FIBER OPTIC

TECHNOLOGY IN
AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

By SAAHIL SINGH
PES MODERN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

FIBER OPTIC TECHNOLOGY IN
AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
Fiber optic technology is becoming the medium of choice for a
variety of automotive applications. With its unique characteristics,
fiber optics are a naturally ideal choice for lighting, communications,
and sensing requirements.
Automobile manufacturers are using fiber for lighting applications for
several reasons:
First and foremost, fiber transmits cold light, making it a safe
alternative to traditional sealed beam or halogen lighting.
The light source is easily accessible and offers much more in
creative freedom of design.
Fiber also allows for light source and output location separation,
FIBER OPTIC TECHNOLOGY IN
AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
Fiber creates high performance lighting options with reduced
physical space requirements for difficult and restricted access
locations.
Communications and sensing in automobiles is of utmost
importance with the continual increase in onboard safety devices
and systems.
With each subsequent model year, more and more airbags, traction
control devices, and safety systems are integrated into automobiles
for passenger safety.
With most of these systems focused on emergency or pre-
emergency response, rapid communication to and from the
monitoring system to the sensor or active module is critical to
successful operation.
With the large bandwidth, EMI and RFI immunity, and relatively low
cost, more and more manufacturers are utilizing fiber as the
communication method of choice for these mission critical
applications.
FIBER OPTIC TECHNOLOGY IN
AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
There are three basic fields of application of
optical fiber technology in automotive field:

FIBER OPTIC LIGHT SOURCES
IN-VEHICLE NETWORKS
OPTICAL SENSORS



Fiber Optic Light Sources
What is an Optic Source?
The heart of a fiber optical data system
A Hybrid Device
Converts electrical signals into optical signals
Launches these optical signals into an optical
fiber for data transmission.
Device consists of an interface circuit, drive
circuit, and components for optical source.
(LEDs, ELEDs, SLEDs, LDs, etc)

Why Use Fiber Optics For Lighting?
Heat-Free Lighting: Since the light source is remote, the fiber
transmits the light but isolates the heat from the light source from the
illumination point, an important consideration for lighting delicate
objects, that could be damaged by heat or intense light.

Electrical Safety: Illumination in hazardous atmospheres can be
done safely with fiber optic lighting, since the fiber is nonconductive
and the power for the light source can be placed in a safe location.
Even many lights are low voltage.

Precise Spotlighting: Optical fiber can be combined with lenses to
provide carefully focused light on extremely small spots,or simply
light a specified area precisely.

Durability: Using optical fiber for lighting makes for much more
durable lighting. Optical fiber, either plastic or glass, is both strong
and flexible, much more durable than fragile light bulbs.
The Look of Neon: Fiber that emits light along its length, generally
called edge-emitting fiber, has the look of neon tubes for decorative
lighting and signs. Fiber is easier to fabricate, and, since it is made of
plastic, is less fragile.
Vary the Color: By using colored filters with white light sources, fiber
optic lighting can have many different colors and by automating the
filters, vary colors in any preprogrammed sequence.
Simpler Installation: Fiber optic lighting does not require installing
electrical cables, instead a fiber is installed to the location and fixed in
place, perhaps with a small focusing lens fixture, a much simpler
process. Often several fibers can use a single light source, simplifying
installation even more.
Easy Maintenance: With fiber, the source can be in an easily
accessible location and the fiber in any remote place. Changing the
source is no longer a problem.

DIRECTING LIGHT INTO FIBER
How Fiber Optic Lighting Works
Fiber optic lighting uses optical fiber as a light pipe, transmitting
light from a source through the fiber to a remote location. The light
may be emitted from the end of the fiber creating a small spotlight
effect (also called end glow) or emitted from the outside of the fiber
along its length, looking like a neon or fluorescent tube (also called
side glow).

The light source is usually called a fiber optic illuminator and
consists of a bright light source and often some optics to efficiently
focus light into the fiber. Sources must be bright, so quartz halogen
or xenon metal halide lights are commonly used. Smaller fibers may
also use LEDs which very efficiently couple light into fibers but do
not achieve the light levels of the other lamps.


How Fiber Optic Lighting Works
Optical fibers used for lighting are similar to fibers used in
communications, but optimized for transmitting light not high speed
signals. Unlike communications fibers that use small cores to
maximize bandwidth, lighting fibers use large cores with thin
claddings to maximize coupling of the light from the illuminator into
the fiber.

