Silicon Labs launches the industry's broadest family of automotive-grade clock solutions

     Silicon Labs launches the industry's broadest family of automotive-grade clock solutions designed to meet the demanding clock needs of in-vehicle systems. The new AEC-Q100 compliant clock devices include the Si5332 arbitrary frequency programmable clock generator, the Si5225x PCIe Gen1/2/3/4/5 clock, the Si5325x PCIe buffer and the Si5335x fan-out clock buffer.

     These clock devices help automotive Oems and Tier 1 suppliers simplify clock tree design, reduce system failure points, improve system reliability, and optimize performance for high-speed serial data transmission. These devices are suitable for a variety of automotive applications, including camera subsystems, radar and LIDAR sensors, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous driving control units, driver surveillance cameras, infotainment systems, Ethernet switches, and GPS and 5G connectivity.

     Traditionally, automotive system developers have used quartz crystal and oscillator clock solutions, however these solutions are prone to failure and startup problems due to shock and vibration, resulting in reduced system-level reliability. As automotive infotainment platforms continue to introduce new features, ADAS systems continue to increase in complexity and data acquisition rates, and clock requirements become more demanding, requiring more diverse frequency combinations and lower jitter reference clocks. Instead of using more quartz based components to meet growing clock demands, developers now have the option of using Silicon Labs' automotive grade low-jitter, arbitrary frequency clock generators and buffers to simplify clock tree designs and improve system reliability.

     James Wilson, General manager of Clock products at Silicon Labs, said: "Silicon-based clock solutions have delivered superior performance, reliability, BOM integration and cost effectiveness to the communications, data center and industrial markets for many years. "Our new Automotive clock offering is the broadest product range in the industry and will deliver the same benefits to automotive Oems, Tier 1 suppliers and other automotive technology companies, redefining the driving, navigation and experience of the car and enabling innovation."

     Automotive in-vehicle applications require a higher operating temperature range (automotive Level 2, -40 to +105°C) and compliance with the stringent AEC-Q100 automotive standard. Other clock product vendors can only provide limited solutions to meet these stringent market demands, resulting in automotive developers having to add more quartz crystals and oscillators to their designs to generate the additional reference clocks required. This approach has limitations such as larger PCB footprint, higher BOM costs, and reduced system reliability. In addition, higher precision, low jitter oscillators are also very expensive, and automotive versions are even more expensive.

     In contrast, integrating multiple reference clocks into a single clock generator IC greatly reduces the number of quartz crystals and oscillators in the design, minimizes potential points of failure, and improves overall system reliability. The Si5332 clock utilizes Silicon Labs' proven MultiSynth technology to provide arbitrary frequency, arbitrary output clock synthesis with 60% less jitter than competing automotive clock solutions.

     The Si5332 clock supports up to eight clock outputs, each of which can be selected in a different signal format (LVDS, LVPECL, HCSL, LVCMOS) and an independent 1.8-3.3V VDDO. Easily connect to various FPgas, ASics, Ethernet switches/PHYs, processors, Gpus, SOCs, PCIe Gen1/2/3/4/5 and NVLink SerDes. Clock synthesis, clock distribution, and format/level conversion are integrated into the same chip, which provides an optimized single-chip clock tree solution for automotive design.