Wire protection in automotive power distribution

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Innovating automotive power distribution with Infineon's advanced wire protection solutions

Protecting the wire harness from over-temperature damage is crucial to prevent potential serious injuries and severe damage to the car, its passengers and its surrounding. Traditional melting fuses and relays were sufficient in the past and present architectures, but they are no longer adequate for the increasing functionalities, safety requirements, and the evolution of automotive power distribution into zone architectures. The advancements in the automotive industry, such as software-defined vehicles, green mobility, and automated driving, demand more functionalities that require dependable power supply. Furthermore, the growing number of functional-safety requirements has made wire protection increasingly critical.

On-demand Webinar - Automotive wire protection
Automotive wire protection solutions with PROFET™ wire guard & SPOC™ wire guard
December 11, 2024
10:00 ( CEST )

Infineon Smart Power Switches Tools:

Automotive Power Explorer
Infineon Smart Power Switches EiceDRIVER™ 2ED241

All you need to know about automotive wire protection

Infineon emphasizes the importance of wire protection in automotive power distribution, as wires are mandatory to deliver power to various components. Traditional methods like fuses have limitations, such as slow reaction time and lack of correlation with the wire's thermal capability. As automotive mega-trends like connectivity, e-mobility, and automated driving evolve, accurate wire protection with fast fault isolation becomes increasingly important, requiring compliance with future zone architectures. Wire harness optimization is also crucial, as traditional wire protection methods often require over-dimensioned wires, leading to increased weight and costs. Infineon's solutions offer accurate wire protection possibilities for wire diameter optimization, standalone hardware protection, and adjustable and resettable protection over software. Infineon's smart power switches and controllers enable OEMs to optimize their wire harness design, reduce system costs, and improve overall performance by reducing power dissipation.

Wire-Guard-Video-Wire-Protection-with-Demonstrator
Wire-Guard-Video-Wire-Protection-with-Demonstrator
Wire-Guard-Video-Wire-Protection-with-Demonstrator

Infineon's PROFET™ Wire Guard offers advanced wire protection for time-dependent load current profiles with long time inrush currents, eliminating the need for melting fuses. It provides precise wire stress surveillance, reduces wire diameters, and saves weight and cost of the wire harness. The device calculates wire temperature increase independently, reducing microcontroller effort and enabling faster reaction to overcurrent events. For this, PROFET™ Wire Guard features an integrated thermal model of typical automotive wires, enabling very precise wire protection by comparing the wire stress to the internal thermal model. The I²t characteristic of the connected wire can be selected through an external R-C circuit, making it adjustable to system requirements. In addition to the smart power switch family, the EiceDriver™ APD 2ED2410-EM, an automotive gate driver for automotive power distribution, is equipped with selectable I-t protection, offering a precise solution for wire protection in high-current applications. Both PROFET™ Wire Guard and 2ED2420-EM feature an automatic idle mode where current consumption falls to approximately 50 µA, ensuring power supply in parking mode without microcontroller support.

Infineon’s SPOC™ Wire Guard takes integrated I²t wire protection to the next level, enabling precise shaping of the wire protection curve according to system requirements, taking wire, PCB traces and even connectors into consideration. The SPI interface allows for software-based live configuration of various protection features, dependent on the system status, longing for highest power distribution flexibility. In combination with further features, like fast commanded switch off for advanced power supply protection, the ISO 26262-compliant SPOC™ Wire Guard family advances the transition to software-defined vehicles, in combination with fail-operational zone architectures. First devices will be available on the market in 2026.

Products, such as Infineon’s BTG70x0-yEPL devices provide microcontroller-independent wire protection for time-independent load current profiles through adjustable overcurrent protection, which limits the current below the maximum current capability of the wire connected. This hardware-based wire protection functionality ensures efficiency by not requiring the microcontroller to sample the current permanently. For loads with larger capacitive shares, the CLS mode allows the device safe capacitor charging without triggering overall temperature protection, staying in the safe operating area. This solution offers wire protection for time-independent load current profiles, even with larger capacitive shares.

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_Collaterals-SPOC
_Collaterals-SPOC
_Collaterals-PROFET-2
_Collaterals-PROFET-2
_Collaterals-PROFET-2

Accurate current feedback to the microcontroller allows for precise, semiconductor-based wire protection

Infineon's smart power switches and controllers, including automotive gate drivers, such as PROFET™, SPOC™, or EiceDRIVER™ APD devices, provide accurate current sense feedback [kILIs] to the microcontroller for software-based wire protection in automotive power distribution. The microcontroller calculates the temperature increase of the connected wire and signals the Infineon device to shut down when the wire temperature reaches the maximum threshold. This solution offers improved precision and reliability for wire protection, allows close monitoring of the wire temperature, and enables wire optimization, reducing system costs and improving overall performance. The current sense feedback also facilitates tracking of the working load by the microcontroller.

Start your design-In activities now with Infineon's Smart Power Switches & Gate Driver Tool Suite, including the Infineon Smart Power Switches PROFET™ Guard Tool, Infineon Smart Power Switches Easy APE Pro, Infineon Smart Power Switches Load and Wire Entry Tool, and Infineon Smart Power Switches Intrinsic Fuse Tool. These tools simplify the design-In process for automotive power distribution, offering selection, simulation, documentation, and verification capabilities to streamline your project.

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1. Documents

PROFET™ Wire Guard

PROFET™ Wire Guard

PROFET™ Load Guard

PROFET™ Load Guard

PROFET™ +2

PROFET™ +2

EiceDRIVER™ APD

EiceDRIVER™ APD

2. Application Notes

2. Application Notes

3. Simulation Models

3. Simulation Models

4. Evaluation Boards

BTG7003A-1EPW DB
BTG7016A-1EPW DB
PROFET ONE4ALL MB V1
BTG7050-2EPL DAUGH BRD
BTG7050-2EPL DAUGH BRD
EB 2ED2410 3M
2ED4820 EB2 2HSV48
BTS7200-2EPC DAUGH BRD
BTS7200-2EPC DAUGH BRD