MSc Thesis project @ NXP Semiconductors , BU Automotive, BL Car Infotainment & Driver Assistance

Company Description

NXP Semiconductors enables secure connections and infrastructure for a smarter world, advancing solutions that make lives easier, better and safer. As the world leader in secure connectivity solutions for embedded applications, we are driving innovation in the secure connected vehicle, end-to-end security & privacy and smart connected solutions markets.

Department Description

The CAR Audio Processing & Power team (part of BL Car Infotainment and Driver assistance) is responsible for the development and integration of high performance Audio IPs in Radio and developing state-of-the-art Amplifier ICs for the automotive market. The IPs consists of high performance Digital processing, Audio ADC/DAC, Analog Input muxes, ClassD power stages, Digital Audio Control Loops, power supply monitoring circuits, power management and the like.  These modules and products are developed in CMOS and High Voltage AMS (-SOI) processes (ABCD9) and should meet tough automotive requirements on EMI/EMC, lifetime reliability over stringent operating conditions. Audio Processing and Power team is a multi-disciplinary, multi-site team responsible for making the best in class automotive audio amplifier ICs for NXP.

Assignment

Modern class-D amplifier systems comprise a micro-controller that runs firmware from ROM. Bugs in the firmware lead to high costs and increase the time to market drastically. The current hardware simulation environment is too slow and cumbersome for firmware development and verification. There is a need for a faster simulation environment to secure correct firmware behavior. An appropriate C-model for the complete amplifier system needs to be made. First step is to make a C-model of the micro-controller module. Objectives:

• create microcontroller model (C or C++)
• instruction set simulator that can run binary firmware images
• fully compatible with hardware model (VHDL)
• extensible to interface with models of other IP-modules in the system
• create C-testbench with microcontroller model instance
• create SystemC shell to interface C-model in existing hardware simulation

Future:

• create C-models of amplifier IP-modules (digital and analogue)
• create C-model of complete amplifier system
• integrate amplifier model in existing regression test systems
• use amplifier model to investigate future amplifier topologies

Requirements

• 20 weeks full-time in Nijmegen (can be more)
• must be pursuing a degree in EE (Electrical Engineering) or ECE (Electrical & Computer Engineering)
• affinity with embedded systems and software
• digital design knowledge (VHDL language preferred)
• experienced programmer (C, C++)
• SystemC , SystemC-AMS, SystemC-TLM knowledge is an advantage
• familiar with scripting languages such as TCL, Perl and Python

Contact

Last modified: 2021-12-06