Bosch on Electronics

“One of the best-kept secrets,” says Tim Frasier, North American regional president, for the division, “is that Bosch is the world’s largest supplier of microelectronic machined sensors.”

 

 

Another technology that is finding greater deployment in vehicles with conventional powertrains is start-stop systems. Here, the engine is shut off when the vehicle comes to a stop, then immediately starts up when the accelerator is depressed. This, of course, necessitates the use of a special starter. A DC-to-DC converter is used to control the energy during engine off and restart. Additional sensing is needed on the crankshaft so that the system knows which cylinder to fire for fast and smooth restart and there needs to be additional algorithms in the engine controller—necessitating higher computing power.

 

According to Frasier, “The average fuel consumption improvement from a start-stop system is approximately 4%.” Consequently, Bosch is shipping 2.5-million units of the electronics package (the sensors and the DC-to-DC converter) in 2011, which is double the amount shipped in 2010.

 

Not surprisingly, Frasier acknowledges that when it comes to electromobility, the opportunities are significantly greater vis-à-vis electronics deployment: “When we look at it from pure silicon content, e-mobility is an order of magnitude more.”

 

Vehicles of all powertrain configurations have been getting more “intelligent” and continue to do so, through the use of a variety of sensors and controllers used for everything from anti-lock brakes to parking assist, from HVAC control to lane departure warnings. And they’re becoming more efficient, as well, through the use of electronics to replace hydraulic pumps and belt drives in applications ranging from steering to cooling.

 

But with electromobility, there is another huge factor, which is the tremendous amount of electrical power that has to be intelligently controlled.

 

For example, a key component in hybrids and full-electric vehicles is the inverter. This is used (1) to take DC from the batteries and convert it into AC for the electric motor and (2) to manage the energy that is recouped during regenerative braking (i.e., putting energy back into the batteries). Clearly, this all must be handled with high degrees of control. What’s more, as these are mobile operations, not part of equipment that are on a factory floor, packaging considerations are key. Frasier points out that the amount of electrical power that they’re dealing with—up to 150 kW in some cases—“Is usually only applied in fixed industrial situations, like an assembly line.”

 

So Bosch engineers are working on improving the size and efficiency of inverters made for automotive applications. Case in point: the Porsche Cayenne Hybrid and the Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid use a Bosch inverter that is approximately 10 liters in size; the second-generation inverter that will go into production in 2012 is about 8 liters in size. And gen-three, which is planned for 2013, will be 8 liters in size but offer about a third more power.

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