CAN interface has been a very popular serial communication standard in the industry due to its excellent prioritization and arbitration capabilities. In systems with different voltage domains, isolation is typically used to protect the low voltage side from the high voltage side in case of any faults. Isolation also breaks any ground loops allowing only the desired signals to be transmitted, thereby improving signal quality.

Isolated CAN is used for communication with the microcontroller in a wide range of applications such as solar inverters, circuit breakers, motor drives, PLC communication modules, telecom rectifiers, elevators, HVACs and EV charging infrastructures.

In the past several years, multiple digital and wireless ultrasound probes have been introduced to physicians as vision-enhanced stethoscopes, which may someday replace the traditional 150-year-old stethoscope. GE’s Vscan, Siemens’ Freestyle, SonoSite's iViz and Philips’ Lumilify are among the first wave of ultra-portable probes for physicians and rural villages. Ultrasound imaging may be the only modern imaging modality choice for rural areas because of its cost-effectiveness and portability. It is exciting to TIers to innovate and deliver solutions to serve people who may have never been served by modern medicine.

Further reducing power requirements and increasing image quality demands high channel count and low power ICs. The AFE5832LP and AFE5832 devices are designed to address these needs. The AFE5832 is industry’s first 32-CH analog front-end (AFE) solution, and the AFE5832LP is its lower power version. Both devices are pin-to-pin compatible. The AFE5832LP achieves power consumption of < 20 mW/CH, which is approximately 6× lower than the power consumption of the AFE5818 and AFE5808 devices in traditional console systems.

The IEEE Standard 1149.1-1990, IEEE Standard Test Access Port and Boundary-Scan Architecture (JTAG) is a method for verifying designs and testing printed circuit boards after assembly. It is used as the primary means for transferring data to a nonvolatile memory of an embedded system and debugging embedded software.

This application report describes the physical connections for JTAG and design considerations to be taken into account for a custom board. It also shows how to use the JTAG interface on the SimpleLink™ MSP432E4 LaunchPad™ development kit for debugging the onboard microcontroller using an external debugger, or by using the onboard debugger for debugging an off-board microcontroller.

Functions of comfort and convenience available in all modern vehicles today (and in the foreseeable future) rely on body control modules (BCMs). BCMs work behind the scenes to operate headlights, rear lights, interior ambient lights, windshield wipers and more.

Both the quantity of BCMs in a car and the number of comfort and convenience loads that each BCM controls vary across vehicle models. From a BCM that only handles lighting functions to a BCM that includes gateway functionality and car-access support, the number of BCMs and their complexity depend on the underlying architecture of the vehicle body electronics.

BCM designs are also rapidly evolving. For example, junction boxes (also known as power distribution boxes), which distribute power to various loads using relays, are either being integrated into BCMs or converted to BCM-like modules to distribute power through semiconductor switches. More driver inputs and sensors are being connected to BCMs as the number of comfort and convenience features increases. And as the number of dedicated load-control modules (such as those for roof motor control) increases, BCM networking requirements also increase.

The LMZM33606 is a 16 × 10 mm2 6-A rated synchronous step-down power module that features a wide operating input range from 3.5 V to 36 V with adjustable output voltage range from 1 V to 20 V. The LMZM33606 can be configured in an inverting buck-boost (IBB) topology with the output voltage inverted or negative with respect to input voltage. This application report shows how the conventional non-inverting evaluation board for the LMZM33606 can be configured for an inverting application. This application note also provides the additional level-shifter circuitry for EN and PGOOD pin if the feature is required. Note that the LMZM33604 is rated for 4A and pin-to-pin compatible with the LMZM33606.

The gate driver in a motor system design is an integrated circuit (IC) that primarily deals with enhancing external power MOSFETs to drive current to a electric motor. The gate driver acts as an intermediate stage between the logic-level control inputs and the power MOSFETs. The gate driver must be robust and flexible enough to accommodate a wide variety of external MOSFET selections and external system conditions.

Texas Instrument’s Smart Gate Drive provides an intelligent solution for driving and protecting the external power MOSFETs. This feature lets system designers adjust the MOSFET slew rate, optimize switching and EMI performance, decrease bill of materials (BOM) count, automatically generate dead-time, and provide additional protection for the external power MOSFETs and motor system.

This application report describes the theory and methods behind enhancing a power MOSFET, how the IDRIVE and TDRIVE features are implemented in TI Smart Gate Drivers, and details many of the systemlevel benefits.

