Advanced Safety & Packaging Flexibility with Innovative Power Pack Design
August 25, 2021
Many of today’s new vehicles, like the 2021 Ford Bronco, feature the latest and greatest advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) technologies that enhance safety and performance and create new opportunities for connectivity.
One of these exciting, ADAS-enabling technologies in the Ford Bronco is Nexteer’s Near Cylindrical 10 FIT Folded Circuit Board Power Pack. This new power pack features our most compact, highest content design ever – a 10 FIT capable folded circuit board that enhances safety, cost savings and packaging space. The Bronco is the first to include this power pack design, which enhances safety for Bronco drivers based on backup redundancies in the controller circuits and connections.
Advanced Safety Always On
Our new power pack design features a 10 FIT fail-safe design. A technology’s FIT rating is a statistical measure of product reliability; a lower FIT rating indicates higher product reliability.
Our new power pack achieves a low FIT rating through backup redundancies in the controller circuits and software and electronic connections that provide support for critical components – thus ensuring the safety net is always on.
Designed to Fit
With a compact design that allows it to nearly fit into the motor’s cylindrical diameter, the power pack’s folded circuit board also reduces cost compared to the usual separate, interconnected boards.
This space-saving approach to power packs also provides OEM benefits for electric vehicles (EVs). With large battery packs often located centrally and low in the vehicle, EVs require new considerations in terms of packaging compared to traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles – thus technologies that provide packaging flexibility are critical.
Advanced Benefits from Advanced Steering Technologies
Our new power pack technology is ideally paired with one of our industry-leading electric power steering (EPS) systems to enable advanced safety and performance with precise, predictable feel of the road.
In the Ford Bronco, this new power pack is paired with Nexteer’s Rack-assist EPS (REPS) system. Our REPS system enables additional driver-assist features like lane keeping and auto park assist, while also enabling over-the-air (OTA) software flash updates. OTA updates enable connectivity benefits, such as being able to complete vehicle upgrades or maintenance remotely via software.
Through our advanced steering technologies, like this new power pack and REPS system in the Bronco, we’re delivering enhanced safety and performance benefits to both automakers and drivers in today’s more connected, software-driven vehicles. Going forward, we are committed to continuing to work with our OEM customers to leverage and standardize technologies like these across multiple platforms – thus further driving efficiencies while maintaining flexibility to support OEM market diversification needs.
