Low-cost instrument clusters

A Delphi expert proposes a design strategy to help overcome challenges for manufacturability of automotive displays suited for emerging markets.

All electronic control units (ECUs), once designed and validated, obviously are required to be manufactured. Automotive display products- instrument panel clusters (IPCs), infotainment, etc.- are no exception. Their architecture and design must ensure that they can be easily (i.e., low effort), efficiently (i.e., cost-effectively), and robustly (i.e., error-proof) produced on the assembly line. Design for manufacturability (DFM), therefore, is a critical design factor.

Sufficient support in the ECU product design needs to be incorporated early in the product life cycle for the product to be successfully and efficiently manufactured, necessitating serial communication capability in the design. However, in low-cost automotive instrument clusters the customer requirements for the product typically do not encapsulate serial communication, and the ECU is not required to support repair/rework out of field rejection.