Vol. 20, No. 9◆◆ www.hansenreport.com November 2007 Fiat to Make Supercaps Show Promise in Blue&Me Standard Automotive Applications Some favorable news for supercapacitor company uses supercaps in fuel-cell ve- Microsoft Sets Deep Automotive Roots developers came recently from BMW and hicles under development, and currently According to Fiat, Microsoft has made Mercedes. Both have said that by 2010 or has no plans to use them in either hybrids real progress in its long and sometimes 2011 they will use supercapacitors, and or conventional vehicles. painful efforts to break into the auto elec- not just on hybrid vehicles. Mercedes told tronics industry. Working with Microsoft The Hansen Report that the carmaker is Maxwell Technologies in the Market on Blue&Me, a hands-free connectivity likely to use supercaps to stabilize voltage Valeo’s next-generation StARS platform allowing drivers to safely operate during peak load conditions, to bridge the (starter alternator reversible system), mobile phones and media players by voice interval when not enough energy is com- which can accommodate regenerative or with steering-wheel-mounted switches, ing from the alternator. Voltage stabiliza- braking, will make use of supercapacitors, Fiat achieved “quality we rarely found in tion is also on BMW’s agenda, as is using most likely from Maxwell Technologies. the past for radios, navigation systems or supercaps to power the stop-start function Maxwell, based in San Diego, California, other infotainment devices,” according to and to store recovered brake energy. is already serving a number of commercial Fiat’s top electrical engineer, Gianpiero Unlike batteries, which provide energy markets for supercaps. This past summer Oberto. for long periods of time, supercaps are suf- Valeo and Maxwell signed a memorandum Intent on expanding its markets be- ficient when power is required for only a of understanding covering a proposed yond the home, office and mobile phone short period of time, less than 20 seconds, multiyear development and supply agree- environments into cars, Microsoft began and are widely used in consumer electron- ment through which Valeo will source a working on automotive applications of its ics devices to protect data from being lost multicell supercapacitor energy storage Windows CE operating system in 1995. It during short power outages. module from Maxwell. The Valeo starter wasn’t a smooth transition. In early 1999, A 23.3-farad, 12-volt package of alternator uses ten 2,000-farad superca- after a later-than-expected start, Clarion supercapacitors measuring 170 mm by 150 pacitor cells per vehicle. Shipments could shipped the first Microsoft AutoPC to the mm by 70 mm is employed on the Toyota start in 2009, in time for the 2010 model aftermarket, but because sales were abys- Prius as a power backup for the electroni- year. mally low, Clarion subsequently withdrew cally controlled brakes. It is supplied by In September 2007, Maxwell Tech- the product from the market. Later, in Panasonic EV Energy Co., a joint ven- nologies announced that it had been 2003, Bosch ran into so many problems ture between Matsushita Group and awarded a contract by the Mercedes Car with the launch of its new Windows CE- Toyota, which owns 60%. Group to design and produce supercapac- based navigation system that Mercedes While Toyota does use supercaps in its itors for an advanced hybrid-electric had to hold up start-of-production of its Prius, a top electrical engineer from drivetrain program incorporating a brak- new E-Class. The conventional wisdom at Toyota told us the company has no con- ing energy recuperation system. Maxwell the time was that when it comes to the crete plans to use them in non-hybrid ve- said it has several other development automotive environment, Microsoft just hicles. A top EE from Honda said that his Turn to Supercaps, page 8 didn’t get it. But Microsoft persisted. In 2003 it be- Supercapacitors: Features and Applications gan working with Fiat on a reference de- Features Applications sign for a new infotainment system. ◆ Rapid recharging (seconds) ◆ Voltage stabilization throughout the vehicle Blue&Me is based on the Microsoft Auto ◆ Millions of charge-discharge cycles ◆ Provide battery augmentation for electric (formerly called Windows Mobile for Au- ◆ Deliver quick bursts of energy for up to power steering, air conditioning and other tomotive) software platform consisting of 20 seconds peak current users at point of use to Windows CE and a number of application ◆ Good cold temperature performance minimize wiring specific interfaces. It supports most down to minus 40 degrees C ◆ Recuperative brake energy storage Bluetooth mobile phones and provides ◆ Require no maintenance ◆ Provide starter current for stop-start spoken audio output of SMS messages. ◆ Made from nontoxic materials function ◆ Turn to Microsoft, page 3 Battery backup for electric brakes Mentor Graphics’ Tools Automate Wiring Harness Design Twenty-first century automotive elec- A typical automobile may have as