Melexis adds new member to MeLiBu family

Melexis has launched the next member of the MeLiBu family, the MLX81143 LED driver.

The device includes 21 LED drivers and improves the power management of the full system. The MLX81143 has an extremely wide dimming range allowing optimal brightness adjustment during night and day and the MeLiBu interface makes it possible to drive up to 3000 LEDs in a car at the same time. The system enables dynamic safety warnings and communication with the driver.

Car manufacturers continue to adopt animated lighting in the cabin to provide important information such as driver-assistance prompts and vehicle status updates but changing colours and blinking sequences can present engineering challenges, such as maintaining consistent colour across all of the LEDs and implementing simultaneous light changes.

The MLX81143 addresses these problems by integrating the Melexis CAN over UART MeLiBu (patented license-free) solution. This high-speed communication interface controls individual LEDs to implement the lighting effects defined by the vehicle’s systems. The intelligent RGB-LED controller also provides real-time compensation of any colour drift caused by environmental changes, and colour-mixing accuracy of less than 1% to eliminate any distinguishable differences between LEDs.

The MeLiBu communication interface employs a CAN-FD physical layer to deliver robust and reliable performance at up to 2 Mbit speeds. Combining UART with the MeLiBu protocol guarantees an intelligent and high-resolution operation, with temperature-related color drift being mitigated. A consistent and non-distracting user experience is maintained under all operating conditions.

The Melexis MLX81143 is AEC-Q100 qualified and ASIL compliant and meets ISO 26262 functional safety requirements and supports ASIL B integration. The architecture of the MLX81143 helps designers to meet EMC requirements. It exhibits low EMI emissions and high levels of EMI immunity.