Dependency Breaking Circuit for Dependent Failure Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electronic systems in safety-critical environments, such as automotive applications, face challenges in detecting dependent failures that can simultaneously affect redundant circuits, making it difficult to ensure reliable operation and safety due to shared substrates and coupled disturbance parameters.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of dependency breaking circuits, which include sensing elements sensitive to disturbance parameters, modify their outputs in a well-defined manner when these parameters exceed a specified range, allowing for the detection of dependent failures by generating distinct signals between redundant circuits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If redundant circuits are integrated on a single substrate to reduce device complexity and improve integration, then device complexity is reduced, but the risk of dependent failures increases due to shared disturbance parameters
Solution Approach 1:
A dependency breaking circuit is introduced as an intermediary component between the redundant circuits and the failure detection system. This mediator circuit modifies the output signals of the redundant circuits by adding disturbance parameter-dependent components, enabling failure detection even when circuits share a common substrate. The intermediary breaks the dependency relationship that would otherwise prevent detection of common-mode failures.
2Ease of manufacture
If redundant circuits are provided on a single substrate to improve manufacturing efficiency, then ease of manufacture is improved, but measurement precision of failure detection deteriorates due to coupled disturbance parameters
Solution Approach 1:
The dependency breaking circuit changes the signal parameters by adding disturbance parameter-dependent components to the output signals. This parameter transformation ensures that when disturbance parameters vary, the modified signals exhibit detectable differences even for circuits on the same substrate, thereby maintaining measurement precision for failure detection while preserving manufacturing efficiency.
3Device complexity
If conventional redundant circuits are used without dependency breaking, then device complexity is reduced, but the ability to detect dependent failures is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The dependency breaking circuit performs preliminary action by pre-modifying the output signals of the redundant circuits with disturbance parameter-dependent components before the signals are compared or analyzed for failures. This preliminary modification ensures that when dependent failures occur, the signals will already contain distinguishable characteristics, making detection possible without adding complex post-processing analysis systems.
Data Source
AI summary
Devices and methods are provided which facilitate detecting of a disturbance parameter being outside a predetermined range. Such disturbance parameter may for example cause dependent failures in redundant circuits, for example redundant circuits being arranged on a same substrate.