Project Details
Description
Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) have become an important safety feature in
modern vehicles. Some countries already introduced new legislation which enforces the use
of TPMS. Today the electronic direct Tire Pressure Modules are mounted on the rims of the
wheels. They are powered by small batteries and transmit pressure data to the vehicle via an
RF link. In future much more information such as tire temperature, contact area, vertical load
and slip angle shall be captured by tire monitoring systems and furthermore lifecycle
management and identification shall be supported. Therefore, the TPMS modules have to be
mounted directly at the inner-liner of on the tires instead of rims. This introduces big
challenges in terms of miniaturisation, weight reduction and enhancement of functionalities of
the new future Intelligent Tire Modules. Bulky components like battery or crystal need to be
substituted by alternative realisation concepts. Research activities are ongoing to investigate
generation of electric power out of the mechanical acceleration energy of the rotating wheel.
Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) devices are evaluated as potential replacement for the crystal.
Nevertheless, there remains still a lot of open questions:
How to operate the System when the vehicle stands still? What is the best frequency for
BAW integration and data transmission through the tire into the vehicles control unit? Is it
possible to power the intelligent tire modules via an RF signal and how can this be achieved
without introducing additional components and costs for the car manufacturer? Which is the
optimum antenna geometry in terms of efficiency, robustness and miniaturisation? How can
the type of the tire, its life history and its position on the vehicle be identified and detected?
Those questions will be addressed in the proposed project by competent and renown project
partners in the field of radio frequency technologies, antenna theory and integrated circuit
design and vehicle dynamic testing. Outcome of the project shall be Intelligent Tire Prototype
Modules which clearly demonstrate feasibility of Tire mounted modules with extended
functionalities to significantly further improve safety of operation of vehicles at the point
where we are confronted with the strongest and most critical mechanical interaction between
vehicle and environment.
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 1/04/08 → 30/06/10 |
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