Ronak Desai, Cypress Semiconductor
EETimes (1/31/2012 3:00 AM EST)
This article discusses the design of a control system featuring a microcontroller plus ASIC or microcontroller plus programmable logic SoC for an automotive electric power steering system. Such a system receives the "ignition" (steering "drive" command) input from the user plus vehicle inputs through a CAN transceiver and drives a three-phase brushless motor.
Using available processing headroom, the MCU can also perform battery monitoring, temperature sensing, direct drive LED or LCD display with temperature, battery status, speed value, and distance and error/warning messages. This feature discusses design techniques as well as design challenges for such an automotive electric power steering control system.