Paper Info
Title
Virtual Prototyping in SystemC AMS for Validation of Tight Sensor/Firmware Interaction in Smart Sensors
Abstract
The growing number of ultra-low power sensor applications drives the processing requirements "on-the-edge" and increases the demand for smart sensors, which implement signal processing and algorithmic features in firmware. Virtual prototyping in SystemC has become a major field of interest to validate the firmware and allow a seamless integration. However, the capability of SystemC is limited to discrete-time applications and cannot handle the full sensor system including its analog front end and mechanical part. Consequently, the firmware validation is often limited to oversimplified scenarios. In this paper, we present a virtual system prototype (VSP) using SystemC and its analog/mixed-signal (AMS) extensions which permits the validation of complex firmware features with tight interaction to the sensor element. The key benefit of this approach is an improved controllability and observability during the sensor firmware development even in early design phases. An industrial case study of a MEMS accelerometer and gyroscope is used throughout the paper to illustrate the proposed approach. A performance analysis proves the pracitcal relevance of our full-stack VSP as the simulation time is increased by a factor less than five compared to a pure SystemC approach without any functionality in the analog or physical domain.
Year
DOI
Venue
2022
10.1109/FDL56239.2022.9925660
2022 Forum on Specification & Design Languages (FDL)
Keywords
DocType
ISSN
SystemC,SystemC AMS,Virtual Prototype,MEMS
Conference
1636-9874
ISBN
Citations 
PageRank 
978-1-6654-7333-0
0
0.34
References 
Authors
4
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Alexandra Küster100.34
Rainer Dorsch213512.60
Christian Haubelt3152.11
Karsten Einwich401.01