Melexis Simplifies Automotive Mechatronic Applications With an All-in-one LIN Motor Driver IC

The Gen 3 MLX81330 (0.5 A motor drive) and MLX81332 (1.0 A motor drive) smart LIN drivers from Melexis are the fully integrated single-chip LIN motor driver that reduce BoM and simplify the design of motor-controlled flaps and valves, and small fans and pumps. Suitable for automotive mechatronic applications at up to 10W, these third-gen drivers are based on high-voltage SOI (Silicon On Insulator) technology. This enables them to deliver high levels of robustness and function density, combining analog and digital circuitry to create true single-chip solutions that are fully compliant with the industry-standard LIN 2.x/SAE J2602 and ISO 17987-4 specifications for LIN slave nodes.

Both MLX81330 and MLX81332 drivers feature extensive I/O capability and dual microcontroller architecture. One core is dedicated to communications while the second microcontroller runs the application software. The smart LIN drivers include 5x16-bit PWM timers, 2x16-bit timers, and a 10bit ADC, along with a differential current sense amplifier and temperature sensors.

Over-current, over-voltage, and over-temperature detection/protection is also integrated. In addition to analog-ready I/O, they can interface to standard external sensors using protocols commonly used in automotive applications, such as SPI and SENT. The integrated processing cores have 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. The embedded motor controller ICs are designed for safety applications according to ASIL-B (ISO 26262). The smart LIN drivers are provided with software that includes the LIN communication stack.