To improve diagnostics in safety-critical applications, particularly those seeking IEC 61508 or ISO 26262 certification, product designers are replacing dedicated hardware monitoring components with microcontrollers. This paper describes the use of microcontrollers within safety product designs for power supply sequencing and fault detection, replacing multiple sequencers and voltage monitors, as a form of cost and size reduction. The design requirements added due to safety are outlined, along with avoidance of common cause failures, communications to other portions of the product design, and cybersecurity implications.