This cookbook design describes a temperature measurement circuit with two thermocouples using the ADS1118. Thermocouple voltage measurements are made with the ADS1118 internal voltage reference, while cold-junction compensation (CJC) measurements are made with the onboard temperature sensor. Two channels of the ADC are used for two K-type thermocouples with a temperature measurement range from –270°C to 1370°C. Included in this design are ADC register settings to configure the device and pseudo code is provided to configure and read from the device. This circuit can be used in applications such as analog input modules for PLCs, lab instrumentation, and factory automation.

As gallium nitride (GaN) power FETs become readily available for power designers to use, their promise of performance improvement with higher efficiencies and greater power densities can begin to become realized. By having better material properties over silicon, loss elements such as on-state resistance Rds(on) and output capacitance Coss are smaller for an equal die area. These GaN power FET devices, included in the LMG3410x family, are typically offered in high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) structures, which along with maximizing the material property benefits eliminate the reverse recovery Qrr when the device operates in third quadrant mode (conduction from source to drain). These benefits allow GaN power FETs to operate faster and at higher frequencies than previously capable. With typical slew rates around 30 V/ns to 100 V/ns at operating voltages around 380 V to 480 V, printed circuit board (PCB) layout optimization is even more essential since parasitic inductances and capacitances from poor layouts can drastically reduce performance or even prevent operation. When pushed to their limits to maximize system gains power GaN FETs provide the device can degrade and potentially overheat without a carefully designed thermal system to dissipate the generated heat. To prevent these problems from hampering designs and limiting performance layout recommendations, peripheral component selection and thermal system design are discussed.

Time-sensitive networking (TSN) is an Ethernet extension defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) designed to make Ethernet-based networks more deterministic. Industries like automotive, industrial and performance audio use real-time communication with multiple network devices and will benefit from the TSN standard.

The consumer and enterprise world of Ethernet and wireless Ethernet communication is bandwidth oriented. For example, while browsing the Internet you accept a varying amount of delay before video playback starts. Although there is a preference for quick interaction, for the average user it is acceptable if one out of 100 clicks perform an order of magnitude worse. However, if a video is bad quality or even halted the typical consumer will be frustrated.

Even infrequent delays are unacceptable in control systems such as those inside automobiles, production lines or concert halls. The most important aspects for these systems are latency and jitter or variation in the latency of control data through the network. The maximum time a packet takes to reach the destination in the system defines the communication cycle or control frequency in the network.

All DC/DC converters dissipate power in the form of heat. This heat has to be managed properly so that the converter maintains operation within the recommended temperature limits. Usually, the copper on the printed circuit board (PCB) is utilized to help dissipate the heat. This application note outlines a design procedure to quickly estimate the minimum required copper area on the PCB for a successful thermal design with DC/DC power modules.

Power-hungry electronic components such as processor chips, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), as well as power ICs heat up during operation. When the system is turned on, the heat generated by these ICs transfers to lower temperature objects nearby. Measuring ambient air temperature with a surface mount device can be challenging because heat transfer from components on the same PCB can influence and interfere with the ambient air temperature reading of the sensor. To maintain accuracy in applications that require ambient air temperature measurement, it is important to follow good layout techniques such as understanding the dominant thermal path, isolating the island surrounded by the package, and keeping the device as far away from interfering heat sources as possible. This application note will focus on layout strategies to overcome off-board (ambient air) temperature sensing challenges encompassing many applications. It details recommended layout techniques for accurate measurement of ambient air temperature with a temperature sensor in a plastic package, such as the TMP116 or TMP117. The application note includes measurement data of the TMP116 ambient air temperature measurement, and the LMT70 which is used as a reference to the temperature sensor to distinguish between air temperature measurement and the interference from a nearby heat source.

This application report documents ways to increase the available random access memory (RAM) for your application on the CC2640R2F SimpleLink™ Bluetooth low energy microcontroller. By moving initialized data or compiled code from the SRAM into other parts of the memory, the available SRAM is increased. This application report also highlights some of the tools found in the SimpleLink CC2640R2 software development kit (SDK) that enables optimization of the RAM used by heap and stack memory. Note that the features described in this document are not profiled in terms of power consumption or processor speed.

Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) is the treatment of choice for obstructive sleep apnea. With the evolution of telehealth and telemedicine, CPAP devices with wireless connectivity are solving problems like lack of comfort and difficulties in usage that have been the most common reasons for poor CPAP adherence in the past. A connected CPAP device can use various wireless communication technologies like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth® Low Energy and cellular network to obtain internet connectivity.

