Automotive products
e2v’s automotive heritage
e2v has been developing and producing automotive components for more than ten years. e2v’s product portfolio includes a wide range of quality products such as Gunn Diodes for adaptive cruise control, Air Quality Sensors, Microwave Motion sensors, CMOS Imaging Sensors and Mixed Signal ASICs for sensor data aquisition. e2v has a heritage and history of innovation, which continues today with its involvement in industry and research bodies striving to improve the safety, comfort, security, and performance of vehicles. e2v has strong links with universities resulting in industrial collaboration in a number of research projects.
Throughout e2v’s sixty-year history it has consistently shown a capability to innovate and bring the latest technology products to market. e2v is a leading worldwide supplier of RF, microwave, semiconductor and sensing components and sub-systems. e2v’s scientists and engineers are highly respected in their fields and have continually demonstrated their skills in developing solutions to meet the most exacting of requirements.
Air quality sensing
By measuring pollution levels external to a vehicle with an Air Quality Sensor (AQS), the climate control system of a car is able to close the air inlet (recirculation mode), when the vehicle travels through a polluted area.
The following manufacturers trust e2v's sensors to protect their customers:
- BMW : X3
- Citroën : C4 Picasso
- Ford : Mondeo
- Mercedes : A-class, B-class
- Renault : Laguna, Espace, Vel Satis
- Volvo : S40, V50
e2v offers a wide variety of AQS solutions, each of which integrates two dedicated gas sensing chips, one for reducing gases (CO/HC) and one for oxidizing gases (NOx). These modules measure a broad range of reducing gases that are commonly found in traffic pollution, including CO, hydrocarbons and NOx.
Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)
e2v has been working with US, European and Asia Pacific car manufacturers since the early 90s and at present vehicles with e2v’s ACC sensors have their speed automatically controlled, maintaining a safe braking distance to the car in front, making driving a safer and more comfortable experience.
The ACC radar sensors use a 77GHz carrier frequency, which can detect objects up to 120m in front of the vehicle, and effectively scan the radar beam over an angle of approx 15 degrees so as to cover the lane the vehicle is occupying, and those to the side. The position, size and relative speed of objects is determined so that the system can make decisions as to the need to apply brakes, accelerate or just maintain the current velocity.
Vehicle Security: Microwave Alarm sensors
e2v’s alarm sensors are based on microwave technology and are designed to protect the interior of a vehicle without being sensitive to the external environment. Unlike ultrasonic alarms, which are likely to be activated by weather conditions such as thunderstorms, gusts of wind or by contact with the exterior of the car, e2v’s microwave sensors only react when an unauthorised presence is determined in a car.
Application Specific Integrated Circuits: ASICs
These specialist integrated circuits interface with on-board sensors to processes the signals. For example, within rain sensors and automatic headlights an optical light sensor will measure the quantity of light at a specific position. As the amount of light increases or decreases a message is sent to the signal processor via e2v’s ASIC creating a reaction such as headlights coming on or windscreen wipers being activated.
e2v’s current product investment centres on safety (eg airbag deployment) and environmental applications (eg pollution reduction).
Automotive Imaging – Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology
CMOS technology is ideally suited for automotive imaging applications, with the market focussing on cost and power consumption over the sensitivity and radiation hardness demands placed on the traditional Charge Coupled Device (CCD) imaging technology used in applications such as space exploration.
In addition to a standard product roadmap for the automotive/security markets, e2v also offers a custom CMOS imaging service to empower customers with the competitive edge through an extensive library of high performance imaging standard cells and processing blocks – termed ‘the CMOS toolkit’.
Please follow the links below to the products we offer for this application.