full tft lcd instrument cluster factory

There are other tft instrument clusters on the market, such as a custom Tft instrument cluster. In addition, the installation of a Tft panel cluster is small and easier to build the instrument as its own suggests. There are several types of Tft instrument clusters, including solar panel clusters, dash gauge cluster, and dashboard clusters.

Explore more products, find out more about them. On Alibaba.com, you can find different tft instrument clusters that are suitable for different vehicles and the tftometer modes.

Visteon’s RenderCore™ is an advanced graphics platform that gives designers the ability to develop 3D graphics before they are added to the vehicle’s instrument cluster. With RenderCore™, automakers can tap the skillset of the much larger gaming community, rather than relying on hiring or training specialized automotive developers. By eliminating the need for well-known automotive-specific design tools, RenderCore™ not only simplifies and streamlines the workflow, but also saves licensing costs and gives designers and engineers the creative freedom to deploy and preview any number of designs before final target.

Stoneridge instrument clusters are at the core of delivering vehicle operating data to the driver, whether it is a classic analog gauge cluster or a fully reconfigurable full TFT display cluster with animated 3D graphics. Our first mass produced electronic instrument cluster was introduced to the market in 1988. Since then, our instrument clusters have been designed and built using Stoneridge advances in hardware and software platforms and are adapted to meet each customer’s vehicle-specific requirements.

The traditional mechanical instrument lacks the ability to satisfy the market with characters of favorable compatibility, easy upgrading, and fashion. Thus the design of a TFT-LCD (thin film transistor-liquid crystal display) based automobile instrument is carried out. With a 7-inch TFT-LCD and the 32-bit microcontroller MB91F599, the instrument could process various information generated by other electronic control units (ECUs) of a vehicle and display valuable driving parameters on the 7-inch TFT-LCD. The function of aided parking is also provided by the instrument. Basic principles to be obeyed in circuits designing under on-board environment are first pointed out. Then the paper analyzes the signals processed in the automobile

instrument and gives an introduction to the sampling circuits and interfaces related to these signals. Following this is the functional categorizing of the circuit modules, such as video buffer circuit, CAN bus interface circuit, and TFT-LCD drive circuit. Additionally, the external EEPROM stores information of the vehicle for history data query, and the external FLASH enables the display of high quality figures. On the whole, the accomplished automobile instrument meets the requirements of automobile instrument markets with its characters of low cost, favorable compatibility, friendly interfaces, and easy upgrading.

As an essential human-machine interface, the automobile instrument provides the drivers with important information of the vehicle. It is supposed to process various information generated by other ECUs and display important driving parameters in time, only in which way can driving safety be secured. However, the traditional mechanical automobile instrument is incompetent to provide all important information of the vehicle. Besides, the traditional instrument meets great challenge with the development of microelectronic technology, advanced materials, and the transformation of drivers’ aesthetics [1, 2]. Moreover, the parking of the vehicle is also a problem puzzling many new drivers. Given this, traditional instruments should be upgraded in terms of driving safety, cost, and fashion.

The digital instrument has functions of vehicle information displaying, chord alarming, rear video aided parking, LED indicating, step-motor based pointing, and data storage. The instrument adopts dedicated microcontroller MB91F599, a 7-inch LCD, and two step-motors to substitute for the traditional instrument. All the information generated by other ECUs can be acquired via not only the sample circuits but also the CAN bus.

The instrument provides interfaces for different types of signals and the CAN bus. All types of signals (such as square wave signal, switching signal, resistance signal, analog voltage signal, etc.) coming from other ECUs can be acquired either from different types of sampling circuits or from the CAN bus. This makes it suitable for both the outdated application where the information from other ECUs can only be acquired via the sampling circuits and the modern application where the information from other ECUs are transmitted via the CAN bus.

The CAN bus interface and the 7-inch TFT-LCD make it more convenient to upgrade the instrument without changing the hardware. If the software needs to be upgraded, we need not bother to take the instrument down and program the MCU. Instead, we can upgrade the instrument via the vehicle’s CAN network without taking the instrument down, which makes the upgrading more convenient. Most of the information from other ECUs can be transmitted via the CAN bus; so, we do not have to change the hardware circuits if some of the ECUs’ signals are changed in different applications. Besides, since most of the driving parameters are displayed on the TFT-LCD, and the graphical user interface can be designed with great flexibility by programming, only the software needs to be revised to meet different requirements of what kind of driving parameters to display and so forth. These characters, together with the reserved interfaces, enhance the instrument’s compatibility in different applications.