This application report describes the Wi-Fi use case for a connected CPAP implementation. It also describes the development of Wi-Fi enabled CPAP machine using the SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3220 Wireless MCU or CC3120 Wi-Fi Network Processor.

Thermal design is an important consideration in any power electronic converters. An optimized thermal design enables engineers to use GaN in a wide range of power levels, topologies, and applications. This application note discusses the most important tradeoffs and considerations for TI’s LMG341XRxxx GaN power stage family, including guidance for PCB layout, thermal interface, heat sink selection and mounting methods. Examples of designs using 50-m Ω and 70-m Ω GaN devices will also be provided.

This application report discusses the Memory Power-On Self-Test (M-POST) feature available in select series of C2000 real-time controllers. The M-POST architecture enables parallel testing of multiple memories to reduce test time and is used for power-on testing of the memories on-chip.

C2000 devices are powerful 32-bit floating-point microcontroller units (MCU) designed for advanced closed-loop control applications such as motor control and power conversion control in industrial drives and automation, industrial power, solar, and electrical vehicle applications. In addition to the strong control performance offered by the MCU, it supports a host of functional safety features to support customers to design and certify their functionally safe systems. Memory Power-On Self-Test (M-POST) is an important enabler to test the device SRAMs and ROMs during device start-up. Based on customer one-time programmable (OTP) configurations, the test is executed automatically with the help of on-chip hardware during boot-up. When the test is executed, multiple memories are tested in parallel to reduce the impact on boot-time.

The requirements for operational amplifiers and other ICs used in motor control systems have increased because of the need to extract higher performance from a motor while maintaining low system cost. Measuring motor current is an easy and inexpensive way to understand the torque and direction of the motor, so current sensing forms the backbone of many common motor control schemes for the three common DC motor types: stepper, brushed DC and brushless DC (BLDC).

The automotive experience demands the tools for manufacturers to create high-quality audio for the vehicle occupants, while also enabling those same occupants to customize audio settings for their desired tastes.

A myriad of audio input sources, including CD/DVD, radio, aux input, streaming music, Bluetooth® audio, navigation, alerts, and other notifications, routed to multiple output playback zones necessitates an audio subsystem tailored for the automotive audio market. TI’s Audio Post Processing Engine (APPE) on Jacinto devices provides a common audio framework for automotive OEMs to enable this user customization, while also allowing Tier 1 providers and OEMs to fine tune their audio for the best possible out-of-the-box user experience. By implementing audio processing algorithms and routing within TI’s C66x Digital Signal Processor (DSP) on Jacinto 6 DRA7x single chip solutions, automakers can reduce hardware system cost and integration complexity. This same audio solution can also be leveraged across multiple operating systems, such as QNX®, Linux®, and Android™. APPE provides real-time controls from the High-Level Operating System (HLOS), allowing customers with limited DSP experience to leverage a large suite of audio algorithms, including dynamic range compression, equalizers, mixers, and volume controls. Automotive manufacturers can also easily add additional algorithms to further differentiate their end platform.

RS-485 is one of the most widely used wired interface for industrial long-haul networks. TIA/EIA-485-A standard defines the physical layer of the RS-485 interface. End applications use RS-485 interface coupled with protocol such as Profibus, Modbus or BACnet.

The main benefits of this interface include:

1. Balanced differential signaling allows for rejection of common mode noise and facilitates communications over long distances in noisy industrial environments.
2. Support of -7 to 12V wide common mode range allows for multipoint data transmission between nodes located at different ground potential difference.
3. Data rates up to 50 Mbps at short distances or communications distance up to 1000 meters at slower data rates is possible.

Applications for RS-485 include Energy Meters, Grid Protection relay, Solar inverter, Factory automation, Motor control and Heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) systems.

This application report describes the video processing performed by the DLPC230-Q1 as part of the DLP5531-Q1 chipset to display an image optimized for automotive light control applications such as high resolution headlights and other exterior lighting products. Topics include image sequencing, illumination driving architecture, dithering, gamma correction, and image resizing which all impact the final output image. This information is intended for system designers involved in video content generation and illumination design.

TI applications engineers and software tools typically configure the parameters required to optimally display video in automotive light control end applications. However, an understanding of these background concepts can benefit designers working with the DLP® Products chipset.