HP - Vehicle Instrumentation

[Instrument clusters] [In-vehicle data communications] [Electronic engine management] [Electric vehicles]
[Product Summary]

Vehicle Instrumentation, Displays and Controls

Giving vehicle owners the control they need

With greater and more varied functionality being built into today’s cars and trucks, it has become increasingly important to design instrumentation panels that are clean, logical, and above all, safe to use. HP offers a wide range of components that enable designers to create attractive, state-of-the-art displays that meet the most demanding criteria of today’s automotive standards.

Instrument clusters

With the availability of HP’s moderate-brightness blue LED lamps and our wide range of surface-mount lamps, it is already possible to eliminate most incandescent bulbs used for automotive instrument cluster illumination. The entire instrument panel, including the high-beam indicator, can be illuminated with lamps that are specified to last the life of the vehicle.

HP’s space-saving LED lamps greatly reduce the incidence of instrument cluster lighting failures and significantly reduce system cost. LED lamps are currently in production in automatic transmission indicators, switches, radios, air conditioner controls and liquid crystal display backlighting. HP’s LED displays can be used for showing both numeric and alpha-numeric information on an instrument cluster.

In-vehicle data communications

Since many of the functions on today’s vehicles--and many more on tomorrow’s--are controlled by microprocessors, it becomes very simple to incorporate digital data transmission capability within the vehicle for such applications as control and diagnostics. One approach uses a fiber optic in-vehicle local area network to exchange information between engine controls, transmission controls, brakes and other functions. HP offers highly reliable fiber optic components that can economically meet the performance and reliability requirements of automotive data communications.

Electronic engine management

Hewlett-Packard is also developing motion control products capable of meeting the strict reliability and environmental requirements of the automotive markets. For example, HP’s shaft encoders are being evaluated as throttle position sensors on fuel-injection systems--offering higher reliability and precision than current potentiometer and other sensors. Other designers are evaluating rotary encoders for detecting wheel slip as part of improved antilock braking systems.

Electric vehicles

HP has developed superior isolation solutions for electric vehicles by leveraging knowledge gained from a long-term focus on optocouplers for variable-speed industrial motor controls. Power control optocouplers allow logic level devices such as microprocessors to control power switches and systems, such as in frequency inverters and motor drives. These drives use specially designed HP optocouplers for gate drive of power devices such as IGBTs and for performance monitoring such as current and voltage feedback.

Drive performance and efficiency improvements can be realized through the use of these devices that decrease dead time and can help to minimize torque ripple. Other applications for opto-couplers in EVs include charging circuits, system monitors, and steering and braking controls.

HP offers optocouplers, capable of providing isolated drive currents required by high-power solid-state motor controllers, and optically isolated amplifiers, which are used to indicate the current through the motor. Using HP’s power-efficient LED lamps both for exterior and interior applications will help increase the range of an electric vehicle by reducing battery drain.

Product Summary

Vehicle Instrumentation, Displays and Controls

Products to provide illumination and indication, to control electric drive motors and to provide communications links within vehicles, while offering high reliability under the severe operating conditions of the automotive environment.

- Surface Mount LEDs
- Subminiature LEDs
- Surface Mount ChipLEDs
- 5 mm AlInGaP LED Lamps
- 5 mm TS AlGaAs LED Lamps
- 3 mm GaP LED Lamps
- Power Control Optocouplers
- Isolation Amplifiers
- Fiber Optic Transceivers
- Fiber Optic Transmitters and Receivers
- Motion Control Components

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