Melexis unveils pump/fan driver ICs

Melexis has expanded its MLX90412 product offering with the introduction of the 2.2A automotive-qualified pump/fan driver IC. The device has been optimised to deal with high ambient temperature levels and to support prolonged operational lifespans.

With an integrated driver stage the MLX90412GLW is intended for applications with high ambient temperature such as automotive water pumps. It can drive pumps up to 15W in Internal Combustion Engines (ICE), which typically implies a maximum ambient operating temperature up to 135℃. While water pumps up to 20W can be driven within the maximum ambient temperature of 85℃ of electric vehicles (EV).

The MLX90412GLW is qualified to meet the increasing operating lifetime demand. This goes up to 15,000 hours of EV applications such as battery cooling.

It is a dedicated automotive 1-coil motor driver and includes all state of the art protections.

With the MLX90412GLW, pump manufacturers can offer a complete portfolio of water pump solutions. It can be configured in a range of BLDC commutation options from sinewave mode, offering the lowest noise performance for EVs over a high torque mode, up to a low EMI mode, for ON/OFF applications requiring minimum external EMI filter components.

In addition, the MLX90412GLW can operate basic two-wire pumps with ON/OFF functionality. It can also operate variable speed pumps through a PWM interface with diagnostics feedback in a four-wire pump. Finally it can be complemented with the Melexis MLX81113 LIN MCU gateway to realise three wire LIN-based water pumps.

The MLX90412GLW’s high degree of integration requires a much smaller number of external components than in traditional solutions. Prototyping is supported by a user-friendly GUI that allows configuring all of the available options.

The full development can be completed without the need for any motor control software, allowing fast validation and time to market with minimum engineering resources.