Voltage Stability Metric for Automated Evaluation of Automotive Power Supply Systems

Highly automated driving requires a reliable and stable power supply. The supply system must maintain a stable voltage and remain fail-operational, even in the case of a single fault. To design a reliable power supply system, the term voltage stability must be quantified. Numerical values that express the power supply quality and the absence of serious disturbances are useful to compare different topologies or identify scenarios that are critical for safety-critical components. In this paper, suitable stability indices are derived for specifying the severity of over- and undervoltages over time in supply systems. A methodology is presented to determine an overall stability metric. Based on eight different supply system topologies, it is demonstrated that the developed approach is suitable to identify the most promising configurations and to further optimize the voltage stability.