KDPOF displays optical connectivity providing galvanic isolation for Battery Management Systems and Smart Antenna Modules at Automotive Ethernet Congress

Automotive Ethernet Congress: KDPOF Will Present Optical Connectivity for Galvanic Isolation

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At Automotive Ethernet Congress on 13 and 14 February 2019 in Munich, Germany, KDPOF will display their optical connectivity technology in order to secure new 48-volt electrical architectures via the inherent galvanic isolation. Optical connections with POF, such as KDPOF’s innovative Automotive Gigabit Ethernet POF (GEPOF), provide the optimal means to achieve galvanic isolation, providing 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps Ethernet compatible solutions with enough margin to withstand the harsh automotive environment. Applications such as Battery Management Systems (BMS) and Integrated Smart Antenna (ISA) modules profit from the inherent Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) of POF. “The new 48-volt electrical architecture pushes the envelope in terms of electromagnetic compatibility and safety requirements,” stated Carlos Pardo, CEO and Co-founder of KDPOF. “New safety precautions are needed, since even a single malfunction between the 48-volt and the 12-volt electrical system will lead to a short circuit, which can damage the entire 12-volt system due to overvoltage.” 

We look forward to meeting you in Munich. For arranging a meeting, please contact Óscar Ciordia.

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KDPOF’s optical connectivity provides galvanic isolation for Battery Management Systems and Smart Antenna Modules

Galvanic Isolation Secures New 48-volt Electrical Architectures

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KDPOF provide their optical connectivity technology in order to secure new 48-volt electrical architectures via the inherent galvanic isolation. “The new 48-volt electrical architecture pushes the envelope in terms of electromagnetic compatibility and safety requirements,” stated Carlos Pardo, CEO and Co-founder of KDPOF. “New safety precautions are needed, since even a single malfunction between the 48-volt and the 12-volt electrical system will lead to a short circuit, which can damage the entire 12-volt system due to overvoltage.” Optical connections with POF, such as KDPOF’s innovative Automotive Gigabit Ethernet POF (GEPOF), provide the optimal means to achieve galvanic isolation, providing 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps Ethernet compatible solutions with enough margin to withstand the harsh automotive environment. Applications such as Battery Management Systems (BMS) and Integrated Smart Antenna (ISA) modules profit from the inherent Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) of POF. KDPOF will present their GEPOF technology at the Automotive Ethernet Congress on February 13 and 14, 2019 in Munich, Germany.

48 Volts Generate Need for Galvanic Isolation

The chassis is a common ground potential for all 48-volt ECUs in the car. As the chassis has a non-zero impedance, a significant return current will be conducted through it, and a portion of this return current will find its way through a parallel path: the copper cables‘ shielding. “An OEM has stated that the shield of Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) cables can conduct more than 8A of return current due to the 48-volt jump start effect,” added Carlos Pardo. 

In addition, the need for a ubiquitous communications network within the vehicle, and particularly between ECUs belonging to different voltage domains, represents a source of potential hazards. Thus, it imposes the additional requirement of galvanic isolation between the communicating nodes. Any event that could cause the 48-volt to cross into the 12-volt, for example due to line transceivers that don’t provide sufficient galvanic isolation, might destroy the ECUs in the 12-volt domain. 

With regulations driving car companies to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions further by 2021, a new hybrid architecture concept based on a two-voltage power line (12-/48-volt) is already in the advanced marketing announcements of OEMs and Tier-1. As a further example of this new industry-wide technological trend towards 48V power supply and the handling of it, the German VDA published recommendation 320, which covers electric and electronic components in vehicles for the development of a 48-volt power supply. It defines requirements, test conditions and tests performed on electric, electronic and mechatronic components and systems for use in motor vehicles with a 48-volt on-board power supply. 

