Enhanced Self-Synchronized Reduced Media-Independent Interface for Robotic and Automotive Applications

The increasing pervasiveness of control systems used in robotic and automotive applications requires the installation of a growing number of sensors and actuators. In parallel to the downsizing of all the components, new techniques for tracing versatile printed circuit boards (PCBs) are emerging: A 3-D molded interconnection device, for example, creates the opportunity to reduce up to 75% of weight by combining a single-layer PCB with mechanical parts. Getting rid of unnecessary wires, hence, becomes indispensable, and new on-board interfaces with fewer pins must be designed. This article proposes a novel encoding scheme and the corresponding interface that reduces the number of wires between automotive Ethernet (100BASE-T1) MAC and PHY down to 2 and corrects up to 37.8% of single-bit errors. As this interface can be clocked at 33.33 MHz, it does not require differential transmitters, receivers, or any other special block, and for this reason, it can be easily implemented on a small-sized field-programmable gate array.