Low cost, low power, intelligent brake

temperature sensor system for

automotive applications
1

Gyula Bakonyi-Kiss , Zoltan Szucs

Budapest University of Technology and Economics

H-1521 Budapest, Hungary
1

E-mail: achtonus@gmail.com, szucs@eet.bme.hu

Abstract -The paper describes a solution for an integrated

intelligent brake temperature sensor system on PCB that can be
easily implemented in one silicon chip to maximize performance
and minimize system costs. A prototype of the low cost, low
power brake temperature sensor system was designed and
realized at BUTE. The system is capable of measuring brake
temperature in the wide interval of -40C+800C. It consists of
several standalone brake shoe temperature sensors based on
integrated thermocouples. The separate sensors can be self
powered and use RF and/or wired communication with the
Electrical Control Unit.

I. INTRODUCTION
The safety of vehicle drivers and their passengers is of major
importance. One way to achieve higher safety is to warn the
drivers about detectable hazards[1].
It is anticipated that a variety of cars with diversified
features that include anti-lock braking system (ABS), traction
control system (TCS), antiskid steering, collision warning
system (CWS) will be more commercially produced to satisfy
the consumer needs in the near future. This is parallel to the
trend of current technology of manufacturing smart cars and
the desires to have comfortable and safe ride in our vehicles
[2].
Consequently, there is a need to modify the current
conventional braking system to make it safer [2]. The
malfunction or failure of vehicular brake systems can cause
serious accidents and injuries, thus it is vital to detect their
status. There are two main factors determining brake wear.
The first is component material selection and the second is
temperature [3]. The stabilization of stress induced by cyclic
temperature load occures rapidly [4]. Thermal stresses due to
high temperatures may induce a number of unfavorable
conditions such as surface cracks and permanent distortions
[5] [6].
With correct monitoring of the brake system, temperature
failure rate can be significantly reduced. The selection
methods of the proper material for the brake system is not
discussed in this paper.

1-4244-1161-0/07/$25.00 2007 IEEE

BUTE participates in designing sensors for Ambient

Intelligence applications. One of these applications is a brake
temperature sensor IC. The aim of our project is to find a new
solution that can be easily implemented in one silicon chip to
maximize performance and minimize system costs.
There are two common ways of measuring brake
temperature: infrared (IR) cameras and thermocouple-based
thermometers. IR cameras are accurate (<1% error) and they
can sense a larger surface than the thermocouples, but they are
expensive, big in size and sensitive to vibration (which is
often present at a wheel). Thermocouples are robust, easy to
use and easy to attach to the wheel. Furthermore, they can be
integrated into the brake shoes, which reduces the cost. We
chose the thermocouple based design for the above mentioned
reasons.
With K-type thermocouples we can measure brake
temperature in the specified interval of -40 C +800C (the
temperature measurement interval of these thermocouples is
200C...+1200C). Fig. 1 shows the temperaure rising in the
brake disc during single braking. After several brake cycles or
continuous braking, the temperature can be significantly
higher.

Fig. 1. The power losses at the front brakes and the measured average
temperature of the front disks[7]

A low cost, low power brake temperature sensor system

was designed on PCB at BUTE. This system is capable of
measuring brake temperature in the wide interval of -40C
+800C. The temperature sensors are thermocouple-based
gradient sensors, which can be integrated in every wheel of
the vehicle (mainly heavy duty vehicles).
II. THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE SYSTEM
The brake temperature sensor system consists of one central
unit, called Electrical Control Unit (ECU), and several
separate temperature sensor units. Fig. 2. shows a simple
sketch of the system in a car.

information is digitalized and displayed on the Displaytech

162b LCD display. The driver can access the temperature
information through the command buttons and the menu of the
user interface. One can check the temperature of the brakes,
and the ambient temperature near the brakes. The adjustable
LCD contrast can reduce the power consumption of the LCD
therefore the consumption of the whole circuit.
The IA-4420 chip (product of Integration Hungary) is
responsible for the RF communication. This chip is a low
power, multi channel FSK transciever. It has a completely
integrated PLL and automatic frequency control so the
transciever is automatically tuned to the incoming signal [8].
A suitable PCB antenna can be used simply connected directly
to the transciever.
The communication through the CAN bus is transacted by
a Motorola MCP2510 CAN controller. It features an industry
standard SPI serial interface, enabling an easy connection to
virtually any microcontroller [9]. The CAN bus signal levels
are set by a Motorola MCP2551 CAN transciever, which
serves as the interface between the CAN protocol controller
and the physical bus [10].
The last module of the ECU is the RS232 interface. It is based
on Maxims MAX232 interface chip. This interface is used to
send the gathered temperature information to a PC or an on
board computer for further data processing.
The ECU uses a 5V power supply based on a 7805 IC. For
lower power consumption the unused communication circuits
are sent to sleep mode, and the contrast of the LCD is
adjustable.
B. SENSOR UNIT

Fig 2. The parts of the brake temperature sensor system in a car

The Electrical Control Unit should be placed on the control

panel of the vehicle, while the sensors are mounted on the
brake shoe of the wheels.
A. ECU ELECTRICAL CONTROL UNIT
As the ECU is situated in the drivers cabin, built in the
control panel, it is easily accessible by the driver. The block
diagram of the system with one sensor can be seen in Fig. 3.
The unit is an Atmel ATmega8 microcontroller based printed
circuit board. Its main function is to gather the sensors data
transmitted via RF signals or the CAN bus. The collected

The temperature sensor circuitry is realized on a separate PCB

and mounted on the caliper. It contains the thermocouple
terminals, the cold point compensation sensor, a third order
low-pass thermovoltage filter for noise cancellation, a
thermovoltage amplifier stage, a microcontroller an RF
transmitter-receiver chip and a CAN bus interface.
The output voltage of one thermocouple is proportional to
the temperature difference between the hot (brake shoe) and
cold (ambient) points. This very low level DC signal is
amplified to a level suitable for A/D conversion. The 10bit
A/D converters are in the microcontroller. After conversion,
the digital data should be RF or CAN bus transmitted to the
Electrical Control Unit for further processing and display.

