Modelling the Fault Injection of Sensor Interfaces in Automotive Electronics

Nowadays, the development of automotive electronics, both hardware and software, is subject to safety assessments set by international standards. Even before initiating development activities, companies should invest effort in risk analyses of the systems they plan to sell to car manufacturers. All necessary steps in this regard are specified in the safety lifecycle defined by the ISO 26262 series of standards, such as for the hardware development of electronic control units (ECUs). The schematic modules, along with external hardware elements, form signal chains within the functions that the ECU must fulfill. For sensors and switches, the reliability analysis should provide the Failure in Time (FIT) of the signal chain, which consists of the sensor (or switch), cable, and electronic interface. One method to calculate this parameter is to create a combined functional-fault model of each chain element and run a simulation with all possible fault combinations. This paper is presenting fault simulation models for creating a virtual fault injection testing. These models are combined functional-fault models of each element in the analyzed chain – the sensor, the cable harness, and the electronic circuit interface into the ECU.