1999-09-20 , E/IC-1076/28
Product News From Philips Semiconductors

Philips Semiconductors, Europe's largest semiconductor company, announced today the planned introduction of a new high-speed CAN transceiver, the  TJA1050. Offering greatly improved EME (electromagnetic emission) and EMI (electromagnetic immunity) performance, the TJA1050, with its optimized feature set, is targeted primarily for power train applications in the automotive industry. By simplifying design-in and reducing overall system costs, this new transceiver paves the way towards more extensive use of car networks, allowing manufacturers to offer enhanced functionality in lower model ranges and increased differentiation. With the introduction of the TJA1050, Philips Semiconductors extends its range of industry standard high-speed CAN transceivers and reinforces its overall position as the world leader in CAN transceivers and IVN technologies in general.

"Following on from the recent release of our new fault-tolerant CAN transceiver and its significant EMC performance improvement, the decision was made to build a high-speed device also using our unique Silicon On Insulator (SOI) process", said Jeroen Gerlings, international product marketing manager at Philips Semiconductors' European Regional Automotive Centre (EURAC) in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, where the chip was designed and will be manufactured. "This new design also gave EURAC the opportunity to optimize the feature set for automotive applications, developing a device with enhanced performance while remaining fully pin-compatible with the PCA82C250T and PCA82C251T. We believe that with the improved EMC performance which will be offered by the TJA1050, the commonly used suppressor coils (choke) in transceiver designs will no longer be required. Although currently still under test, Philips Semiconductors is confident that the TJA1050 will deliver a substantial performance/cost benefit to all its customers as well as opening the way to increased use of partial networking."

The TJA1050 has dedicated circuitry to ensure bus lines are not blocked by a hardware or software fault in any application. When this occurs, it can cause the controller to force the transceiver into a permanent dominant state, a fault which can stop all network communication. This is sometimes referred to as 'babbling idiot'. With TJA1050's built-in 'TxD dominant time-out' timer circuit, if this occurs the transceiver forces itself back to a recessive state, allowing all other nodes to continue communicating and so the network remains functional. Independently, the TJA1050 incorporates a dicated pin ("S" - silent mode) which allows the microcontroller to mute the transmitter, allowing the node to continue receiving messages while ensuring only useful data is placed on the bus lines. The behaviour of the transceiver has also been improved to ensure an unpowered node does not disturb bus communication.

A highly-integrated next-generation device, the TJA1050 is the interface between the CAN protocol controller and the physical bus wires, and provides differential bus transmit capability to the bus and differential receive capability to the CAN controller. Primarily intended for high-speed automotive applications up to 1 Mbits/s, the TJA1050 is fully compatible with the ISO 11898 standard. In addition to the EMC immunity achieved using the unique SOI process, EMI has been lowered even further with optimal matching of the CANL and CANH bus outputs. Current limiting and a temperature protection circuit also protect the transmitter from overloading, and both CANH and CANL lines are protected from automotive electrical transients and Electrostatic Discharge (ESD).

Housed in an SO8 package, engineering samples will be available in Q4 1999. Full production of the TJA1050 is scheduled for Q1/Q2 2000 and prices will be available from all Philips Semiconductors' sales offices worldwide.

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the eighth largest semiconductor supplier based on Dataquest's 1998 report^*). It is a committed supplier of dedicated automotive systems and components focusing on a number of core areas: in-vehicle networks (IVNs), access and immobilization, and car 'infotainment'. In many of these areas Philips Semiconductors is an acknowledged leader and is driving the development of a single integrated car telematics platform. These 'system' areas are backed by a world-class and extensive range of dedicated discrete semiconductors and sensors, and a wide portfolio of standard products. Philips Semiconductors' innovations in digital audio, video, and mobile technology also position the company as a leader in the consumer, multimedia and wireless communications markets. Sales offices are located in all major markets around the world and are supported by systems labs.

^*) Based on Vendor Revenue from Shipments of Total Semiconductors Worldwide according to Dataquest's 1998 Worldwide Semiconductor Market Share report published in May, 1999.

News from Philips is located at  www.news.philips.com