Battery Management Systems 

Galvanic isolation is also necessary between the primary and secondary systems of both ac-dc and dc-dc converters due to the presence of hazardous high voltage (above 25 Vac or 60 Vdc). According to the FMVSS 305 and ECE-R standards, the isolation barrier between the battery and exposed conductive parts should maintain 500 Ω/V before and after a crash impact. “This is a tough requirement that is very hard to reach without a nearly perfect isolation that copper-based networks are unable to ensure,” added Carlos Pardo. Moreover, the BMS is a very noisy environment and communications are susceptible to disturbance by conducted and radiated RF emissions. Optical communications have been demonstrated to be the most robust regarding EMC.

Smart Antenna Modules

Integrated Smart Antenna (ISA) Modules consist of several antennas for signal reception, an Antenna Hub, and an Ethernet connection to the consumers of the antenna signals such as a radio device. If each of the several antennas in a car is routed to its respective ECU with its own cable, the complexity soon becomes unacceptable. The Antenna Hub routes all signals from each antenna to an Ethernet network connected to all receptors of the signals. Gigabit Ethernet over POF is ideally suited for an Ethernet connection due to its natural EMC-free property. “In conventional systems, if the roof is not metallic, or has openings, an immense amount of energy is radiated by the coaxial cable that is coupled back into the ISA. This seriously degrades the ISA performance,” explained Carlos Pardo. Replacing the coaxial cable with POF completely solves this issue.

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JASPAR approves compliance for KDPOF automotive optical Gigabit Ethernet KD1053

KDPOF Automotive Optical Gigabit Ethernet Receives Compliance Approval from JASPAR

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JASPAR (Japan Automotive Software Platform and Architecture) announced that KDPOF’s automotive optical Gigabit Ethernet technology has successfully achieved their conformance tests. With the KD1053, KDPOF provides the first IEEE® Std 802.3bv compliant automotive 1000BASE-RHC PHY to deliver 1 Gbit/s data rates over Plastic Optical Fiber (POF). Hideki Goto, Chairman of JASPAR’s Next Generation High-Speed Network Working Group and Group Manager at Toyota stated: “KDPOF’s optical network solution greatly improves the speed of automotive networks and moves beyond obsolete, lagging networking protocols. Optical Ethernet technology is ideal for future in-vehicle network infrastructure, since it provides a radiation-free harness, and thus meets prerequisites concerning electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). Higher speeds are achieved by wider use of the electromagnetic spectrum, which forces OEMs to impose more and more stringent emissions limits on electronic components.”

KD1053 1000BASE-RHC Automotive Ethernet PHY Surpasses Stringent Operational Performance Benchmarks Set by JASPAR

Established in 2004, JASPAR’s mission is to identify the common issues to be faced in the future by the car electronics sector and initiate standardization in order to resolve these issues and encourage the resulting objectives across the entire automotive industry. Among over 220 member companies are leading global carmakers and Tier1 suppliers such as Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, and Denso and so on.

Comprehensive EMC Testing

Diverse Tier1 and Tier2 carmakers have carried out evaluation tests on KDPOF’s KD1053-based development boards in coordination with JASPAR. The wide-ranging test scopes included EMC emissions and immunity tests, plus extreme temperature testing with standard automotive POF and optical connectors compliant with current ISO 21111-4 CD. EMC included radiated and conducted emissions (voltage and current), bulk current injection (BCI) testing, radiated RF immunity, and portable handy transmitters immunity. In addition, electrostatic discharge (ESD) and transient pulses were performed. The KD1053 solution achieved all test standards by a remarkable margin.

Automotive Innovation Roadmap

“Our core objective at JASPAR is to generate an environment that enables those serving the Japanese automotive sector to cooperate and push automotive innovation further,” added Hideki Goto. “We are very pleased with the results achieved with this joint test project.” 

About JASPAR 
Focused on the Japanese automotive market, JASPAR was established in order to pursue increasing development efficiency and ensuring reliability, by standardization and common use of electronic control system software and in-vehicle networks as they become more advanced and complex. Engineering staff from various car manufacturers, research institutes, academic establishments, software developers, electrical equipment suppliers, and semiconductor vendors all participate in its activities. To learn more, please visit: www.jaspar.jp/en/about_us

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