It is a trend to incorporate the instrument into the vehicle information system via the CAN bus. The CAN bus interface gives the instrument access to the vehicle CAN network which enables easier fault diagnosing [3, 4] and information sharing. The fault diagnosing could be realized by accomplishing the fault diagnosing protocol above the low-speed CAN bus.

On the one hand, there are some automobile instruments which adopt 8-bit MCUs or 16-bit MCUs which have limited peripherals, so it is difficult for them to meet some requirements such as rearview video and high real-time data processing performance. And many extra components are needed if the designer wants to accomplish some functions such as video input. On the other hand, there are some advanced automobile instruments which adopt high performance MCUs (such as i.MX 53, MPC5121e, and MPC5123) and run Linux on them. They even use larger TFT-LCDs (such as the 12.3-inch TFT-LCD with a resolution of 1280 × 480 pixels) to display driving parameters. These automobile instruments show higher performances than the instrument in this paper. However, they are more expensive than this automobile. This instrument is able to provide almost all the functions of the advanced automobile instrument with a lower cost.

The instrument receives signals from other ECUs via the sampling circuits or the CAN bus interface. It can also receive commands from the driver via the button interface. The signals are then processed by the MCU, after which the MCU may send the vehicle information to the LCD or light the LEDs and so forth, according to the results. Therefore, the automobile instrument can be viewed as a carrier of the information flow. And the design of the system can be viewed from two aspects: the hardware system and the information flow based on it.

In order to guarantee the performance of the automobile instrument under specific on-board environment and to save the cost of the design, several basic principles must be considered.3.1.1. Chip Package

SMD components are the first choice due to space limitations of the instrument cluster. And the actual power of these components must be no more than 30% of the rated power.3.1.2. Overvoltage Protection

Reserved interfaces should be taken into consideration to shorten the development cycle of subsequent similar instruments and optimize the instrument for general use.3.1.4. Inventories

The automobile instrument receives and processes information from other ECUs such as the tachometer, the speedometer, the cooling water temperature gauge, the oil pressure gauge, and the fuel gauge. The signals coming from these ECUs are of different types, according to which different kinds of sampling circuits and interfaces should be designed. Accordingly, a classification of the input signals is first carried out, as shown in Table 1.

The microcontroller is essential to the performance of the instrument cluster. Therefore, the microcontroller that suits the system should have rich peripherals to reduce extra components, thus saving the space of the cluster and enhancing the stability of the system. Meanwhile, the operating frequency should be high and the memory size should be large for the demand of speed and accuracy in real-time processing. Besides, various operation modes are needed to lower down the power consumption.

Respecting the above mentioned factors, we finally chose the MB91F599 produced by Fujitsu as the microcontroller. The MB91F599 is particularly well-suited for use in automotive instrument clusters using color displays to generate flexible driver interfaces. It integrates a high performance FR81S CPU core which offers the highest CPU performance level in the industry. Besides, it has a graphics display controller with strong sprite functionality, rendering engine, and external video capture capabilities. These greatly reduce the need for extra components and enhance the stability of the system. The rendering engine can operate in combination with the video capture to enable image manipulation. Overlaid graphics such as needles or parking guidelines can be rendered in conjunction with captured video, which helps to accomplish the aided parking. What is more, multiple built-in regulators and a flexible standby mode enable the MB91F599 to operate with low power consumption.

Since the FLASH size of the microcontroller is only 1 MB which is limited for the storage of pictures displayed on the LCD, external FLASH is needed to store different kinds of meaningful pictures such as the background of the dial. Two S29GL256N chips with a memory capacity of 256 Mb are chosen for picture data storage for their high performance and low power consumption. The application circuits of the chips are provided in their datasheets, so it is unnecessary to go into the details of them here.

The ECUs of engine control, full active suspension control [10, 11], airbag control, traction control, and so forth are nodes of the controller area network and can be controlled via CAN bus in time. Thus a networked control system (NCS) is formed via CAN bus and some results in [12–15] may be useful in the controller design of the communication system. The communication system can be categorized by the requirements of real-time response of each node. The nodes requiring good performance in real-time response and reliability should be designed into high-speed communication network, while others should be designed into low-speed communication network [16].