Lighting fibers can be made of glass, just like communications
fibers, or plastic. Larger diameter plastic fibers are also used,
perhaps more commonly, because they are inexpensive and easier
to install, but they have higher light loss and cannot withstand as hot
a temperature, sometimes limiting the light input from a source.
End Emitting Fiber
End-emitting fiber is generally a step-index multimode
fiber with a large transparent core that transmits the light
and thin transparent cladding that traps the light in the
core due to total internal reflection. The core is large in
comparison to the thin cladding as that makes it more
efficient in coupling light from the illuminator. The cladding
does not transmit light, so any light coupled into the
cladding will not be transmitted by the fiber.

End-emitting fibers are generally made from plastic as it
can be made in larger sizes than glass and is less
expensive and easier to install.
Edge Emitting Fiber
Edge-emitting fiber is basically similar to end-emitting
fiber except the core/cladding boundary is designed to
be slightly inefficient.
Instead of trapping all the light in the core, the boundary
is rough and some light is scattered into the cladding
where it becomes visible.
Since much of the light is lost by the edge-emission
along the fiber, edge-emitting fiber has high attenuation.
This may limit the lengths of edge-emitting fiber that can
be used.
This can be alleviated by illuminating the fiber from both
ends by using two illuminators

In-Vehicle Networks
In-Vehicle Networks
Most innovations in the car industry today are made in
the electronics area. This is especially true in relation to
the systems for communicating information around the
car, As a result, both the number of nodes in a car's
network, as well as the complexity of these nodes, is
increasing, and so the total bit rate carried over digital
communication channels is growing exponentially.

Traditionally, the physical medium used to carry data in a
car has been shielded copper lines for both the power
supply and communication. Copper cables are heavy,
and their weight impairs fuel efficiency.

In-Vehicle Networks
Fibre optic cabling would appear to be the answer to the
car designer's wish: it is light and compact, and it also
offers the benefits of supporting very high data rates and
of immunity from Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI).

In regard to the cable, Polymer Optical Fibre (POF) is
preferred in automotive applications. Although it suffers
from much higher losses than glass fibre, it is cheaper
and can withstand a tighter bend radius than glass. In
high-bandwidth applications, where POF cannot provide
an adequate data rate, plastic-clad silica fibres and multi-
mode glass fibre bundles are now used.

Why POF?
The number of electronic devices in a car
increases year by year, primarily due to an
increase in the entertainment equipment desired
for modern passenger carsfrom simple radios
in the 1970s to radios, DVD players, TVs, and
even GPS consoles. To realize ubiquitous
access to multiple digital equipment sites in a
car, each equipment site or node must be
connected, leading to an exponential increase in
the number of communication cables within the
vehicle.
Why POF?
WHY POF?
Automotive manufactures are keen to exploit POF
technology for connecting car infotainments systems and
even some safety-critical applications such as airbags.
Todays high-end cars are processor intensive,
supporting devices such as radio, CD, DVD, navigation
systems, Bluetooth, telephones, TV tuners, gaming and
even internet, etc.
POF will connect up the ever-increasing number of in-car
electrical devices such as TV, computer, fax machine
also into a car.
WHY POF?
BENEFITS OF POF:

High Operation Bandwidth.
Increased Transmission Security.
Increased Reliability.
Immunity to EMI and anti-shock.
Ease of Handling, Connection and Installation.
Flexibility of Design.
Long Shelf Life.
Crucially, its also a Low-cost Option.

STRUCTURE OF POF
Common POFs in use today typically have a 980-m-
diameter polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) core and a
1000-m-diameter fluorinated polymer cladding. The
fiber is jacketed with polyamide (PA) material to enhance
its robustness in vehicle use.

The high numerical aperture (typically 0.50 to 0.58), easy
connection ability, and mechanical strength and flexibility
of POF have cemented its use in automotive
infotainment (information and entertainment) networking
systems in passenger cars since the late 1990s.

STRUCTURE OF POF
END TERMINATION OF POF
The POF cable and
connectors in the MOST
standard have a simple
structure, making them as
easy to produce and connect
as copper cables. In an
automated production line, end
termination is completed in two
seconds using a laser welding
method. An inline POF coupler
is used for fiber-to-fiber
connection between
equipment nodes.
Roadmap of in-vehicle networks
Overview of In-Vehicle
Networks
D2B (Domestic Data Bus ):
DaimlerChrysler (formerly Daimler-Benz) first introduced
POF into its S-series Mercedes-Benz back in 1998,
using a simple optical data bus system called D2B.
D2B was designed for audio-video communications,
computer peripherals, and automotive media
applications.
The D2B enables complex and distributed functions,
minimizes electromagnetic-interference problems,
decreases weight and cost, and achieves a high data
rate of up to several megabits per second.

