Automotive power distribution

Optimize your E/E architecture with a decentralized and electrified automotive power distribution system (PDS).

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Seemless energy control with our power distribution solutions

Infineon offers a comprehensive portfolio of automotive power distribution solutions, designed to provide seamless energy control and meet the highest standards of performance and reliability. Our solutions cater to diverse applications, including software-defined vehicles, ADAS, autonomous driving, and safety systems.

Power distribution is the controlled transport of energy from sources to loads, requiring all-time availability or fail-operational functionality to ensure ASIL D system compliance. Infineon's chipset portfolio, featuring PROFET™ smart power switches, MOSFETS, and gate drivers, is designed to meet these demands.

Our portfolio includes the AURIX™ family for high-end computing applications, TRAVEO™ microcontrollers for price-performance optimized power distribution, and complementary solutions such as XENSIV™ sensors and OPTIREG™ power supply solutions. This ensures easy adaptation and migration for evolving power distribution unit (PDU) requirements.

Infineon's commitment to quality and innovation simplifies design challenges and accelerates your time-to-market.

Streamline your automotive power distribution unit designs

Power distribution is a key function of the E/E architecture. Automotive power distribution systems control the transport of low-voltage electric energy via the wire harness. The PDS design choices are particularly essential for power distribution in electric vehicles, where efficient energy management is crucial. The PDS consists of two main elements - the primary power distribution unit and the secondary power distribution unit. The primary PDU is connected to the energy source (i.e. a battery or a DC-DC) and often referred to as the pre-fuse box. Energy then flows to one or several secondary power distribution units, which eventually distribute the energy to all low-voltage loads of the vehicle. As a consequence of an increasing number of comfort and AD(AS) functions, the number of these loads has sharply increased in recent years. Subsequently, the automotive power distribution system has become increasingly complex. Infineon supports its customers in dealing with this complexity through its bottom-up product-to-system expertise and its broad product portfolio, optimized for scalable power distribution systems.

The three generations of power distribution systems

Upon closer observation, three generations of automotive low-voltage power distribution systems exist. While all PDS implementations will eventually converge towards generation 3, the generations currently co-exist in the market.

In generation 1, both the primary and the secondary power distribution unit, are solely built on (electro-)mechanical solutions. The amount of secondary power distribution units is little and fuses and relays control the energy flow.

Generation 2 strives for optimization of the power distribution wire harness. By placing an increased number of secondary power distribution units closer to the loads, the total length of wires is reduced. The partial replacement of fuses and relays with semiconductors, enables a higher degree of flexibility, as well as diagnosability. 

Finally, generation 3 is directly linked to the introduction of zone architectures. It features the integration of the secondary power distribution unit in the zone control unit. Subsequently, optimization is not limited to the power distribution wire harness, but now also includes the in-vehicle network (IVN). At this stage, the secondary power distribution fully builds on semiconductors.

Easily adoptable ISO-26262 PDS solutions

Infineon's AURIX™ microcontrollers are best-in-class for ASIL-D functional safety designs and are complemented by the TRAVEO™ family for ASIL-B needs (partly with ASIL-D island). Corresponding OPTIREG™ power supply solutions  come with easily-implementable safety manuals, enabling not only a safe design, but also a quick realization of Functional Safety goals. The PROFET™ smart power switches are ISO-ready and partly ISO-compliant with plenty of safety documentation available, allowing the overall easiest functional safety design in the market.

48 V zone architecture readiness

The growing adoption of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) entails the electrification of mechanically-driven legacy loads, as well as an introduction of new loads. The logical consequence of this change is an increased demand for electric low-voltage power. Although not yet widely adopted, introducing an additional 48 V layer to the PDS, may hold several benefits for the overall vehicle E/E architecture of BEVs. Among others, it allows to lift the intrinsic maximum power limitations of a 12V E/E architecture, and thus represents an important cornerstone for future Battery Electric Vehicles.

Infineon actively drives international standardization efforts for 48 V power distribution systems and ensures that customer solutions are in line with current and future standardization initiatives. Infineon's broad Gate Driver and MOSFET portfolio and the growing PROFET™ smart power switches portfolio enable the transition to 48 V power distribution systems with pin-to-pin compatibility where it matters. 

Design challenges & Infineon support

When designing modern power distribution systems, customers face a variety of challenges. They need to harmonize the automotive power distribution system and the In-Vehicle Network, with the integration of both converging to a zone architecture incl. central computing. Simultaneously, they need to introduce fail-operational concepts for a dependable power distribution through the use of semiconductor-based safety elements in the primary and secondary power distribution units. Finally, they have to optimize the overall system as such, that wire harness complexity is reduced, the increasing power demand of BEVs is satisfied and platform re-use becomes possible. 

Infineon provides a series of self-support collaterals, such as a configurable block diagram to aid the selection of fitting products, whitepapers, application notes, evaluation kits and datasheets. Additionally, Infineon benefits from its position as market leader for automotive and has - over the years - built a strong bottom-up product-to-system expertise. Please contact your Infineon contact if you would like to engage further. 

