Integrated power-management chip for automotive multimedia networks

May 17th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under
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STMicroelectronics, a world leader in automotive semiconductors, recently announced the L5961 power management IC, the launch of the industry’s first integrated power-management solution for MOST (Media Oriented Systems Transport) networks. ST’s L5961 allows a designer to significantly reduce the number of components on the PCB, offering immediate benefits such as cost reduction, lower complexity and improvement of quality. Optimized for in car multimedia and infotainment applications, the MOST network was originally developed for the automotive industry, but also has a wide range of applications in many other industries. MOST technology primarily allows for a range of multimedia devices, such as CD or DVD players, car radios, and personal navigation devices, to be added into the car environment with minimal effort. The L5961 is the industry’s first integrated MOST power-management solution, implementing both power supply and power management for the network processor. This chipset combination of ST’s know-how in power management together with SMSC’s expertise in MOST networks is a compelling proposal for the automotive in-car infotainment industry.

The L5961 MOST PMD integrates all the discrete circuitry usually necessary to implement power supplies and power management for a MOST node. It includes intrinsic MOST specific power management together with sophisticated diagnostic and fail-safe functions. The MOST PMD is designed to provide direct power supply for the physical layer, the Network Controller and the External Host Controller of a MOST Node. The new L5961 power management IC, which has been designed in cooperation with fabless semiconductor manufacturer SMSC to work with that company’s MOST network processors, includes both the power supply and MOST-compliant power-management control logic, together with enhanced diagnostic and full system monitoring (power supply, network status, wake-up events, temperature).

A chipset combining the L5961 power-management IC and and SMSC network processor can serve as a building block in any MOST network node, and provides significantly more independence from the individual applications that are connected to the network, in terms of turn-on/off timing and device failure, for example. Additionally, the combined chipset, once validated, can be placed in any MOST application without having to be redesigned and revalidated each time. The current solution in the industry uses discrete components to implement the power management for MOST network nodes. ST’s integration of both the power-management control logic and power supply within the L5961 therefore provides several key advantages for automotive OEMs, including significant PCB space savings, lower cost, lower cost of ownership and lower stand-by-mode power consumption, helping to meet specifications recently issued by many leading car manufacturers. In particular, the device features multiple power modes, including an Ultra-Zero Power Mode that offers a typical quiescent current of only 5 microamps, a considerably lower value than that achieved with discrete components. The overall offering is a cost- and space-optimized solution that provides considerable advantages in terms of reproducibility and fail-safe behavior of the application.

The L5961 also allows the implementation of a generic MOST node design that can be reproduced “as is” in any other project, thus avoiding the activities of redesign and reverification of MOST PMD compliance The L5961 implements complete monitoring of the supply voltage (over-voltage, under-voltage, critical voltage), moreover it supports multiple power modes like Zeropower-mode (where one complete MOST node sinks around 25μA current) and Ultra-zero power mode (5μA). All the diagnostic protocols from major carmakers are supported and the device reacts to many different wake-up events. Other features of the L5961include: an integrated 5 or 3.3V, 650mA DC-DC converter, which supplies the network processor and can also supply power to an external low-voltage application; two voltage regulators to supply power to the fiber-optic transmitter and fiber-optic receiver; a diagnostic transceiver for the network physical layer; and the integration of three battery detectors for voltage monitoring, which are currently stand-alone functions in discrete component solutions. The L5961 is completely configurable through its I2C bus and fully compatible with MOST specifications. L5961 has been specified in cooperation with SMSC and represents a “chipset” solution when used with SMSC’s MOST network interface controllers (INIC or NIC).

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