Design for reliability - how to

get rid of gremlins!

Best design practices for automotive electronics
Hai-Yue Han
Topics
● Connectors
● Automotive rated parts
● Passives selection
● Over current
● Over voltage
● ESD, surge and input protection
● Decoupling caps
● High side switch
● Watchdogs/Power On Reset
● Touch screen user interface
● Communications
● Electronics architecture for field service
● Board rework
● Wire harnesses
● Test fixtures
● Diagnostic tools
Connectors - terminal position assurance (TPA)

● Terminals will back out of connectors under vibration

● Use connectors with TPA to make sure terminals don’t back out
● Favorite line: Molex Nanofit, Microfit, Minifit with TPA
Bad!!
Good!
Connectors - things to avoid
High current connectors

● Anderson PowerPole connectors work well

for vehicle applications
30A Connectors
● Used in race cars, solar cars, and other
custom vehicles
● They are not waterproof, but are robust
● Always recommended stranded wire gauge
● For very high current connections use
solder and a blow torch to attach wire to
terminal

350A Connectors
AEC-Q
● Parts that are rated “AEC-Q” are designed,
rated and produced with automotive
applications
● High temp range, high vibration rated, high
reliability
● Choose AEC-Q for relays, semiconductors,
passives, connectors whenever possible; only
choose non AEC-Q when you have no other
option
○ Relays need to be rated for road vibe; critical to get
AEC-Q
● One of the most vulnerable component in car
and most overlooked: decoupling capacitors
Passives selection (too big = crack)

● Large passives will crack under

vibration
● Rule of thumb: do not exceed 1206
surface mount package without FEA
(e.g. ANSYS Sherlock)
● If you need more capacitance or heat
dissipation from resistors, split up into
multiple components in series/parallel
Overcurrent protection - fuse types

● Know what you are protecting against; most overcurrent events comes from
damaged harnesses
● Thermal fuse
○ Pros: cheap
○ Cons: large trip range based on temperatures
● PTC resettable fuse
○ Pros: cheap, resettable
○ Cons: large trip range based on temperatures (including board geometry)
● E-fuse
○ Pros: Precise trip point, resettable, some have current monitoring
○ Cons: slightly expensive, but very much worth it
Over current protection - fuse locations and rating

● Fuse at the source of current (otherwise fuse does no good)

● Beware of derating curve (especially on the high side)
Over voltage protection - types of devices

● Over voltage protection actually over current device in parallel with something
that makes a short circuit when a high voltage is applied to it
● TVS
○ Open circuit below breakdown voltage
○ Closed circuit above breakdown voltage
○ Useful for low voltage protection
● MOV
○ Open circuit below breakdown voltage
○ Closed circuit above breakdown voltage
○ Useful for high voltage protection (less precision on trip point)
○ Self sacrificial (has energy rating)
Over voltage protection - typical circuit

● Electricity flows the path of least resistance - load is protected by TVS/MOV

Input protection (surge, ESD, over voltage)

● Use clamp diodes to shunt excess energy to VCC or ground

● Current limiting resistor in series to prevent diode and power rails from
overloading
Decoupling caps - location is crucial

● Capacitor is variable resistor with

respect to frequency; higher the
frequency, the lower the resistance
● Electricity flows path of least
resistance; want capacitor to be able to
dissipate high frequency noise
● Ensure to add decoupling caps to
reset line on uC - noise, ESD, etc can
reset uC when do you don’t want it
● Make sure caps are rated for applied
voltage with at least 25% margin (12V
nominal must have 16V rated caps)
High side switch - much better than a MOSFET

● Current limited, high side

on/off switch with current
sense feedback
● Used heavily in modern
electric cars
● Still need recirculating diode
between Vout and GND if
driving inductive load (e.g.
horns, motors, fans, etc)
High side switch - much better than a MOSFET

● Current sense feedback:

○ Provide “anti-jam” feature for motors
being controlled by uC (higher motor
current = higher torque; uC can be
programmed to cut off EN switch at
certain current)
○ Useful for diagnostics (e.g. higher
currents over time can mean part
wearing out)
● Also has voltage sense and temp
feedback
● Just so much better than a FET
Watch dogs/power on reset
● Microcontrollers need to be reset after power on
because registers can be in a weird state due to
ramping supply voltage
● Microcontroller also need to be reset if they’re frozen;
watchdog timer hits the reset button if it’s not
regularly “pet” by code
● There are combo circuits that perform both functions
- ADM8316 is a good example
● Be careful about watchdog behavior in safety critical
applications such as BMS and motor controllers; a
reset can cause loss of power or mechanical damage
of motor and vehicle when inverter is reset (e.g.
uncontrolled regen)
Touch screen user interface simplifies cockpit hardware

● Use a tablet or single board

computer for cockpit display,
rear view camera and control
● Fewer switches, harnesses
connectors to break
● Allows for user interface
redesign without electronics
hardware work
Communications - CAN network

● Two wire differential , 120 ohm terminated

loop
● Highly robust, tons of debug software
● Compact data transfer
○ AAALDDDDDDDDCRC
○ <Address, length, data, CRC>
○ Example: 4508F1E6BFCA
Communications - PCAN Explorer (or CANapy)
Electronics architecture for field service
First and second gen Tesla Model S/X Tesla Model 3/Y and new Model S/X (probably)

Blinkers
CAN + power Lighting Blinkers Blinkers Lighting Blinkers

Body
Horn
Cockpit controller
Horn
controls

Wires Wires

CAN + power Cockpit

Blinkers Blinkers Blinkers Blinkers
controls

● Generalized microcontroller + switch ● Specialized body controller + wires

modules ● More wiring
● Easy for field service on side of road ● Complex board
● Higher cost
Board rework

● Use thin gauge (30 AWG) transformer

wire for logic level reworks
● Use UV cure adhesive pen to tack
down long wires, components floating
on board, etc.
● Can use quick turn PCBs to perform
complex patches (definitely
solder/glue patch board to main
board)
Wire harnesses

● Splice using solder heat shrink

butt connectors
● Use automotive electrical tape
(high temp)
● Do not leave harness any
freedom to rattle; this will
eventually wear out the harness
insulation and cause a short
circuit
Fixtures for electronics testing

● Make fixture with correct harness

lengths for all electronics boards
on test bench
● Allows electronics team to be
unblocked if car isn’t done
● Can test all electronics of the car
on bench, then transfer known
working electronics hardware,
harness and firmware to car
Diagnostics tools - for when things fail anyways

● ShortSniffer
○ Electricity flows path of least resistance
○ Shortsniffer injects audible signal onto circuit
and has inductive wand to pick up where the
signal goes
○ Useful for finding shorts in: harnesses, board
components, ECUs, and anything else
● FLIR infrared camera
○ Finds short circuits on boards
○ Finds solar cell hot spots
○ Identify loose connectors (high series
resistance on high current wires)
Appendix
MOSFETs as a switch
● MOSFETs can act as electronic
“on/off” switch
● N-FET:
○ When voltage between gate and
source is above threshold: very low
resistance between drain and
source
○ Between 0V and threshold: variable
resistor
○ Zero volts: very high resistance
between drain and source
● Use N-FET to connect the load’s
negative terminal to ground
MOSFETs as a switch
● Important parameters:
○ Drain to source breakdown voltage
■ Higher than this voltage and MOSFET can short
○ Drain to source on resistance:
■ RDSON: resistance of FET when it’s on
○ Gate threshold voltage:
■ VGS(TH): the voltage in which MOSFET mostly stops being a variable resistor
■ Max threshold: the max voltage MOSFET could still be a variable resistor
■ Check RDSON for values; typical gate voltages are listed there. Look for logic level FETs for
easy of implementation (FETs designed to be activated with 3.3V or 5V)

More info here

MOSFETs as a switch - gotchas

● Need gate resistor (usually pull down)

○ No gate resistor = variable gate voltage if not driven
● Heat sink
○ Need to be soldered down to board with vias or attached to
heat sink typically (or else FET could over heat)
● FET will conduct from source to drain as a diode!
● Add recirculating diode and snubber on load being
controlled (especially bad for inductive loads)
Isolation

● Used for safety as well as ground loop

isolation
● Usually used in between high voltage
ground (BMS) and low voltage ground
microcontrollers
● Power supply must also be separate or
have isolated power supply - SN6501 in
conjunction with isolation transformer is a
good solution