Full active suspension control, airbag control, traction control, and so forth are incorporated into high-speed communication system since their requirements of real-time response and reliability are critical. Because of less critical requirements, on-board fault diagnosing [17, 18], doors control, windows control, and so forth are incorporated into low-speed communication system. The transmitting rate of the high-speed CAN bus is 500 kbps while that of the low-speed one is 250 kbps. The two kinds of communication systems are connected via a gateway which enables real-time sharing of data. And the data transmitting of the high-speed CAN bus has a higher priority over the low speed CAN bus when a collision occurs.

For this design, only the CAN transceiver and its auxiliary circuit are needed since the MB91F599 is integrated with two CAN controllers, which are connected to the high-speed and low-speed CAN bus, respectively. TJA1040 is chosen as the CAN transceiver for its low consumption in standby mode. Besides, it can also be woken up via CAN bus, which is required by some automobile instruments. Detailed circuit is provided in the datasheet of TJA1040, so the repetitious details need not be given here. Note that for high-speed CAN, both ends of the pair of signal wires must be terminated. ISO 11898 requires a cable with a nominal impedance of 120 Ω [19]; therefore, 120 Ω resistors are needed for termination. Here, only the devices on the ends of the cable need 120 Ω termination resistors.

The 7-inch TFT-LCD has a resolution of pixels and supports the 24-bit for three RGB colors. The interface of the 60-pin TFT-LCD can be categorized into data interface, control interface, bias voltage interface, and gamma correction interface.

The data interface supports the parallel data transmitting of 18-bit (6 bits per channel) for three RGB colors. Thus, a range of colors can be generated. The control interface consists of a “horizontal synchronization” which indicates the start of every scan line, a “vertical synchronization” which indicates the start of a new field, and a “pixel clock.” This part is controlled by the graphics display controller which is integrated in the MB91F599. We just need to connect the pins of the LCD to those of the microcontroller correspondingly.

Bias voltages are used to drive the liquid crystal molecules in an alternating form. The compact LCD bias IC TPS65150 provides all bias voltages required by the 7-inch TFT-LCD. The detailed circuit is also provided in the datasheet of TPS65150.

The greatest effect of gamma on the representations of colors is a change in overall brightness. Almost every LCD monitor has an intensity to voltage response curve which is not a linear function. So if the LCD receives a message that a certain pixel should have certain intensity, it will actually display a pixel which has intensity not equal to the certain one. Then the brightness of the picture will be affected. Therefore, gamma correction is needed. Several approaches to gamma correction are discussed in [20–22]. For this specific 7-inch LCD, only the producer knows the relationship between the voltage sent to the LCD and the intensity it produces. The signal can be corrected according to the datasheet of the LCD before it gets to the monitor. According to the datasheet, ten gamma correction voltages are needed. These voltages can be got from a resistive subdivision circuit.

The vehicle electric power system is mainly composed of a generator and a battery [23]. The power voltage of a car is +12 V while that of a bus is +24 V. The power supply of the automobile instrument alternates between the generator and the battery. The generator powers the automobile instrument and charges the battery when working. Note that the battery does not power the instrument when the generator is on. If the generator is not working, the instrument is powered by the battery. Figure 9 shows how the power supply alternates. Node ① is connected to the battery; node ② is connected to the generator; node ③ is connected to other circuits. When the generator is on, and are turned off, which prevents node ③ from getting power from the battery. Then node ③ gets power from the generator via other routes (not shown in the figure). When the generator is off, and are turned on, so node ③ gets power from the battery.

For this instrument, the LED indicators, the backlight, and the chord alarm need to be supplied with a voltage of +12 V; the CAN transceiver, the EEPROM, and the buttons need to be supplied with a voltage of +5 V; the video buffer circuit, the external FLASH, and the data interface of the LCD need to be supplied with a voltage of +3.3 V. Besides, the microcontroller needs to be supplied with voltages of +5 V and +3.3 V simultaneously. Figure 8 offers a detailed block diagram of the power supply for the automobile instrument.

The main task for the program is to calculate the driving parameters of the vehicle and display them on the TFT-LCD. The calculation is triggered by the input signals via the sampling circuits or the CAN bus. The main program flow chart of the system is shown in Figure 10.

