These buses are more robust and faster than LIN and SENT. When it comes to vital functions that can heavily impact a passenger’s safety, you’ll control those with Controller Area Network (CAN), Controller Area Network with Flex Data (CAN FD), or FlexRay. SENT is primarily used to transmit sensor data, like temperature or position, to controllers. Single Edge Nibble Transmission (SENT) is another low-cost bus used in automotive designs. Local Interconnect Network (LIN) is a slower, but affordable serial bus, so it’s usually used to communicate with less critical functions in a car, like controlling the seat and mirror adjustments. Oscilloscopes can decode and trigger on automotive buses like CAN, CAN FD, LIN, FlexRay, SENT, PSI5, user-definable NRZ, and CXPI. This blog will focus on the later – using oscilloscopes to debug and characterize the physical layer of your automotive designs. Oscilloscopes are optimized for taking measurements at the application layer because of their ability to characterize analog signals. A protocol analyzer is a great tool for looking at the trace flow of data, but it doesn’t provide much, if any information, on your physical layer.

If you’re working on automotive serial busses, you probably have a protocol analyzer and an oscilloscope on your lab bench. Learn how to fully test your automotive designs, whether it be windshield wiper controls or engine and braking systems, to prevent any malfunction. And when you are designing a car that is going to be on the same road as your loved ones, safety is paramount. There are more systems and subsystems in your vehicle’s designs requiring multiple serial buses, more hardware, and very thorough testing. The quality of automotive serial bus designs becomes crucial as cars get smarter and further integrated.

Multimeter test serial connection