Melexis introduces the third generation of LIN drives for mechatronics applications in the automotive industry

     Melexis has announced the launch of its third generation of LIN drivers -MLX 81330 and MLX 81332 - for mechatronics applications in the automotive industry, including motor controlled fins and valves as well as small fans and pumps, for small motors with power up to 10 W.

     The third generation of intelligent LIN drivers MLX 81330 (0.5A motor drive) and MLX 81332 (1.0A motor drive) are based on high voltage SOI (silicon on Insulator) technology with a high level of stability and function density, while combining analog and digital circuits. Delivers single-chip solutions that are truly fully compliant with industry standards LIN 2.x/SAE J2602 and ISO 17987-4 LIN slave node specifications. In addition to integrated motor drives, the new generation also expands I/O capabilities and uses a dual microcontroller architecture, with one core dedicated to communication and the other microcontroller to run application software.

     The MLX 81330 and MLX 81332 use a "fully integrated" LIN slave design approach that reduces bill of materials (BOM) costs, reduces PCB size, simplifies production design, and speeds up assembly. The MLX 81332 is directly interfacing with the ECU and can drive up to four phases of one motor with A maximum current of 1 A each, or two phases with a maximum current of 1.4 A. This means it can drive a 2-phase DC motor, a 3-phase BLDC motor, or a 4-phase bipolar stepper motor using a field-oriented control (FOC) algorithm (with or without sensors).

     The smart LIN driver contains five 16-bit PWM timers, two 16-bit timers, and a 10-bit ADC as well as differential current sensing amplifiers and temperature sensors. In addition, over current, over voltage and over temperature detection/protection functions are integrated. In addition to supporting analog I/O, you can interface with standard external sensors using common protocols for automotive applications, such as SPI and SENT.

     Integrated multiple processing cores share an on-chip memory architecture. The application core (MLX16-FX) can access 32 KB of flash memory (with ECC), 10 KB of ROM, 2 KB of RAM, and 512 bytes of EEPROM (with ECC). The communication processor (MLX4) can access 6 KB of ROM and 512 bytes of RAM. Embedded motor controller ics are used to enable ASIL-B (ISO 26262) compliant safety applications.