Seat control module
The seat and its functions are an essential part of cabin comfort and safety and as one of the direct interfaces to the driver and passengers, it is an important contributor to the user experience and a differentiator for the car-makers. Today, high-end seats combine applications for:
- Seat adjustment or seat movement, e.g., the setting of position, height, length, width, angle, back angle, and also headrest position and angle
- Seat comfort, e.g. dynamic bolsters, lumbar support, massage, heating, cooling and/or ventilation, “air-scarf”, entry aid, and individualized adjustment memory
- Seat safety functions such as seatbelt pretensioner, which are part of the vehicle safety system
- Seat passenger detection, several sensors are the built-in seat and feedback to the system for more safety and reliability
As modern seat modules take on additional functions, they have a comparable complexity to body control modules with similar challenges in meeting requirements for supply, communication, sense, actuation and control, and quiescent current targets. To manage seat control modules in the smallest space and with the lowest power dissipation and low quiescent current, integration of functions is one of the key factors for design.
The Infineon product portfolio here is best prepared and offers many product families with high integration:
- OPTIREG™ SBC (System Basis Chip) gathers in one product a system supply, communication interface, diagnosis, switching functions, and failsafe output with the best-in-class quiescent current.
- MOTIX™ DC Motor System IC combines supply, communication, diagnosis, switching functions, and failsafe output along with half-bridge gate drives
- MOTIX™ Multi MOSFET Driver IC to control up to eight Half-Bridges (with external MOSFETs) with best-in-class quiescent current
- MOTIX™ Single half-bridge IC, low ohmic protected single Half-Bridge Switch (with integrated MOSFETs)
As with many power motor control designs, one of the critical aspects is controlling EMC emissions during PWM operation. The Infineon MOTIX™ products here (Single half-bridge IC, Multi MOSFET Driver IC, and DC Motor System IC) include features (e.g. Adaptive MOSFET Control) that avoid the compromise between EMC performance and power dissipation.
An additional challenge for the seat module designer is the increasing number of configurable variants driven by a car manufacturer’s platform strategy. To easily support the diverse variants with a single PCB design, scalability within product families has become necessary. Infineon’s TRAVEO™ T2G MCU family has a range of memory and I/O capabilities to support a flexible platform design, and the PROFET™ family of smart high side power switches, for example, has the most scalable portfolio of high side switches in the market.
The monitoring functions of the seat control are found off-board, outside of the main ECU, such as XENSIV™ Hall sensors for tracking seat position, or XENSIV™ absolute pressure sensors which indicate the state of air bladders used in lumbar adjustment, massage, or active bolster control.
