hybrid powertrain for the challenge of trying to ensure predictable range, fast charging and good performance from stillevolving battery technology. All this demands rich sensing, robust communications, and extensive use of power-electronics devices, and their supporting circuitry, to manage the flow of very large amounts of electrical energy. Component maker Murata, for example, reckons that the number of multilayer ceramic capacitors used in each vehicle could rise from between 1000 to 3000 parts today to 8000 when powertrains go electric.

The increasing complexity of infotainment systems is matched, if not outstripped, by the growing complexity of behind-the-scenes systems such as engine controller units (ECUs), body controllers and the myriad of subsystems that handle everything from keyless entry to vehicle security. Together they form a complex distributed network of sensing, computing and control that has to be tied together by sophisticated bus structures, over which signals are sent and received by transceivers. Analysts Global Market Insights reckon that global shipments of automotive transceivers will rise to 7 billion units a year by 2024. Many of these transceivers will be used to enable increasingly sophisticated control of internal combustion engine (ICE) powertrains, to achieve better emissions control and greater economy.

The transition to hybrid and eventually fully electronic powertrains will also increase demand for passive components. Hybrid vehicles need sophisticated ECUs to manage the transition between electric and ICE driving, as well as regenerative-braking and battery-charging strategies. Fully electric vehicles exchange the complexity of managing a hybrid powertrain for the challenge of trying to ensure predictable range, fast charging and good performance from still-evolving battery technology. All this demands rich sensing, robust communications, and extensive use of power-electronics devices, and their supporting circuitry, to manage the flow of very large amounts of electrical energy. Component maker Murata, for example, reckons that the number of multilayer ceramic capacitors used in each vehicle could rise from between 1000 to 3000 parts today to 8000 when powertrains go electric.

Components for automotive applications

Dashboards have become infotainment systems, like this one used in a Tesla. (Source: Tesla)

Automotive passives have to work hard. They must offer very high reliability so that they work correctly for a vehicle’s multiyear lifetime, across extreme temperature ranges, from polar winters to desert summers. And they have to do all this while surviving mechanical shocks and complex vibrations; frequent thermal cycling; electrical, electrostatic and electromagnetic interference; constant exposure to moisture, humidity and solvents; and possible mechanical stresses due to flexing PCBs.The automotive electronics industry has responded to this laundry list of challenges by defining a component stress-test standard for passive components known as AEC-Q200. The standard covers all the issues mentioned above, as well as production issues such as solder-ability and resistance to soldering heat. Although AEC-Q200 appears comprehensive, some manufacturers apply further statistical tests to their manufacturing lots in order to be able to claim greater levels of component reliability

For example, Panasonic has developed the EEH-ZE series hybrid aluminium electrolytic capacitors for use in filtering the inputs and outputs of power converters and voltage regulators, and for power and battery decoupling. The AEC-Q200 compliant parts are designed to operate from –55 to 145°C, have a thermal endurance of 2,000 hours at 145°C, can sustain high ripple currents, and have low equivalent series resistances. Nichicon offers UBY aluminium electrolytic capacitors for use in electric power steering and direct-injection engine drive systems. The parts offer higher capacitances and withstand much higher ripple currents than other electrolytic capacitors. The UBY parts are available with capacitances from 160 to 12,000μF, at operating voltages from 25 to 100V, and with a rated temperature
range from –40 to +135°C.

The reliability challenge is likely to become bigger once vehicle makers move from 12V DC to 48V DC power systems, so they can offload engines by
powering subsystems such as the steering, brakes, water pumps, radiator cooling, and air conditioning electrically. When this happens, automotive electronics designers will have to spec and source passives that can sustain relatively high voltages, high currents, and high operating temperatures, reliably over the long term. This may have profound consequences for their manufacturing processes if, for example, it requires a shift from the use of surface-mounted to radial-leaded components that have to be wave soldered.

This challenge will continue as the automotive industry shifts to e-mobility. Passives manufacturer TDK has responded by creating a range of CeraLink capacitors in low-profile packages, which can act as ripplecurrent suppressors, DC link capacitors, and snubbers. The parts have been designed for use in fast-switching automotive power supplies and inverters, made possible by the availability of new IGBTs and MOSFETs, where low equivalent series resistances and inductances are important.

These are just some examples of the ways in which the passive component industry is adapting to the multiple challenges that its automotive customers are facing as their industry evolves. Automotive electronics designers can be reassured that, despite cars becoming more complex, their suppliers are working hard to ensure that they have the parts they need to succeed in this increasingly challenging design environment.

To find out more about how Avnet Abacus can support your automotive designs visit: avnet-abacus.eu/automotive