Fig. 3. The block diagram of the system

The third order filter consists of two stages, a

second order RC filter and a first order LC filter. Both
stages has a -40dB/decade attenuation. The cut-off
frequency of the second order RC filter was set to
3,18 Hz which is a tipical value regarding to
thermovoltage filters. The LC filters cut-off
frequency was set to 500 Hz.
The filtered thermovoltage was amplified to the
correct level for analog to digital conversion. The
reference voltage is the microcontrollers internal
2,56V reference source. The highest thermovoltage
value to be measured was 47mV (at 850C). So the
amplification needed is 54,35. For thermovoltage
amplification, we chose the AD623 instrumentation
amplifier, which is dedicated for thermocouple
applications [11]. The gain setting resistors (RG)
value was 1,87k: RG is a metal thin-film resistor in
series with a potentiometer for better thermal stability
and better gain error compensation.
For
coldpoint
compensation
a
digital
thermometer chip (DS1621) was used. It sends the
digitalized temperature data to the microcontroller via
its Two Wire Interface (TWI).
The microcontroller of the Sensor Unit is also an
ATmega8. Its purpose to perform the AD conversion,
and to control the RF or CAN bus transmission. The
RF and CAN modules are the same as in the ECU.
The components of the Sensor Unit were choosed
to use only 3,3V for power supply for low power
consumption, which can be further decreased by
software by sending the unused modules to sleep or
power down mode.

III. IC DESIGN
The components used in our Sensor Unit design can
be easily implemented on a silicon chip. BUTEs
future aim is to design a complete IC layout for the
described intelligent sensor. The 3,3V supply can be
gained from a thermogenerator. As thermocouples
can generate power, this energy can be used for
supplying the sensor circuitry when the temperature
of the brake compared to the ambient temperature is
high enough. For this purpose we intend to use arrays
of thermocouples to get higher output voltages. This
way the sensor needs no external power connection.
In the IC design the C of the Sensor Unit will be an
analog to digital converter with some additional
integrated control circuits to handle temperature
measurement, the RF and CAN bus communication.
A CMOS IC design can be operated at low
voltages, with lower power consumption. Analogue
and digital processing functions of the sensor can be
integrated onto a CMOS chip, which reduces system
package (and PCB) size and overall cost.
IV. CONCLUSION
A low cost, low power, intelligent brake temperature
sensor system with RF communication was designed
at BUTE. The system consists of several standalone
brake shoe temperature sensors based on integrated
thermocouples and a microcontroller based Electrical
Control Unit (Fig. 4) for data acquisition and display.
The PCB prototype was realized and the
microcontroller program was written.

REFERENCES
[1]

Fig. 4. The prototype of the Electrical Control Unit

Characterization steps with discrete thermocouples

(of K type) were succesfully carried out in our
thermal test chamber in the range of 0250C.
The components used in our design can be easily
implemented on a silicon chip. BUTEs future aim is
to design a complete IC layout for the described
intelligent sensor.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the NKFP NAP 736205/2005 BELAMI projects of the Hungarian
Government and by the OTKA TS-049893 project of
the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund.

Samuel Artus, Sad Hayat, Marcel Staroswiecki, Vincent

Cocquempot: A brake disc's temperature estimation module,
SCSC Summer Computer Simulation Conference, pp 608613, 2003. ISBN: 1-56555-268
[2] S. N.Sidek, M.J.E. Salami: DESIGN OF INTELLIGENT
BRAKING SYSTEM, 0-7803-6355-8/00/ IEEE, pp II580 II.585, 2000.
[3] Luise Gudmand-Hyer, Allan Bach, Georg T. Nielsen, Per
Morgen: Tribological properties of automotive disc brakes
with solid lubricants, Wear 232, pp 168175, 1999.
[4] R. El Abdi, H. Samrout: Anisothermal modelling applied to
brake discs, International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics
34 pp 795-805, 1999.
[5] Ji-Hoon Choi, In Lee: Finite element analysis of transient
thermoelastic behaviors in disk brakes, Wear 257, pp 4758,
2004.
[6] Thomas J. Mackin et al.: Thermal cracking in disc brakes,
Engineering failure Analysis 9, pp 63-76, 2002.
[7] G. Celentano, R. Iervolino, S. Porreca, V. Fontana: Car Brake
System Modeling for Longitudinal Control Design, 0-78037729-X/03/ IEEE, pp 25-30, 2003.
[8] IA4420 datasheet:
www.integration.com/docs/IA4420-PB.pdf
[9] MCP2510 datasheet:
ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/21291F.pdf
[10] MCP2551 datasheet:
ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/21667E.pdf
[11] AD623 datasheet:
www.analog.com/Uploadedfiles/data_sheets/AD623.pdf