An SBC is the central supply of power and communication for microcontrollers within electronic control units (ECU) in cars. They are integrated circuits (IC) that combine voltage supplies, communication bus interfaces (CAN, LIN) and supervision features. By combining these three elements in one chip lower system costs are possible and the device has an 80 percent smaller design footprint compared to discrete solutions.
The Infineon Lite SBCs are entry level SBCs and incorporate one CAN transceiver to address a broad range of applications such as in-cabin wireless charger, NO x sensor, gear shifter or light control units. The Mid-Range+ SBCs are more powerful devices with one CAN and up to two LIN transceivers to support e.g. body control modules and gateway modules.
Recent developments in the automotive industry require increasingly faster communication capabilities. Originally, the CAN FD protocol was established for software updates during production and service events. Today, also the communication within the car and its connectivity to the outside world require an increased bandwidth and longer payload. For example, high-end front light applications such as matrix LED lighting require a large amount of data provided by camera systems and sensors to ensure a glare-free high beam.
In addition to high-speed communication, the new Infineon SBCs allow a lower power consumption. With their optional partial networking feature they reduce current consumption by putting the ECU in a sleep or stop mode when it is not needed. The Lite SBC family also features a charge pump to drive high side n-channel power MOSFETs. It can disconnect an external load during sleep mode in order to further reduce quiescent current.
All devices of the new SBC families include diagnostic and supervision features to support ECU functional safety concepts like under-voltage monitoring, window watchdog with reset, fail-safe operating mode and fail-safe output. Moreover, with the Mid-Range+ family external loads can be driven by four high-side switches.
The new Infineon SBCs offer high flexibility to designers. They are scalable regarding the number of communication interfaces and are software compatible with other Infineon SBC families such as the DCDC and Multi-CAN Power SBC families (TLE94x1, TLE926x & TLE927x).