Seemless energy control with our power distribution solutions

Infineon offers a comprehensive portfolio of automotive power distribution solutions, designed to provide seamless energy control and meet the highest standards of performance and reliability. Our solutions cater to diverse applications, including software-defined vehicles, ADAS, autonomous driving, and safety systems.

Power distribution is the controlled transport of energy from sources to loads, requiring all-time availability or fail-operational functionality to ensure ASIL D system compliance. Infineon's chipset portfolio, featuring PROFET™ smart power switches, MOSFETS, and gate drivers, is designed to meet these demands.

Our portfolio includes the AURIX™ family for high-end computing applications, TRAVEO™ microcontrollers for price-performance optimized power distribution, and complementary solutions such as XENSIV™ sensors and OPTIREG™ power supply solutions. This ensures easy adaptation and migration for evolving power distribution unit (PDU) requirements.

Infineon's commitment to quality and innovation simplifies design challenges and accelerates your time-to-market.

Streamline your automotive power distribution unit designs

Power distribution is a key function of the E/E architecture. Automotive power distribution systems control the transport of low-voltage electric energy via the wire harness. The PDS design choices are particularly essential for power distribution in electric vehicles, where efficient energy management is crucial. The PDS consists of two main elements - the primary power distribution unit and the secondary power distribution unit. The primary PDU is connected to the energy source (i.e. a battery or a DC-DC) and often referred to as the pre-fuse box. Energy then flows to one or several secondary power distribution units, which eventually distribute the energy to all low-voltage loads of the vehicle. As a consequence of an increasing number of comfort and AD(AS) functions, the number of these loads has sharply increased in recent years. Subsequently, the automotive power distribution system has become increasingly complex. Infineon supports its customers in dealing with this complexity through its bottom-up product-to-system expertise and its broad product portfolio, optimized for scalable power distribution systems.

The three generations of power distribution systems

Upon closer observation, three generations of automotive low-voltage power distribution systems exist. While all PDS implementations will eventually converge towards generation 3, the generations currently co-exist in the market.

In generation 1, both the primary and the secondary power distribution unit, are solely built on (electro-)mechanical solutions. The amount of secondary power distribution units is little and fuses and relays control the energy flow.

Generation 2 strives for optimization of the power distribution wire harness. By placing an increased number of secondary power distribution units closer to the loads, the total length of wires is reduced. The partial replacement of fuses and relays with semiconductors, enables a higher degree of flexibility, as well as diagnosability. 

Finally, generation 3 is directly linked to the introduction of zone architectures. It features the integration of the secondary power distribution unit in the zone control unit. Subsequently, optimization is not limited to the power distribution wire harness, but now also includes the in-vehicle network (IVN). At this stage, the secondary power distribution fully builds on semiconductors.

Easily adoptable ISO-26262 PDS solutions

Infineon's AURIX™ microcontrollers are best-in-class for ASIL-D functional safety designs and are complemented by the TRAVEO™ family for ASIL-B needs (partly with ASIL-D island). Corresponding OPTIREG™ power supply solutions  come with easily-implementable safety manuals, enabling not only a safe design, but also a quick realization of Functional Safety goals. The PROFET™ smart power switches are ISO-ready and partly ISO-compliant with plenty of safety documentation available, allowing the overall easiest functional safety design in the market.

48 V zone architecture readiness

The growing adoption of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) entails the electrification of mechanically-driven legacy loads, as well as an introduction of new loads. The logical consequence of this change is an increased demand for electric low-voltage power. Although not yet widely adopted, introducing an additional 48 V layer to the PDS, may hold several benefits for the overall vehicle E/E architecture of BEVs. Among others, it allows to lift the intrinsic maximum power limitations of a 12V E/E architecture, and thus represents an important cornerstone for future Battery Electric Vehicles.

Infineon actively drives international standardization efforts for 48 V power distribution systems and ensures that customer solutions are in line with current and future standardization initiatives. Infineon's broad Gate Driver and MOSFET portfolio and the growing PROFET™ smart power switches portfolio enable the transition to 48 V power distribution systems with pin-to-pin compatibility where it matters. 

Design challenges & Infineon support

When designing modern power distribution systems, customers face a variety of challenges. They need to harmonize the automotive power distribution system and the In-Vehicle Network, with the integration of both converging to a zone architecture incl. central computing. Simultaneously, they need to introduce fail-operational concepts for a dependable power distribution through the use of semiconductor-based safety elements in the primary and secondary power distribution units. Finally, they have to optimize the overall system as such, that wire harness complexity is reduced, the increasing power demand of BEVs is satisfied and platform re-use becomes possible. 

Infineon provides a series of self-support collaterals, such as a configurable block diagram to aid the selection of fitting products, whitepapers, application notes, evaluation kits and datasheets. Additionally, Infineon benefits from its position as market leader for automotive and has - over the years - built a strong bottom-up product-to-system expertise. Please contact your Infineon contact if you would like to engage further. 

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