The design scheme of a TFT-LCD based automobile instrument is carried out form aspects of both the hardware and the main program flow chart. The MB91F599 simplifies the peripheral circuits with its rich on-chip resources and shows high performance in real-time data processing. The automobile instrument is capable of displaying the velocity of the vehicle, the engine speed, the cooling water temperature, the oil pressure, the fuel volume, the air pressure, and other information on the TFT-LCD, which contributes a lot to driving safety and satisfies drivers’ aesthetics. Besides, the rearview video makes the parking and backing easier and safer for the driver. Moreover, the CAN bus interface and TFT-LCD make it easier for the upgrading of the instrument without changing the hardware, thus saving the cost.

Volume growth of hybrid cluster will be dominated in emerging markets such as APAC countries and Latin America due to increasing adopting in mid-segment vehicles by indigenous OEMs

USA, China and Europe are estimated to see lower growth in hybrid cluster as compared to digital cluster due to direct transition from analog to completely digital cluster in most trims

Integrated cockpit domain controllers, head-up display and driver assistance features are expected to get integrated into the cluster in the forecast period

Eye tracking and turn-by-turn navigation integration into the cluster, which is already implemented by few OEMs will influence the price rise in this segment

Continental has signed a strategic agreement with Pioneer Corporation to integrate Pioneer’s entire infotainment subdomain for cockpits with the company’s instrument cluster high performance computer.

Automotive Instrument cluster is a set of instruments and gauges that helps in understanding the functioning of a vehicle at a single glance. Instrument cluster comprises speedometer, tachometer, fuel gauge, warning indicators, pointers, sensors and electronic control unit. The display can be either analog, digital or hybrid. It ensures driver’s safety as it keeps track of the car’s health and movement.

ADAS and AI based vision processing technology for autonomous vehicles StradVision is partnered with LG Electronics to develop an AR head up instrument cluster projects such as ADAS warnings and navigation information on windshield using augmented reality which enhances the vehicle safety.

Japanese semiconductor manufacturing company Renesas Electronics Corporation introduced a new system on chip product for the automotive electronics applications. The new R-Car Gen3e SoCs series provides 20% higher CPU speed for instrument cluster, driver monitoring systems and integrated cockpit domain controllers. Q3

Google revealed a new feature in Android Auto at its Google I/O annual developer conference, the new Android Auto will support instrument cluster integration, that is the app will display on cluster if the screen is supported by digital display. Q2

Hyundai Motor India increased its Verna models production in India and partnered with German multinational company Continental AG to supply digital instrument clusters to meet the growing demand. Q1

The electronic components such as display screen (mostly LCD), integrated chips, and control units are available readily and cheaper in cost. This has been a major factor in expanding the market.

Digital clusters will continue to be a premium feature in emerging economies and also contribute to increased value per unit of the digital cluster. Integrated cockpit domain controllers, head-up display and driver assistance features will be further integrated into the cluster in the forecast period.

The sales of electric vehicles has been on rise in the past few years with the global automakers surpassing revenue milestones and pre-order bookings. As the pollution levels and oil prices across the world are on a rise, the demand and production of electric vehicles is increasing creating incentives for automakers to develop more enhanced technologies. Several automotive part manufacturers are now focusing on the development of digital instrument clusters keeping in mind the requirements of an electric vehicle. For instance, Visteon announced an agreement with Renault motors to supply the instrument clusters for the company’s electric Kwid model.

Instrument clusters for electric vehicles come with an integrated dashboard to provide the user necessary information about the battery charge left as well as the availability of the nearest battery charging station and software enhancements from OEMs. Therefore, with the rise in demand for electric vehicles and automakers making strides in the sector by developing new technologies, the demand for instrument clusters with specialised features for electric vehicles will increase.

The instrument cluster in a car contains the different displays and indications that allow the driver to control the vehicle. Several instruments, such as a speedometer, odometer, tachometer, oil pressure gauge, fuel gauge, and other indicators for system failures and alerts, are among them.

Load drivers each physical (non-graphical) gauge is controlled by its own stepper motor. In addition, almost all instrument clusters have LED backlighting. To function properly, each of these devices requires a load driver.The stepper motor drivers are often integrated into the instrument cluster MCU; however, the LED backlight driver is implemented as an independent IC.

An integrated CAN and/or LIN transceiver is frequently included in instrument cluster MCUs for connecting with numerous sensors throughout the vehicle. The microcontroller may additionally have stepper motor drivers for actuating various gauges, as previously indicated.

Power Management in Low-dropout regulators are particularly effective in situations where there is a lot of load, such as when using an electric starter. External memory, stepper motors, one or more MCUs, CAN interface, LIN interface, and LED backlighting are all examples of instrument cluster components that can work at different voltage levels. When designing for efficiency, compactness, low cost, and low EMI, careful thought is essential because there are so many distinct power rails.

