FlexRay™ electrical physical layer: Theory, components and examples

Modern passenger cars are no longer imaginable without using technologies to broadcast local acquired data. The vehicle speed for example is used by many well-known functions: the anti-blocking system, the radio, the dash board, the cruise control, the electronic stability program etc. Usually these local acquired data is distributed among vehicle's electronic control units by various electrical serial communication systems. The paper introduces one of their newest designs named FlexRay™. The development of FlexRay™ began in the early nineties of the last century driven by the requirements expected for drive-by-wire systems. The referenced section focuses on the FlexRay™ electrical physical layer; it can be seen as evolution of the widely-used CAN electrical physical layer. This electrical physical layer evolution had been driven mainly by one kernel requirement: enabling a tenfold maximal communication speed. The broad range from topologies and hardware components up to simulation approaches is covered. Selected comparisons between CAN and FlexRay™ support the comprehensibility of the indicated evolution approach.