LIN slave ICs ease automotive networking

Melexis N.V. has expanded its line of smart LIN slave IC's with a reconfigurable LIN switch slave. The MLX80105 eases automotive networking by connecting any door, roof, seat, steering wheel, dashboard, HVAC, light control or similar switch module via LIN, stated the company.

Incorporating the Melexis LIN transceiver physical layer, Melexis LIN ASSPs guarantee world leading integrated ESD protection results, claimed the company. The LIN protocol handler meets all LIN standards such as LIN2.0, LIN2.1 as well as SAE J2602.

The MLX80105 is a fully integrated LIN slave on a single chip. All of the necessary components including physical layer LIN transceiver, LIN controller, voltage regulator, application controller are integrated along with the supporting functions ADC, PWM generation and high voltage capable IOs. This high integration level reduces the BOM dramatically and enables the development of very compact and small LIN slave modules, claimed the company.

The Melexis dual task microcontroller implementation is used, allowing the application development to be completely decoupled from the LIN network load considerations. Application software tasks are taken up by a 16bit RISC MCU.

A complete C-based development environment is provided. Software development in an IDE along with low level LIN driver and software library functions are re-used from the MLX80104 uniROM IC. MLX80104 customers can seamlessly include the MLX80105 into existing or new projects, stated the company.

The MLX80105 draws less than 50uA of current in sleep mode and it is wake-up capable via the LIN bus as well as via connected switches or other wake-up sources. The LIN slave supports switches in matrix as well as single switch configurations connected to the 18 available IOs. All IOs are high voltage resistant for safely supporting remote off module connections. Via eight interrupt capable IOs rotary encoder are supported. Position monitoring and control for control dials and knobs, motors or actuators is dramatically simplified with added appeal to have direct physical input or software control and signal sharing among different systems. Analog inputs can convert any analog signal such as resistive encoders and resistive switches, to bus messages for network connected devices. An internal battery monitor enables supply voltage dependent functions.

To illuminate the switch module panel, eight open drain PWM outputs are available with configurable PWM base frequency from 45Hz to 45kHz. With a message from the LIN master the LED output intensity can be adjusted according to OEM specific requirements.

All the above functions are implemented on one piece of silicon in a 5 x 5mm QFN package.