By , 1

PORTLAND, Ore. — Tire pressure monitoring is now mandated by the governments of many countries around the world, making passenger cars and light trucks the biggest market for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) that go inside the tire to monitor pressure and transmit it wirelessly to the dashboard of the driver.

The government mandates are for the safety of consumers, but big commercial trucks and heavy machinery are exempted from these requirements, assumedly because professional drivers know better than to drive on deflated tires. However, many truckers — studies have found — adjust their tire pressure depending on the load they are carrying and sometimes intensionally deflate them slightly even though that degrades vehicle fuel efficiency. As a result, recent studies have shown that truck and heavy equipment fleet managers could reap significant savings by using MEMS tire pressure monitors.

Freescale says it already has the world's smallest MEMS tire pressure monitor for consumer vehicles, but now its upping the ante by offering the world's highest pressure sensor for heavy trucks, buses and construction vehicles. Many tire pressure monitors use bulk machining of silicon blocks to realize tire pressure MEMS monitors, but Freescale uses standard inexpensive surface machining to realize a tire pressure monitor that uses capacitance to be much more accurate than the bulk-machined or even other surface machines tire pressure sensors, according to Freescale. Its system-in-package (SiP) also contains a two-axis accelerometer, an S08 8-bit processor with 512 bytes of RAM, 16-kbytes of flash (8k for Freescale library, 8k for applications), dedicated state machines for reduced power consumption, six general-purpose input/output (GPIO) ports — including two analog-to-digital (A/D) inputs — a low-frequency (125-kHz) receiver for programming user-defined functions and making periodic resets, and a high-frequency (315-to-434 MHz) RF transmitter supporting rolling encryption to issue warnings to the fleet manager and to read out a "prognosis" of each tire's condition.

The built-in accelerometer turns off the device when the vehicle is sitting still, but can also record the acceleration while in motion and also includes a temperature sensor to include in the correlations. By optimizing those parameters with advanced data analytics for optimizing predictive maintenance and tracking driving behavior, the tires not only last longer, but a significant increase in vehicle fuel efficiency can be realized, less down time per vehicle and optimal vehicle usage, according to Freescale.

"We are entering the era of the smart tire — one that can tell you when and how it needs to be rotated, when it needs to be replaced and other prognostic diagnostics, instead of just telling you how much pressure it holds and when it needs to be aired up," Ian Chen, head of Freescale's Software and Algorithms for Sensor Solutions told EETimes.

Shown here on an 18-wheelers lug nut, the new Freescale MEMS tire pressure monitor ups ante in ruddedness and performance features.

(Source: Freescale)

Measuring just 7-by-7-by-2.3 millimeters and weighing just .3-grams the tiny sensor can be built right into a tire by its manufacturer — making it a smart time — or can be added-on at the valve using an after market device from Advantage Pressure Pro and others. The FXTH87xx can measure pressures up to almost 217.5 pounds per square inch (1500 kilopascal second, kPs).

The new Freescale FXTH8715 high-pressure sensor with a built in RF transmitter measures just 7-by-7-by-2.2 millimeter and weighs just 0.3 grams.

(Source: Freescale)

"Fleet managers who have been beta-testing the new FXTH87xx tell us that they could save up to a million dollars a year by keeping close track on the wear and tear on those huge tires on their 18-wheelers, knowing when a where to rotate them and keeping the at the optimal air pressure for the loads they are carrying," Chen told us.

The smart-tire of the future will not only contain a pressure sensor, but a two-axis accelerometer (x-and-Z axis), a processor for analytics, flash for special functions, a low-frequency receiver for programming it, and high-frequency RF transmitter to issue warnings and to read our a tire's "prognosis"

(Source: Freescale)

Accuracy is plus-or-minus 2.4 pounds-per-square-inch (psi or in metrics plus-or-minus 17kPa) operating the range of 14.5 psi (100-kPa) to 217.5 psi (1500-kPa).

— R. Colin Johnson, Advanced Technology Editor, EE Times

Related articles:



Join over 2,000 technical professionals and embedded systems hardware, software, and firmware developers at ESC Boston May 6-7, 2015 and learn about the latest techniques and tips for reducing time, cost, and complexity in the embedded development process.

Passes for the ESC Boston 2015 Technical Conference are available at the conference’s official site with discounted advance pricing until May 1, 2015. The Embedded Systems Conference and EE Times are owned by UBM Canon.