> POWER
How to Protect Autonomous Vehicle Electronics Circuits
Jim Colby
Marketing Engineer, Littelfuse, Inc.
Widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles (AV) cannot be achieved unless the vehicle’s electronic circuits are robust to electrical shocks to ensure high reliability as well as driver and passenger safety. Electronics design engineers can significantly reduce the potential of circuit failures by incorporating electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection, overcurrent protection, transient surge protection, and reverse polarity protection. This article presents circuit protection recommendations for three mission-critical subsystems in their autonomous vehicles—camera, radar, and ADAS.
Figure 1. Advanced Autonomous Vehicle Sensing Systems Recommended protection for ADAS subsystem
As the name implies, the advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) incorporate the communication, signal processing, and control subsystem that operate an autonomous vehicle. This main subsystem must be robust and reliable. These circuits must identify other vehicles in traffic, may need to make fast stops due to an animal or person obstructing the vehicle’s path, and needs to have a fail-safe response to a failed sensor. This article’s focus is on ensuring the hardware survives transient energy strikes. All circuitry that supplies information to the ADAS controller needs ESD protection. Figure 2 shows an example ADAS communication and control subsystem block diagram.
> MAY 2021
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Figure 2. ADAS Subsystem •Vol - 03 / 05
