Automotive sensors come together onboard

A Bosch Automotive OE Division product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Oct 14, 2005

A new generation of automotive sensors allows several sensor elements to be individually combined and placed together - in a cluster - on a single printed circuit board within one housing.

Bosch has launched a new DRS MM3 generation of sensors, in which several sensor elements can be individually combined and placed together - in a cluster - on a single printed circuit board within one housing.

The micromechanically fabricated elements measure angular velocity and linear acceleration.

The flexible cluster structure means that the sensor elements can always be precisely adapted to the customer's requirements and to the equipment level of the vehicle.

The new MM3 generation of sensors thus always provides the precisely correct data required for the growing number of safety and convenience systems in modern automobiles.

Bosch began series production in the first half of 2005.

With its new sensor cluster, the world's leading automotive components supplier and electronics expert Bosch is entering new territory.

The flexible construction allows the detection of angular velocity and acceleration for different paths of force in the vehicle, depending on the customer's precise requirements for the system.

The sensor cluster is suitable for highly dynamic and highly precise systems such as the electronic stability program (ESP) or rollover prevention, but also for hill hold control and active steering.

Each of these systems requires a range of different sensor signals which can all be individually represented thanks to the capability of the DRS MM3 sensor generation to be individually configured.

The sensor signals are transmitted via a standard CAN interface and are thus available for all other functions and systems in the vehicle.

For the system of measurement Bosch relies on the tried and tested micromechanical processes.

The metering element of the angular velocity sensor is fabricated by the surface micromechanics technique and works on the Coriolis principle.

It uses the inertial moment of a vibrating mass in a rotating system.

The angular velocity sensor element is very resistant to mechanical failures and vibration thanks to its high operating frequency, its all-digital evaluation electronics and its closed loop control.

The metering element for the linear transverse and longitudinal acceleration uses the capacitive change in the micromechanical structures to measure vehicle acceleration.

The high resolution of signal detection and processing and the excellent noise behavior of the sensor allow a wide measurement range even under low transverse acceleration conditions.

The safety design of the DRS MM3 sensor cluster comprises the metering element, the evaluation electronics and the microcontroller.

This generation of sensor is designed to operate within a temperature range from -40 to +85C.

The power supply is 12V; power consumption is less than 200mA.

Further advantages are the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) and the compact design of the sensor elements, which allows them to be mounted directly on the printed circuit board.

Thanks to its robustness and its high level of flexibility, the DRS MM3 is ideally suited to automotive applications.