Product category:
Analogue and Mixed Signal ICs
News Release from: Melexis | Subject: MLX16305
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 23 March 2006
Automotive sensor interface finds
industrial use
The MLX16305 interlock-switch sensor interface IC allows fail-safe monitoring of current modulated sensors, typically remote interlock switches with diagnostics requirements.
New from Melexis, the MLX16305 interlock-switch sensor interface IC allows fail-safe monitoring of current modulated sensors, typically remote interlock switches with diagnostics requirements Interlock switches are used in high volumes both in Europe and in the USA with resistive as well as two-wire Hall effect switches for seat belt buckle presence detection
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 17 Oct 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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Other typical automotive applications include presence detection of airbags, and monitoring of door, bonnet and boot latches and locks.
The MLX16305 is ideal also for industrial applications with safety interlock switches, like security doors in machinery, tools or appliances.
This IC may also be used to interface with two-wire analogue sensors in general, for instance in combination with the MLX90308/90314 sensor interface ICs in current mode.
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The MLX16305 is a regulated supply with short circuit protection for 12V battery applications, with output current and output voltage sensing capability.
The device is produced in a HV-CMOS technology and qualified for 40V load dump protection.
Its high output current range (up to 40mA) guarantees adequate "cleaning current" for (resistive) contact switches.
The high measurement accuracy allows the tracking of any possible contact aging, and therefore it allows predicting imminent contact failures.
The wide output voltage range allows it to be applied with most viable two-wire Hall sensors.
It even allows the use of general-purpose three-wire Hall effect switches like the US5782 in a two-wire scheme.
The MLX16305 makes it simple to distinguish the actual open or close state of a remote switch from possible failure conditions like open or broken wires, short circuits to battery or to ground or even shorts between wires.
In a six switch application the microcontroller can diagnose 20 conditions one by one by interpreting the analogue voltage output from the MLX16305.
The monitoring capability of the controller can be further extended to 12 (or more) switches using one (or more) additional digital output(s) on the microcontroller.
This digital output can set the analogue output of an MLX16305 to high impedance, allowing designers to multiplex several MLX16305 devices on the same I/O of the controller.
Henri Vanderhenst, Business Unit Manager, comments: "There is no safety switch monitoring product on the market that allows such extensive diagnostics as the MLX16305".
"Furthermore its flexibility and accuracy allow it to be used by any type of two-wire current sensor application".
"The MLX16305 is a typical example of a successful automotive application specific standard product (ASSP) that can be leveraged by the industrial market as well".
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