wide. All the major wiring harness suppli- tronics innovation has consistently come many as 70 logical systems. A radio, a ers are using CHS to some degree. While by way of the Germans, and, to a lesser lighting system or ABS, for example, each at least five major carmakers are in the extent, the Japanese. Here is an American requires its own logical system. Mr. process of deploying CHS, Ford and company with a product in the global O’Brien explained, “An engineer design- Peugeot Citroën are two that have made market today that offers carmakers poten- ing a logical system for a radio, for in- public statements about their plans. Men- tial savings in vehicle cost, weight and stance, knows he needs power, ground, a tor describes CHS’s market position cur- engineering man hours, as well as in- signal that goes from the control unit to rently as in the early stage of mass creased electrical system reliability. Due each speaker. He needs to take power adoption and the mature stage of launch. largely to the success of its CHS (Capital from the battery. At that stage of design, Harness Systems) tool suite, Mentor you don’t consider how that logical system Wiring Trends Graphics’ Integrated Electrical Systems is going to be implemented in a vehicle.” Being on the front lines of electrical division is growing five times faster than The physical implementation, includ- distribution system design, Mentor the company as a whole and “many times” ing the size, length and type of wire, the Graphics is well-positioned to observe faster than the automotive electronics routing, fusing, the location, size, type and what trends and changes are underway in market, according to Martin O’Brien, the number of connectors—is dependent on wiring harness technology. Mr. O’Brien division’s general manager. many factors and varies widely. “Only and Mr. Duffy mentioned these: Founded in 1981, Mentor Graphics, Mentor has the ability to take those logi- ◆ Wiring harness manufacturing will based in Wilsonville, Oregon, is publicly cal systems, and, using a rule-based para- remain labor intensive, although design traded on the NASDAQ. With more than digm, simply allocate them en masse into data is already widely used to automate 4,000 employees, the company maintains the vehicle—physically allocate all the verification and final continuity checks. 28 engineering facilities and 48 sales of- devices from the system, hook them up In the future, tools like CHS will facilitate fices worldwide. Sales in 2006 were logically, and convert that to wiring, auto- data flow to cutting and marking equip- $791.6 million. Mentor Graphics is the matically,” he added. ment as well, increasing the focus on de- world’s number-one supplier of printed OEMs and tier-one suppliers can use sign for manufacture. circuit board design tools. Mentor’s CHS tools not only to optimize ◆ Mentor sees continuing integration Along with increased complexity of the electrical architecture of a vehicle of electronics such as semiconductor- vehicle electrical and electronics systems, wiring harness and verify its performance, based fusing and more electronics content whether a result of safety and environ- but also to keep track of running changes in junction boxes. mental legislation or consumers’ desire for throughout the design cycle, including ◆ Wireless communications only makes more versatile infotainment systems and changes required to accommodate op- sense for the portable consumer devices connectivity, carmakers are offering a tional features that vary from model to Turn to Mentor, page 8 greater number of choices in options and model. Plus, CHS has the ability to cap- variants within model lines and trim lev- ture a company’s specific in-house design els. According to Mentor Graphics, it is practices as customized design rules, becoming very difficult for carmakers’ in- which ensures that the designs are correct © 2007 Paul Hansen Associates, 150 house IT departments to support a design from inception. Pinehurst Rd., Portsmouth, NH 03801, tool flow that can efficiently handle that According to Mentor, since its launch USA. Telephone: 603-431-5859. Fax: 603- level of complexity in wiring harness de- in 2003, CHS has been warmly received 431-5791. Email: [email protected]. sign, and the OEMs are increasingly turn- at the OEMs, and even more so at the All rights reserved. Materials may not be ing to outside tool vendors for help. tier-one wiring harness suppliers world- reproduced in any form without written per- mission. The Hansen Report on Automotive Benefits of Design with CHS CHS Electronics is published 10 times a year, Mentor Graphics believes it provides a ◆ Optimized, more robust design of the monthly; July/August and December/Janu- unique solution in its CHS tool suite. harness ary are combined issues. The annual print ◆ While traditional schematic tools have Automated synthesis of wiring—physical subscription rate is $747 (North America), implementation has a big impact on cost, been widely used in wiring design for sev- $787 (elsewhere).