Signal Integrity (SI) analysis on a high-speed ECU board in CAN-FD network

Automotive engineering was a sub-branch of mechanical engineering in the past. However, it became the convergence of mechanical and electrical engineering. Because some of the mechanical components are replaced by many electronic control units (ECUs). The networks in the automotive system are controlled area network (CAN), local interconnect network (LIN), FlexRay, and Ethernet. Each network consists of ECUs which are controlled by electric signal, thus the system is called as the X-by-wire. Therefore, the electric signal affects the performance of the ECU and the automotive performance.

Our lab has investigated the signal integrity (SI) issues on controlled area network-flexible data rate (CAN-FD) bus for the automotive system. The CAN-FD is an advanced CAN communication whose data rate is higher than that of the CAN. Furthermore, the CAN and CAN-FD, both of them have stubs due to their star network topology. The higher data rate and stub structure disturb the electric signals on the CAN-FD bus. Therefore, the signal integrity (SI) analysis is required for the printed circuit board (PCB), connectors, and cables in the CAN-FD network.