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Doubling or quadrupling the present 12V electrical system provides advantages and disadvantages to many components, and to systems that utilize these components. The effect that this increase has on vehicle electronics starts at the semiconductor component level. Several design implications including technology tradeoffs must be evaluated, and the cost impact on silicon area, processing complexity, and current process limitations considered. This paper focuses on the impact of increasing the system voltage to 24V or 48V with and without centralized load dump transient suppression. The semiconductor devices principally affected are transient suppression devices, power semiconductors, smart power ICs and linear drivers. In addition, the effect of a change in system voltage on MCUs, DSPs, memory devices, and other interface circuits will be discussed.

AC and DC motor drive electronics for electric vehicles are reviewed, as well as heatsink design criteria and motor control diagnostics. The microcontroller architectures and the motor drive programs, such as vector control or V/F, reveal trade-offs between bit lengths, clock speed, and conversion times. This paper will also focus on possible performance improvements with advanced semiconductor devices. Recent progression in power IGBT modules have improved the ease of interfacing to the power module with internal control circuits. These “smart” modules are more difficult to manufacture and place pre-defined limits on circuit flexibility. An alternative modular approach is shown.

Speed and torque control electronics for vehicular motor applications requires high performance-to-cost designs. This paper focuses on advanced motor control electronics that incorporate new motor control specific micro-processor architectures. The performance and design considerations of these new advanced products in an AC induction multiphase motor design are presented and are applicable for an electric vehicle's power steering, HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning), and propulsion systems.