Filament bulbs are becoming an outdated technology now. Modern lamps are typically equipped with LED light sources. Thanks to that automotive lamps can be more power efficient however, another LED advantage is more important in reality. These light sources allow for much higher optical and shape design flexibility. It is obvious, that exterior lighting is an important contributor in the modern look of a vehicle.
There are many areas that must be defined before hardware engineer starts development. Legal and customer requirements are the most important input data for the overall design. Internal design rules or lessons learned are additional ones. Considering a huge amount of interdisciplinary documents, a requirement management and verification system is necessary. ASPICE process must me mentioned at this point however, it will not be described here as that is not a scope of this article.
Considering the fact that the final product is a result of multi domain development, hardware design cannot be isolated. All domains are usually dependent and cooperation is necessary. Coordination between domains is partially governed by System Engineering.
The above items are constrains defined by mechanical and optical engineering group. There are also additional interesting aspects in this area, providing additional constrains. Internal connector location depends not only on mechanical construction and harness routing, but also on assembly process. In many cases internal harnesses are mounted manually in the lamp. This process cannot be difficult for the operator, so connectors must be easily accessible. In addition, if multiple connectors having the same pin count are used, colour coding or other method preventing improper assembly must be selected.
Typically, a rear lamp has only one connector, which covers all the signals needed to connect to the vehicle. Currently there are three main approaches to the lamp control, which are strictly related to the Body Controller Module present in the vehicle and light function diagnostic strategy.
Depending on the selected approach, electrical architecture of the lamp differs significantly. In addition to that there are further factors influencing design.
Power dissipation limits are primarily determined by mechanical design (heat transfer through the housing) and environmental conditions (maximum ambient temperature and driving scenarios).
Each customer has own specifications Electromagnetic Compatibility and Environmental testing. In most cases these specifications refer to well-known ISO or other general standards however, some tests are excluded or included and test details are modified.
Even, if it is only about details, details are critical and electrical design depends on them. In addition to that, there are also customer specific tests, not related to any general standard.
The lamp behaviour cannot be misleading for other road users. This is a typical safety goal. Below there are two examples of possible consequences, if a safety goal is violated.
Usually, the strategy assumes that the lamp detects its own malfunction, turns off the affected lighting function, and reports it to the Body Controller Module, which then relays the information to the driver by activating a tell-tale indicator. However, this typical case is not always applicable. The customer should define, among other things:product functionalities subjected to Functional Safety
Product functions subject to Functional Safety are developed in cooperation with a Functional Safety engineer, who oversees the hardware and software domains for this purpose.
Although cybersecurity primarily concerns software, it also has implications for hardware. In addition to specific hardware design guidelines, the selection of microcontrollers may be influenced by security-related features required to achieve compliance with applicable cybersecurity requirements.
Similar to Functional Safety, ensuring compliance with cybersecurity requirements during product development necessitates the involvement of a dedicated cybersecurity engineer.
Each production line has defined capabilities, and every production step incurs cost. Therefore, the design should ensure manufacturability and cost optimization (considering both the BOM and the assembly line perspectives). The list of items below is intended to provide a general overview
Most of the items above must be defined at the beginning of the project, in quotation phase, because it is a base for manufacturing plant or EMS selection and cost estimation.
It is clear that numerous factors must be defined before development begins. A precise design definition reduces uncertainties and minimizes questions during the development process. This is why only the most experienced engineers should be involved in a quotation phase of the project. It is to find cost-optimized architecture, anticipate all possible risk factors and mitigate them.
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