Abstract

Modern-day automobiles perform a plethora of functions to improve vehicle safety, performance and comfort. From powertrain to advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), from body electronics and lighting to infotainment and safety, a large number of electronic control units (ECUs) deployed in vehicles perform these electromechanical functions. ECUs exchange control and data-log information through in-vehicle network buses. Among Controller Area Network (CAN), Local Interconnect Network (LIN), FlexRay and Ethernet, the CAN bus remains the most popular choice given its ease of use, good common-mode noise rejection, priority-based messaging, bitwise arbitration to handle bus contention, and error detection and recovery.

Until now, almost all CAN transceivers deployed in vehicles are based on 5V driver/receiver supply. This is because the CAN physical layer ISO11898-2:2024 and CAN component level electromagnetic compliance (EMC) standard IEC62228-3 provides specifications and pass/fail limits only for 5V supplied CAN transceivers. There are sub-systems which need 5V power rail only for the CAN transceiver. A 3.3V supplied CAN transceiver can simplify power stage design of ECU’s by eliminating 5V rail needed, while being fully interoperable with 5V CAN transceivers on same network bus and meeting strict automotive EMC requirements. This article introduces Texas Instruments TCAN3403-Q1 and TCAN3404-Q1, the industry’s first automotive qualified and EMC certified 3.3V CAN FD transceivers.