Fully Integrated Single-Chip LIN Motor Driver for Reducing BOM and Simplifying Design in Automotive Mechatronic Applications

3 December 2020 - 0 Comments

Gen 3 Single-Chip LIN Motor Drivers from Melexis

Melexis has introduced the MLX81330 (0.5 A motor drive) and MLX81332 (1.0 A motor drive) Gen 3 LIN drivers designed based on high-voltage SOI (Silicon On Insulator) technology. The new devices deliver high levels of robustness and function density in automotive mechatronic applications at up to 10 W, including motor-controlled flaps and valves, and small fans and pumps. The all-in-one approach to LIN slave design allows the MLX81330 and MLX81332 to reduce Bill of Materials (BoM), minimize PCB area, simplify product design, and boost assembly speed.

The LIN drivers come with 5x16-bit PWM timers, 2x16-bit timers, and a 10bit ADC, along with a differential current sense amplifier and temperature sensors. They are protected with over-current, over-voltage, and over-temperature detection/protection. Along with an analog-ready I/O, they are also able to interface to standard external sensors using protocols commonly used in automotive applications such as SPI and SENT.

The integrated processing cores share a common on-chip memory architecture. The application core (MLX16-FX) has access to 32 KB Flash memory with ECC, 10 KB of ROM, 2 KB of RAM, and 512 bytes of EEPROM with ECC. The communications processor (MLX4) can access 6 KB of ROM and 512 bytes of RAM.

Features of MLX81330 / MLX81332 LIN Drivers

Ron = 3Ω typ. (0.8Ω typ.) for 1 half-bridge + shunt
2x NFET for each half-bridge
On-chip charge-pump for top-NFETs
Vds protection for all NFETs
MLX16-FX memories: 32 KB Flash with ECC; 8 KB ROM (10 KB ROM) ; 2 KB RAM ; 512 B EEPROM
MLX4 memories: 6 KB ROM; 512 B RAM
Configurable RC-clock 12..32 MHz
4x (x8) general-purpose IO’s, digital, analog, 1x high-voltage input, SPI, I2C-slave (+UART for MLX81332)

Note: More technical information can be found in the MLX81330 and MLX81332 Datasheet linked at the bottom of this page and on the product pages of MLX81330 LIN driver and MLX81332 LIN driver.