On the basis of technology hybrid instrument cluster is expected to dominate the market. Its ability to integrate both analog and digital has been the factor for this. The rise in electric vehicles and adoption of hybrid instrument clusters in commercial vehicles is expected to boost the market.

Passenger vehicles hold most of the share in the instrument cluster. High-end passenger vehicles attract larger market share as mostly they will be hybrid type and feature more options than other segments.

The 2 wheelers are sold in high numbers in Asia region, accounting for a sizable instrument cluster market volume in the region. The MY 2018 onward vehicles launched in the Asian market have a much higher digital content.

The instrument cluster market in the USA will be driven by the growth of the electric vehicle industry as well the increasing implementation of fully digital clusters in the pickups as they account for a large volume of the overall sales. Another dominant factor which will influence the growth of the instrument cluster market will be the focus on advanced driving safety features, implementation of which will require the need for OEMs to redevelop their cluster systems to include driver assistance features.

The demand for SUVs and crossovers ( 55% share in new car sales in 2020) will increase the instrument cluster market value in the country. Many top selling SUVs in the US are fitted with digital instrument cluster as a standard option.

Pickups account for 16-17% market share of new car sales in the US and all of them have Analogue dials + TFT display(centre) + multiple gauges setup (on top). Ford F-150, the top-selling US vehicle for more than four decades, gets a 8 inch TFT display in centre for higher variants and 4.2 inch display for lower variants.

Post Covid-19, the US was less prone to drop in sales numbers due to the rise in private ownership of vehicles, thereby showing a positive trend in growth of the cluster market as well.

15 inch diagonal multi-color head-up display which projects data onto the windshield such as speed, temperature, directions, time. There are 3 DIC cluster options.

12 inch diagonal screen with vehicle dynamic control with traction control system as well as a multi-color head-up display. The cluster includes gauges for speed, temperature, infotainment details as well as fuel details.

12.3 inch instrument cluster with configurable display and 3D animations. Speed, temperature and other vital information can be projected on the 6 inch head-up display.

The rise in sale of electric vehicles (+147% YOY 2020) has led to a rise in hybrid and digital instrument clusters across Europe. The volume of pure electric and plug-in hybrid cars (EVs) increased from 575,000 units in 2019 to a staggering 1.42million units in 2020 indicating the accelerated transition to new energy vehicles in this region

The EU region had among the lowest penetration of analog systems globally. Only entry level car models such as Dacia Sandero, Opel Corsa and Fiat Panda featured an analog cluster due to significant price advantage.

High share of Premium and Luxury car sales in Europe region has boosted the Automotive Instrument cluster market immensely, by Value. All the top selling models in Europe feature hybrid instrument clusters. VW now offers the biggest range of Digital instrument clusters starting from Polo, Golf, to Tiguan, Passat across multiple variants.

Among French OEMs, Renault offers a 7- inch TFT Display on many top-selling vehicles but not on its Budget brand Dacia. PSA group offers Digital instrument cluster on best-selling SUVs like 208,3008 and 2008.

EV push by OEMs such as Polestar, Daimler, BMW and others is a strong factor to the growth of the value market especially in the digital cluster segment.

In the year 2020, China had an estimated output of 6.6M analog clusters, 7.3M hybrid clusters and 5.9M digital clusters, accounting for ~30% of the worlds instrument cluster sales

The instrument cluster market in China is expected to witness an aggressive growth strategy in the features offered due to stiff competition as well as the phenomenal EV growth aiding in complete redevelopment of the in-cabin experience. As of 2020, China has the highest percentage of vehicles among its top selling vehicles to feature an all-digital cluster as compared to any other region

Among the top selling vehicles most of them are fitted with hybrid instrument clusters, except for the budget cars such as Wuling Hongguang and Volkswagen Lavida which still have  analogue instrument panels.

Indigenous models such as Haval H6, Geely Boyue and the BAIC EU series were among the top selling cars which featured a complete penetration of full digital clusters

As of 2020, Japan is the only region where digital clusters had the highest penetration of about 40%, followed by hybrid clusters at 31% and analog at ~29%. The hybrid market is expected to eat into the market share of the analog market due to indigenous OEMs such as Toyota and Honda looking to implement their home-grown technology in all their models.

