A glowing blue wire frame of a car

Transforming Safety Culture: The ADI approach

Functional safety is a cornerstone of ADI’s Safety Culture. While ensuring workplace and plant safety remains a top priority for us at Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI), the concept of safety culture extends far beyond standard practices.

Charles Murphy, ADI's Managing Director of the Software and Security GroupCharles Murphy, ADI's Managing Director of the Software and Security Group, says that functional safety is particularly crucial in complex devices like automobiles. Integrating functional safety into products throughout the development lifecycle can help mitigate risks, ensure compliance with industry standards, and reduce rework later in the process. That's why ADI is committed to embedding functional safety into the products and solutions we develop for our customers from the very beginning, often in close collaboration with their design teams.

 

Managing Risk Through Functional Safety

A prime example of functional safety is the automobile air bag. Here, functional safety ensures that the airbag deploys only when necessary, avoiding unintended activation during regular driving. This illustrates a systematic approach to functional safety.

While functional safety has been a consideration in engineering for years, it has now become integral to all aspects of our work, from airbags to battery and power management systems. This evolution is driven by growing demands from regulators, customers, and the industries themselves.

Although functional safety can't prevent all malfunctions, it can provide alerts to help avoid catastrophic outcomes. For instance, the brake module in a car warns drivers to slow down if the brake system encounters a failure, keeping safety at the forefront.

A man emerges from a crashed car in which the airbag has gone off. 

Prioritizing Functional Safety from the Start

In product development, many organizations rush into prototyping to accelerate market entry. However, neglecting functional safety considerations until later can lead to systematic failures. By prioritizing safety from the outset, companies can reduce the need for extensive rework later in the development process, ensuring that the final product not only meets market demands but also complies to safety standards and effectively mitigates risks.

At ADI, we take the responsibility of designing functional safety into our products early in the production process to protect our customers' end users. We collaborate closely with our customers' engineers to ensure that even the initial design iterations incorporate functional safety requirements.

Different industries have varying standards for defining functional safety, which must adapt to the rapid pace of technological advancements. By considering functional safety from the beginning, designers can stay ahead of evolving requirements, minimizing redesigns and delivering optimal products.

Happy woman driving a car 

More Than Just a Checkbox

ADI's functional safety team is committed to transforming the perception of functional safety within the organization and demonstrating its value to engineers and customers alike. Functional safety should be a viewed as a differentiator and a value-added feature, ultimately enhancing product safety.

Our safety culture ensures that many of ADI's most critical products meet ASIL compliance right out of the box. Examples include the ADBMS line such as ADuCM33XWFS, Gigabit Multimedia Serial Link (GMSLTm) technology, and various power supply chips.

The impact of ADI’s Safety Culture is measurable. For instance, in the development of our wireless battery management system (wBMS), functional safety deliverables were treated as essential components of the development process, including a safety manual, safety mechanism validation reports, safety mechanism implementation guide (SMIG), and more. ​
 

Kyle Fabris, ADI's Functional Safety DirectorKyle Fabris, ADI’s Functional Safety Director, highlights the critical connection between product functionality and malfunction in today's complex devices. “Functional safety has never been more important to our customers," he states. “This is especially true in sectors like automotive, where the integration of electronics and software require us to incorporate safety measures into our products.”

“In the past," said Kyle, "functional safety was often regarded as just a checkbox in the design process. At ADI, we envision a future where safety and scalability are not competing interests but rather collaborative partners in the pursuit of excellence.”