Fault Tolerant Networking of Squibs and Sensors in Advanced Passenger Restraint Systems

The increased complexity of new adaptive passenger restraint systems requires the implementation of a serial communication network, which connects the squibs and sensors to a central electronic module. The requirements on such a safety-critical backbone include the tolerance to serious damage of the bus wires, which may occur also during the event of a crash.

This paper describes the concept of an in-vehicle network, which combines economy, robustness and reliability with the exacting performance of high-speed multi-master communication. It needs only two wires for the distribution of power, data and clock in the system. The network offers real-time fault tolerance to all kind of wiring failures, which makes this system superior to all other concepts proposed for this application.