Micronas announces LEAP Automotive Controller with low radiation disturbance (0017)

Scalable ARM-based architecture offers client-specialized variations without expenditure

Freiburg, Germany, 21 November 2000 - At Electronica 2000, Micronas announced three new families of its Low Emission Automotive Processors (LEAP) based on an ARM7TDMI® CPU: The Car Dashboard Controller familiy (CDC), the Car Body Controller family (CBC) and the Car Entertainment Controller family (CEC). While members of the CDC family are specialized on triggering up to seven step motors and LCD displays and are therefore preferably used in dashboards, members of the CBC family, in contrast, are used for a variety of different applications within the car. For instance, control of air conditioning, seat and mirror positioning and control of sunroofs. For the time being, the CEC family aims on car radios. In future, this family will expand into high-level applications. For example future members of the family will perform the complete baseband processing including MP3 decoding.

The new controller families offer three important features: First of all, the patented Low Emission Technology developed by Micronas which suppresses radiation in order to avoid interference. Second, the CDC family offers 5 V I/Os which enables the ICs to work together with the step motors in the dashboard. Third, the three families are based on a scalable architecture.

"Scalable architecture" means that customers can change various parameters of the IC in order to get the right type for their application. For example, they can select the capacities of the ROM and RAM or the number of CAN controllers. The complete production process of the ICs at Micronas is prepared to allow such changes with minimum effort, including test issues.

Thus, Micronas offers a platform for realizing a broad range of various versions covering low-complexity to high-complexity ICs. This enables the company to react quickly to changing market demands. Another advantage: New IC versions do not have to go through a complete qualification process. The flexible approach allows customers to get the ICs exactly tailored to meet their application-specific requirements. It also offers a roadmap for the future since the controllers can grow in complexity according to the demand for higher level solutions in the car. Customers can protect their investments because the upgraded versions are software and hardware compatible to the previous versions. Since R&D resources and Time to market are getting more and more key success factors, this is of great benefit to the customer.

In automotive applications it is essential that ICs emit very low radiation to prevent interference with other electrical circuitry. For example, it is very likely that the car radio will be jammed by the clock frequency of some of the ICs. While it is possible in most cases to shield the ICs, this turns out to be very expensive. In some cases, even redesign cycles are required to eliminate problems with radiation. A much better way to tackle the problem is to try to eliminate the source of the radiation. This is exactly the Micronas approach: By spreading the radiated energy with the aid of a random generator that changes the clock frequency permanently, the power of the radiation is reduced below effect levels.

To maintain the internal timing conditions in spite of the permanent changes in the clock frequency of the ICs is of great importance, especially because the CAN interfaces react very sensitively on changes in timing. With its patented Low Emission Technology, Micronas was able to get around the difficulties with timing and can now offer a very cost effective methodology for suppressing radiation.

In fact, this gives the user huge potential for cost savings. In one case, a system manufacturer was able to use a two-layer PCB instead of a four-layer PCB which lead to dramatically reduced system costs.

For members of the LEAP families, Micronas offers a braod range of peripherals. This includes multiple ROM and RAM options, analog functions such as 10-bit ADCs, comparators, LCD drivers, watchdogs, low power modules, DMAs, UARTs, CAN-modules, DIGITbus and I_C modules. I/O options include modules for stepper motors and configurable PWM modules.

Also available are versions with embedded flash memories and multi-chip modules (MCM). MCMs allow the integration of various technologies into one standard IC package. Micronas started volume production of MCMs aiming at automotive applications several years ago.

As it is possible to integrate multiple CAN modules in one IC, these controllers are ideally suited to perform bridge functions (gateway) in order to connect various CAN-networks within the car. Cars are usally equipped with more than one CAN network, and the networks usually work with different data rates. For connecting the different CAN networks, gateways are required. With the option to integrate two, three or more CAN modules, it is very easy for the users to realize bridge functions.

First samples of members of the CDC family will be available starting from the first quarter of 2000. Micronas has already started shipments of engineering samples. Pricing depends on the configurations of the ICs.