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Keywords:
after-market electronics, power supply, power supply design, power architecture, power
modules, protection ICs, industrial transportation, transportation electronics
APPLICATION NOTE 6728
ADDRESSING POWER SUPPLY CHALLENGES
FOR AFTER-MARKET ELECTRONICS AND
INFRASTRUCTURE
Abstract: Industrial transportation electronics includes after-market additions for automation and
entertainment in cars, trucks, trains, planes, and ships, as well as infrastructure automation for roads, sea-
lanes, trains, and air traffic control. This application note discusses key market trends and customer needs
that are presenting new challenges for power supply design for after-market technologies and transport
infrastructure automation. This piece will also examine solutions to address these challenges, with a special
emphasis on power architecture. A similar version of this application note originally appeared on Electronics
for U on April 17, 2018.
Introduction
After-market automotive products have driven remarkable innovation, from infotainment and telematics to
advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Features like GPS, rear-view cameras, and parking sensors
are now common in vehicles. There is also a continuous rollout of novel after-market technologies being
developed by companies worldwide. Fleet management, on-board diagnostics, heads-up display, and
freight control/monitoring are just a few examples of technologies found in cars and trucks, trains, ships,
avionics, and defense applications.
Transport infrastructure automation to move people and goods more efficiently includes HOV lane control,
parking/toll, fare meters, traffic control, and others. Many other innovations have made faster movement,
on-time schedules, and fewer accidents possible.
Industrial Transportation Market Trends
Fleet management and logistics represents one of the most dynamic applications in industrial
transportation. Tracking goods that are manufactured and shipped from various regions, states, countries or
even overseas is a big business. Consider, for example, perishables. Produce and other foods must be kept
under regulated temperature, pressure, or other parameters as they are transported. Similarly, secure
goods require sensors to track location and entry access. Driver safety is also essential, requiring data from
cameras that monitor driver alertness and GPS systems that track vehicle location. This data is logged
using wireless networks and cloud infrastructure, and complex algorithms synthesize the data to make real-
time decisions on route and/or for driver safety. Several GPS navigation companies have entered the fleet
management market, providing hardware and software products and services.
For infotainment, some might feel that there is not much room for innovation given the standard features
already available. Yet, automotive designers are creating more than simple smartphone interfaces, bringing
to vehicles advancements such as heads-up display (HUD) that projects the phone screen onto the
windshield glass with gesture control to navigate between maps and video calls, or other salient features
like weather, stock ticker, and calendar. Another active product development area involves seat-back
screens to mirror the phone screen for rear passengers.
