Product category:
Communications ICs (Wired)
News Release from: Atmel Corporation | Subject: ATA6621
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 24 January 2006
LIN transceiver takes system functions
onboard
Compared with stand-alone LIN transceivers, system basis chips such as the ATA6621 are highly integrated and include a voltage regulator plus a watchdog.
Atmel's ATA6621 LIN system basis chip (SBC) complies with the new LIN2.0 standard Compared with stand-alone LIN transceivers, system basis chips such as the ATA6621 are highly integrated and include a voltage regulator plus a watchdog
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 18 Nov 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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This includes high-volume automotive comfort applications such as door modules, seat control or intelligent sensors, and also powertrain applications such as engine control systems.
Due to the monolithic integration of the 5V voltage regulator and the watchdog, system costs can be reduced by approximately 25% since the discrete components required by other solutions, not using SBC chips, are not needed.
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As a result, the ATA6621 also needs less board space, which makes it ideally suited for applications requiring very small footprints.
Another outstanding feature of the new LIN SBC is its extremely low quiescent current consumption of typically 10uA in standby mode.
If the microcontroller is in sleep mode, a reduced voltage regulator accuracy is sufficient to scan switches or supply flashing LEDs.
The additional silent mode has been implemented to achieve quiescent currents as low as 40uA, whereas normal mode would require 50mA.
"Today's applications are getting smaller and smaller".
"Sensor LIN slave nodes, for example, provide ever-decreasing PCB area".
"Such applications will benefit from the high integration of this new LIN system basis chip", said Torsten Mann, Atmel's Marketing Director for Automotive and Control products.
"An important feature is the silent mode that our SBC chip provides".
"Due to the increasing number of ECUs in a vehicle and the communication via the bus systems, the overall current consumption of the ECUs needs to be kept as low as possible due to the permanent power requirements placed on the vehicle's battery".
To minimise EMC problems, the ATA6621 incorporates a controlled slew rate complying with the LIN 2.0 specification.
The receiver's input filter helps to minimise RF interference caused by signals on the bus line.
To meet the 42V power net requirements, the bus output can tolerate short circuits of up to 60V.
Furthermore, the ATA6621 LIN IC provides several protective features such as over-temperature shut down and full protection against short circuits.
The dominant time-out function on the transmit pin prevents the bus line from being driven permanently in a dominant state.
Furthermore, the ATA6621 has an additional wake pin, which is not provided by all LIN SBCs on the market.
A wake-up source recognition indicates at the transmit and receive pins which wake-up has occurred: the local wake-up via pin wake or the remote wake-up via the LIN bus line.
Depending on the recognised wake-up source, the microcontroller selects the appropriate routines.
The device also meets strict automotive qualification demands (protection against conducted interference, EMC and 6kV ESD protection at the supply and LIN pins) and can withstand transients as specified in ISO/TR7637/1.
ATA6621 LIN SBC IC samples are available now in Pb-free QFN20 packages with pricing starting at US $0.83 for 10,000-piece quantities.
Additional LIN SBC family members and versions with integrated microcontroller for optimised performance and further PCB area reduction will be introduced in Q1 2006.
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