Arm-based Infineon TRAVEO™ T2G
Accelerating Zone Controllers for
Next Generation Vehicles
Case Study

March, 2022

Company snapshot

Goal
One of the megatrends in automotive electronics is the change of Electrical/Electronic

Name: Infineon(EE) architecture from single function ECUs widely distributed around the vehicle, to more

Vertical: Automotive

capable and flexible zonal controllers that consolidate multiple of these functions into aSize: 46,665 employees

single module. This evolution is set to be rapidly adopted by low-end through to high end

HQ: Neubiberg, Germany

luxury vehicles to enable a flexible and scalable architecture that reduces development andFounded: 1999

manufacturing costs and improves reliability.
A great example of this would be a front corner zone controller that combines the functionsof light cluster, wing mirror, seat, car access, interior lighting and door controls. Such zone
controllers will simplify hardware and software development, with a hierarchical structureof the functionalities. At the same time, they reduce the weight and complexity of wiring
harnesses, and reduce the costs of manufacturing, installation and maintenance.

Fig1: Typical Zonal Architecturesof a modern mid-sized car1

Solution
It is in applications like these that Infineon's TRAVEO™ T2G family of microcontrollers(MCUs) is becoming a popular solution. The range employs Arm Cortex-M processors, andoffers performance scalability from a single Cortex-M4 right up to dual Cortex-M7. Multiplevariants are available to deliver the choice of packages, memories, interfaces and features tomatch the different automotive application requirements, whilst retaining a high degree ofsoftware and pin compatibility. This helps automakers to be extremely agile in scaling theirmodules across different zones and across different vehicle models, along with providing
future proofing for their investments.
Fig 2: Scale easily across performance,
memory and interfaces

Design Implementation
Infineon is considering extending it’s family of TRAVEO™ T2G with a new quadCortex-M7 MCU to address the increasing requirements for performance and memory.

It is not just the functions of simple distributed controllers that are getting consolidated into
these zone controllers, however. Increasingly auto makers are looking to incorporate gateway
functions into zone controllers as well, and so communications capability and security
becomes a critical requirement for automotive MCUs. The approach adopted by Infineon
for the TRAVEO™ T2G family is to have an additional Arm Cortex M0+ core dedicated toencryption as a Hardware Security Module (HSM).
Several of the TRAVEO™ T2G products feature high-speed communication interfaces
like Ethernet and FlexRay in addition to the standard Local Interconnect Network (LIN)
and Controller Area Network (CAN) interfaces widely used in AutomotiveIn-Vehicle Networking (IVN).

2Fig 3: Block diagram of a TRAVEO™ T2G
Automotive Microcontroller“Functional safety isanother focus area forthe auto industry, and it is
rapidly becoming standardpractice to demand that
all electronic systems inthe vehicle have functionalsafety capabilities.”“TRAVEOTM T2G
microcontrollers are key
components in current andfuture vehicles, based on
the powerful Arm Cortex-M
series in single and dual
core operation it offers
state-of-the-art real time
performance, safety andsecurity features.”Thomas Böhm, SeniorVice President Automotive
Microcontroller at Infineon.

Functional safety is another focus area for the auto industry, and it is rapidly becoming
standard practice to demand that all electronic systems in the vehicle have functionalsafety capabilities. With functions such as window and door control being bundled withinterior lighting, zonal controllers need to support Functional Safety to prevent hazards
for safety critical functions. A failure of interior lighting may not be a hazard, but an electricwindow controller failing to detect trapped fingers would be problematic. The TRAVEO™
T2G family is designed to meet ISO26262 ASIL B and offers a safety concept based on
Arm CPUs ability to detect failures both inside the MCU, as well as detection of failuresin connected components.
As the software defined vehicle rapidly becomes reality, zone controllers will need the ability
to have seamless software and firmware updates through the life of the vehicle, both to add
new features as well as for issue resolution. The TRAVEO™ T2G family includes a secureFirmware or Software Over The Air (FOTA or SOTA) update capability.
The advantage of using Arm for automotive MCUs is that OEMs and Tier1's can leverage therich ecosystem of tools, software and services that have evolved to support the more than
200 billion Arm-based chips produced to date. OEMs can leverage a large pool of talented
software and hardware developers who are already familiar with the Arm architecture.

3

Useful Links
32-bit TRAVEO™ T2G Arm® Cortex® Microcontroller
Infineon — Dependability and Zonal Architectures
Arm ­— Cortex-M4 and Arm Cortex-M7
Aptiv — Zone Controllers Build Bridge to Tomorrow’s Technology
Visteon — Zonal EE Architecture4