Atmel Corporation has introduced the ATA6814, a fail-safe system IC for safety-relevant automotive electronics applications such as dc motor controls for electric parking brake systems, power steering, chassis and powertrains.
Watchdog circuitry separate from the system microcontroller operates with its own, dedicated oscillator, which is monitored by a second oscillator. The watchdog monitors the microcontroller's operation; covers the battery voltage, all internally generated voltages, and the chip temperature in two stages, and can disable the different IC blocks.
Manufactured using Atmel's 0.8 µ BCDMOS (bipolar CMOS-DMOS) technology, the ATA6814 includes two separate voltage regulators, driver stages, and an SPI interface, as well as the watchdog and monitoring functional blocks.
Power consumption can be reduced to 80 µA in standby mode with one of the voltage regulators switched off. Integrated 250 mA low-side relay drivers operate can operate without any external circuitry for cost and space reduction.
The device fulfills ISO/TR7637 requirements; its pins are protected against 2 KV ESD (HBM); it can be operated within a -40 degrees C to +105 degrees C temperature range, and it can withstand load-dump pulses up to 45 V. The ATA6814 is available in a RoHS-compatible, 7 mm x 7 mm QFN48 package.