Overview of In-Vehicle
Networks
Media-Oriented Systems Transport
(MOST):
MOST, a bus protocol, promoted and organized by the
MOST Cooperation (Karlsruhe, Germany) and led by
Daimler Chrysler, BMW and Audi, was devised in the
late 1990s to meet the rapidly increasing in-car data
bandwidth for vehicle entertainment systems.
MOST25 initially offered 25Mbps and more recently.
MOST50 offers up to 50Mbps data bandwidth using POF
as the physical media.
Overview of In-Vehicle
Networks
The interconnection of telematics and infotainment such
as video displays, GPS navigation systems, active
speaker and digital radio.
Over 22 models of car are equipped with MOST
systems, with the Mercedes E-Class, BMW 7 Series,
Porsche Cayenne, Saab 9.3, Audi A8, and Volvo XC-90
among the first to deploy the technology commercially.
With MOST, the automobile industry developed a unified
standard that everybody abides to, with the intention of
driving cost down.

Overview of In-Vehicle
Networks
Byteflight:

Developed from 1996 by BMW.
A flexible time-division multiple access (TDMA)
protocol using a star topology for safety-related
applications.
ByteFlight is used to support the rapidly growing
number of sensors, actuators and electronic
control units within cars.
Overview of In-Vehicle
Networks
The physical medium used is plastic optical
fiber.
BMW is the only car maker currently deploying
the Byteflight technology.
Safety-critical systems need deterministic
protocols with fault-tolerant behaviour. ByteFlight
guarantees high data integrity at a data rate of
10 Mbit/s and an information update rate of 250
s.

Future Needs for Networking
OPTICAL SENSORS
AUTOMOTIVE APLLICATIONS
FOR OPTICAL SENSORS
Automotive sensors must operate in harsh
environmental conditions viz:
High Temperature
Vibration
Corrosive fluids, etc.

Achieving the required performance at the right (low!)
cost is always paramount.

AUTOMOTIVE APLLICATIONS
FOR OPTICAL SENSORS
Fibre-optic sensors (still) cost too much for mass-market
automotive use: data links for infotainment are the only
current automotive market for fibre-optics.

But there are some optical sensors in volume production,
and fibre-optic sensors are very useful for
instrumentation.


Optical Torque and Angle Sensor for Electric
Power Steering

A power steering system is a torque servo system. The system
determines how much torque is being applied to the steering wheel
by the driver, and adds an appropriate amount of torque assistance
to keep the applied torque to the required value.

Optical Torque and Angle Sensor for Electric
Power Steering

An optical torque and rotation angle sensor, which
detects the drivers applied torque and transmits torque
data to the system Electronic Control Unit (ECU).
Automatic Headlight / Windscreen
Wiper System
Rain / light sensors are attached to the front windscreen
and automatically the windscreen wipers and headlights
turn on and off depending on pre-determined external
conditions.
The rain sensor technology is based on an IR system
that measures differences due to refraction in the optical
path.
The light sensor consists of independent forward and
horizontal looking receivers to determine tunnels,
bridges and specific ambient conditions (eg dawn) for
automated headlight control.

Automatic Headlight / Windscreen
Wiper System
To detect the presence of
rain on the windscreen, an
IR beam is reflected from
the outer windscreen
surface back to a IR
sensor array.
When a rain drop strikes
the windscreen, some IR
energy is transmitted out
through the droplet: the
system detects the change
in reflected IR energy.

Lane Guidance Systems
Video camera technology
enables a range of safety
systems which are supported
by a forward-looking
monocular camera mounted at
the windscreen in the rear-
view mirror mount.
Lane Departure Warning
(LDW): detects lane markings
in front of the vehicle and
provides a warning if the driver
unintentionally leaves the
driving lane.

Lane Departure Warning
Lane Guidance Systems
Lane Keeping Assistance
(LKAS): combines lane
detection with an electric
steering system to provide a
torque overlay on steering,
automatically directing the
vehicle back into the correct
lane.
Other possible functions: Auto
Lane Guidance.
Obstacle / pedestrian
detection, traffic sign
recognition, forward collision
warning.

CONCLUSION
Photonic technologies are superior to electronic
solutions in terms of data rates, bandwidth, reliability,
and robustness.
But they still need to prove they are capable of replacing
their electronic counterparts.
It may take time for fiber to spread beyond high-end
luxury cars.
Fiber costs remain higher than those for copper cable,
but fiber costs will come down as production increases.
Mass production of plastic fibers could help the
technology spread.
THANK YOU

FOR YOUR TIME AND PATIENCE