As of 2020, Toyota is yet to transition from TFT screens in their top selling vehicles Prius, Sienta and Corolla. The digital cluster is estimated to get more than 50% of the value market share in 2025 at ~$1.5B and the overall instrument cluster at ~$2.8B by 2025

Most of the top selling passenger vehicles are hybrid type instrument clusters. Very few are digital types such as Toyota Prius. The companies manufacturing instruments from Japan cluster are continuously investing on R&D to improve technology, this will boost Japan’s market in this sector.

Driver assistance systems and EV growth will influence the price per unit of the cluster as OEMs such as Toyota and Honda continue to race towards implementation of such features.

In 2020, analog clusters had a large penetration of ~68%, hybrid clusters at about 30%, while digital clusters had a poor share of ~2%. Nissan magnate and Renault Kwid were the vehicles in the entry segment to get an all-digital instrument cluster

Indian market will continue to witness growth in the analog market due to need for extremely cost-effective clusters in the low budget vehicles, which constitute a significant chunk of the number of sales in the region

Till 2016, almost all cars sold in India had the same instrument cluster provided on all variants except different tachometer readings in case of Petrol and Diesel. But, now there is clear differentiation between lower segment variants and higher segment variants of the same vehicle, and the design on Instrument cluster varies. Ex- 2019 Mahindra XUV 300, Hyundai Venue, 2020 Hyundai Creta.

Except for Suzuki Baleno and Kia Seltos most of the top selling cars have analog instrument clusters.  Analog instrument clusters hold the majority of share as they occupy all the top selling budget cars. However, the hybrid instrument cluster is slowly seeing the rise.

Till date, there is no option of adding a Digital instrument cluster as a Paid option while configuring a car like US and EU markets. For Example, one can opt for a 10-inch Digital cluster in VW T-Roc for ~$500 extra.

Going forward, Indian market will continue to witness growth in the analog market due to the need for extremely cost-effective clusters in the low budget vehicles, which constitute a significant chunk of the number of sales in the region.

The rise in demand for ADAS (advanced driver assistance system) and autonomous driving is expected to boost the market, as it requires a more sophisticated instrument cluster system.

Apple is working on a new project called IronHeart which enables vehicle function controlling through the iPhone such as instrument cluster, radio, HVAC, power seats and many more.

Visteon Corporation is partnered with Blackberry to develop next generation digital instrument cluster, telematics solutions and infotainment systems for automobiles, Visteon made multi year agreement with Blackberry to use QNX software to develop digital cockpit solutions.

Nobo Technologies to use Blackberry’s advanced digital cockpit controller for the next generation SUV Haval H6S, for the cluster display, infotainment, driver monitor system built using Blackberry QNX Neutrino Real time operating system and QNX Hypervisor. Q3

Hyundai Motor Group is partnered with Finland’s software solutions provider Qt, which supplies human machine interface(HMI) technology for the implementation of instrument cluster, rear entertainment systems and infotainment systems in its Kia and Genesis brand vehicles. Q3

Panasonic has developed a concept for advanced cockpits which will feature multiple displays as well as touchless operation. The electronic cockpit solution offers an innovative digital instrument cluster with other displays using HMI.

Electric vehicle industry will strongly influence the growth of the digital cluster market due to the need for consolidation of entire cluster system in the vehicle

China accounts for close to 10% of the worldwide analog cluster sales of about 7.2M units in year 2020, making it the single largest market in terms of volume

With the introduction of Nissan Ariya in US, Nissan Magnite in APAC and continued influence of Nissan Leaf in EU the company will strongly influence digital and hybrid instrument cluster numbers

USA, China and Europe are expected to see lower growth in hybrid cluster as compared to digital cluster due to direct transition from analog to completely digital cluster in most trims

Bosch’s curved instrument cluster, first of its kind is installed in Volkswagen Touareg, it is expected to benefit the drivers by improving the visibility.

In the year 2019, Visteon Corporation announced the launch of a digital instrument cluster to be incorporated in PEUGEOT 208. The unique 3D i-cockpit will come equipped with a pair of TFTs to provide graphical content with 3D animations as well as content on both screens.

The new R-Car Gen3e series of SoCs, which includes six new members, provides a scalable lineup for automotive applications that require high-quality graphics rendering, such as integrated cockpit domain controllers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), digital instrument cluster, driver monitoring systems, and LED matrix light. It Increases CPU performance — the R-Car M3Ne, R-Car M3e, and R-Car H3e devices can now run at up to 2GHz.

