NXP intros partial networking solution for vehicles

EINDHOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS: As governments around the world call for a reduction in CO2 emissions from vehicles, auto manufacturers are increasingly focused on finding ways to produce more environmentally-friendly vehicles. As such, car manufacturers are now pushing for CAN Partial Networking – a major innovation in power efficiency – to become an industry standard via ISO and AUTOSAR.

Chip specialist NXP Semiconductors N.V. announced the first NWP ISO 11898-6 and AUTOSAR R3.2.1 compliant solution supporting CAN Partial Networking.

The stand-alone TJA1145 CAN transceiver and integrated system basis chip UJA1168 – the world’s first highly integrated solution to support CAN Partial Networking – give design engineers precision control over a vehicle’s bus communication network. By intelligently de-activating those electronic control units (ECUs) that are currently not needed, engineers are able to significantly reduce vehicle fuel consumption and CO2 emissions without sacrificing performance or consumer experience.

In current in-vehicle networking architectures, all ECUs are always active and consuming power when the vehicle is in use. This is the case even if the applications they control aren’t continuously required, such as seat positioning, sun roof operation, window lifting etc.

CAN Partial Networking changes this model by activating only those ECUs that are functionally required, while the other ECUs remain in a low-power mode until needed. This equates to significant savings in power consumption, reducing costs, wiring and CO2 emissions. CAN Partial Networking is also extremely beneficial for electric and hybrid vehicles as it helps extending their operating range and optimizing charging time.

At a major international automotive conference held in Ludwigsburg, Germany, June 2011, Audi, BMW, Daimler, Porsche, and Volkswagen made a public announcement in favour of establishing new industry standards. Ricky Hudi, managing E/E director at Audi, appealed to semiconductor suppliers and engineering partners to actively support the rapid introduction of CAN partial networking architectures and solutions.

"CAN Partial Networking is an area where we see great potential for energy savings,” says Ricky Hudi. “In addition, intelligent wake-up concepts improve the lifetime of ECUs and increase the operating reach of electrical vehicles. Audi and Volkswagen corporations have therefore started to introduce Partial Networking into the next generation of car models. Audi estimates a mid-term reduction potential on CO2 emissions of about 2.6 g/km and fuel savings of 0.11 litres/100km, when using CAN Partial Networking."

Kurt Sievers, senior vice president and general manager Automotive, NXP Semiconductors, comments: “CAN Partial Networking is a real game-changing innovation in in-vehicle electronics, enabling a level of intelligent control over ECUs not previously possible. NXP is proud to lead the market by being the first company to deliver an ISO compliant CAN Partial Networking solution.”

TJA1145 and UJA1168 are next-generation networking solutions, which combine both analogue circuitry and high digital density circuits. TJA1145 is a high-speed CAN transceiver, while UJA1168 is a CAN system basis chip with 5V/100mA microcontroller supply. Both support CAN Partial Networking by enabling “Selective wake-up” and “Selective sleep” functionality. Both chips come with a small footprint based on the HVSON14 package. For backward compatibility reasons, the TJA1145 is also available in the SO14 package.

Engineering samples for TJA1145 and UJA1168 are currently available with volume shipping in 2012.