Freescale Adds High-Speed CAN Transceivers for Industrial and Automotive Applications

To help manufacturers and systems designers more easily achieve compliance with increasingly stringent industrial and automotive safety requirements, Freescale Semiconductor announced a family of robust CAN transceivers designed for high-speed performance and reliability. Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and electrostatic discharge (ESD) are critical requirements in harsh industrial and automotive environments due to the close proximity of a wide range of networked electronic systems and devices. Freescale's MC33901 and MC34901 chokeless CAN high-speed physical layer transceivers deliver outstanding EMC performance and high ESD robustness without the need for external components, thereby reducing overall system costs. The devices also offer fail-safe features to assist with system functional safety, as well as exceptionally low quiescent current down to 8 micro amps.

“Last month, Freescale announced a major initiative to expand our analogue portfolio to address the growing industrial market, and today’s introduction of these world-class CAN devices underscores the focus and speed with which we are executing to our strategic industrial analogue initiative,” said James Bates, senior vice president and general manager for Freescale’s Analogue and Sensors business. “Our newest high-speed CAN devices are a perfect example of how Freescale is aggressively leveraging our automotive expertise in safety, efficiency and robustness for the fast-growing industrial space.”

The MC33901 and MC34901 products convert digital protocol information into analogue CAN communication across in-vehicle networks, as well as long-length CAN node interconnect for industrial applications. The devices are ideal for a broad range of applications including safety-critical industrial motor control, factory automation and industrial robotics systems, as well as automotive body electronics, power train and infotainment systems. Both products offer outstanding performance at 2 Mbps baud rate to address CAN FD (flexible data) application requirements.

Product specifications and features include: Robustness: Exceeds stringent EMC and ESD requirements without added choke (±6kV ESD, >36Bm DPI); Low Power Mode: quiescent current down to 8 micro amps; Industrial-Ready: Supports long-length CAN node interconnect for industrial applications; Designed for EMC: Low emission design combined with high immunity for optimum EMC performance; Pin-for-pin compatible with industry standard; 5V and 3.3V I/O compatibility with auto-detect.

Industry-specific product options include: Automotive: Built-in “Tx Dominant Timeout” feature (MC33901); and Industrial: Built-in support for long-length and low baud rate networks (MC34901). The MC33901 and MC34901 devices are planned for availability in Q2 2014.