Funding project DIANA — Integrated diagnostics for the analysis of electronic failures in vehicles

DIANA, a research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, involves AUDI AG, Continental AG, Infineon Technologies AG, and ZMD AG. Together, the four partners are researching ways to improve the analytic and diagnostic capabilities of electronic control units (ECU) in motor vehicles. Assisted by several research organizations and universities, they are working on ways to make error detection more precise, and faults easier to rectify for automakers and repair shops. The ultimate goal is to establish a seamless diagnosis chain, ranging from semiconductor test to the diagnosis at the repair shop. To enable this diagnostic capability in the system, its basis, the integrated circuits (IC), have to provide detailed diagnostic data. This is a radically new requirement which will affect the way in which future automotive ICs are designed and tested.