Options
2020
Blog Post
Title
Functional Safety For Fail-Operational Systems
Title Supplement
Redaktionell betreuter Blogbeitrag auf https://semiengineering.com, December 10th, 2020
Abstract
Rethinking classic concepts is required for autonomous vehicles to be affordable. Functional safety issues have long been an important part of product development wherever machine operations that are potentially dangerous for humans are carried out unattended. However, in terms of electrical and electronic systems, the need has been limited to a few industries such as medical technology and aerospace. Apart from that, the functional safety concepts were only used for niche products. This changed fundamentally at the end of the last century when, due to increasing miniaturization, more and more electronic control units were used in everyday devices. In 1999, for example, the first version of IEC 61508 was published. That describes basic, cross-industry concepts of functional safety, which since then must be complied with by all manufacturers of safety-critical products as the state of the art. It was followed by a large number of industry-specific standards that retain the concepts of IEC 61508 and hone them for use in their industries. Certainly, the best known of these standards is ISO 26262, which deals with the functional safety of electrical and electronic systems in the automotive industry.