Scalable Instrument Cluster platforms with low-power, line-based graphic processing, functional safety, embedded Hardware Security Module (HSM), and Over-The-Air (OTA) software updatability deliver a rich visual user experience at the lowest possible cost of ownership.

Automotive instrument clusters give drivers a consolidated and easy-to-read display with all of the vehicle’s important driving data. It’s the driver’s workspace, so a perfect cluster dashboard that can be safely updated and customised is essential.

On the market, Infineon provides an unrivalled spectrum of scalable instrument cluster platforms. The TraveoTM and TraveoTM II microcontroller product families offer the highest scalability, supporting both traditional gauge and hybrid instrument clusters, as well as virtual instrument clusters.

The graphics engine within the microcontroller can operate on a line basis, which reduces the amount of memory required for graphics processing. The TraveoTM II graphic MCU can support the virtual instrument cluster with a high resolution.

Performance and density scalability are provided by Infineon’s SemperFlashTM and HyperRAMTM memory products to fulfil the needs of various instrument cluster systems. These high-performance memory devices are suited for high-speed access and real-time graphics.

Automotive components manufacturers for OEMs Spark Minda and automotive electronic components and system supplier Stoneridge are joint ventures since 2004, Minda Group acquired a major stake in Stoneridge JV to take ownership of instrument cluster and sensor business.

Global human machine interface(HMI) technology provider Candera GmbH, is partnered with auto component manufacturer Varroc Engineering Limited, by signing a MoU(Memorandum of Understanding) agreement. Candera will supply software solutions in HMI and Varroc will develop hardware for the TFT instrument cluster.

As many OEMs such as Volkswagen Group, Toyota, GM aim to move the development of their cluster systems in-house in order to unify their platform for cockpit solutions, we expect a big transition in the market with suppliers for cluster systems needing a higher level of collaboration with OEMs in order to stay in the race to provide innovative solutions.

Continental and Visteon hold the majority of global market share and are the leading manufacturers in this sector. Some of the other players are Denso (Japan), Bosch (Germany) and Magneti Marelli (Italy). Qualcomm and Mentor Graphics (US) have been providing software platforms for digital instrument clusters. Pricol from India has been the leading instrument cluster manufacturer for 2 wheelers.

Continental has signed a strategic agreement with Pioneer Corporation to integrate Pioneer’s entire infotainment subdomain for cockpits with the company’s instrument cluster high performance computer. The development of this technology is aimed primarily for the Asian market. The company also recently released the half-yearly financial report for the first half of the year 2021 with the sales worth $23.7 billion which was an increase from the previous year which reported $19.5 billion for H1 of 2020. The sales of the automotive technology department was $9.2 billion for the same term, an increase from the H1 of 2020 which reported $7.9 billion worth sales.

The leading manufacturer of instrument clusters, Visteon recently announced the fiscal results for the second quarter of the year 2021. The company recorded net sales worth $610 million which was a whopping 59% year on year increase from the Q2 of 2020 reporting net sales worth $371 million. The company also announced that Geely Auto’s new Xingyue L flagship SUV will be the first production vehicle to incorporate the intelligent cockpit system developed with Qualcomm technologies and ECARX.

Prominent market players, market dynamics with OEMs as well as forecasted opportunities for Automotive Instrument Cluster Market or component suppliers

All Instrument packages contain a gear shift indicator display allowing the transmission gear position (Park, Reverse, etc.) to be shown within the message center. The GSS-3000 accommodates automatic transmissions with 2- 4 forward gears and enjoys a simple and straightforward installation.

Although Dakota Digital instrument systems are programmable for both day and night intensity levels, the DIM-1 will allow rotary, or on-the-fly brightness adjustment added convenience.

Dakota Digital instrument systems are designed to utilize a stock or aftermarket fuel level sensor. If a universal or replacement sensor is desired, the SEN-06-1 is a great choice.

The BIM-01-2 OBD-II (J1850/CAN) Interface connects directly to the ECM diagnostic port to extract engine and transmission data and supply it to the VFD/ VHX/ HDX/ RTX instrument, making installation a breeze.

The Dakota Digital BIM-17-2 makes it easy to add compass and outside air temperature information to your VFD/ VHX/HDX/ RTX instrument system. Readouts are visible in the instrument system"s message centers; sending units and mounting hardware included.