The future trends of the automotive industry include a higher usage of Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS), and the revolution regarding autonomous vehicles. That means an increase of the volume of data necessary for all these systems to work together. Due to the communication necessities of these systems, automotive ethernet has been primarily used in all vehicles. This technology adapts the common ethernet so the requirements of the automotive industry can be met. The automotive ethernet uses a physical layer standard, which is the BroadR-Reach. This technology gives the possibility for multiple systems in the same vehicle to simultaneously communicate and access information. Automated test equipment using BroadR-Reach protocol are scarce in the market, and do not have the ability for parallel tests for multiple devices, specially when the purpose is to perform network communication tests. To overcome this obstacle, multiple network converters would need to exist on the testing system, increasing its wiring complexity. To overcome these problems, Controlar has developed BRidge4Net, an innovative product which consists in a device with multiple network converters from common ethernet to BroadR-Reach. In this way, this device can be used in different testing stations (Burn-In, End of Line, In-Circuit Test, …), where multiple equipment using the BroadR-Reach protocol can be simultaneously tested. The BRidge4Net system is the first converter of 100BASE-TX and 100BASE-T1 existing on the market that enables the simultaneous test of multiple devices using BroadR-Reach protocol. This product reduced the necessary wiring for this task, while reducing the test system complexity and the possibility of errors in the diagnosis. BRidge4Net has four converters in only one Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and can be combined in a modular solution with the maximum capacity of 60 converters distributed in 15 PCBs. BRidge4Net has been validated for a Full-Duplex transmission with a speed of 100 Mbit/s. The upgraded BRidge4Net version for the 1 Gbit/s transmission is currently under development. It also features communication with the PHYs to enable internal diagnosis on the link status and quality. This product has been launched in the 2nd trimester of 2019 by Controlar, having been integrated in several projects developed in the company, showing great results in real industrial environment.

Dipl.-Ing. João Queirós, CONTROLAR - Innovating Industry, PORTUGAL Dr.-Ing. Carla Pereira, CONTROLAR - Innovating Industry, PORTUGAL Prof. Dr.-Ing. Carlos Alcobia, CONTROLAR - Innovating Industry, PORTUGAL Dipl.-Ing. Pedro Torres, CONTROLAR - Innovating Industry, PORTUGAL