CAN transceiver on an ASIC

IC-Sense (Belgium) offers high-voltage ASICs for automotive diagnostics. It contains CAN high-speed and single-wire transceivers.

The company acquired last year by TDK presented its ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) on the Embedded World 2018. The chips provide a pin-switch matrix and a high-voltage power management. This allows the support of multiple car brands. The components come in a QFN-88 package measuring 12 mm x 12 mm.

IC-sense’s core business is ASIC development and supply and custom IC design services. The company develops and supplies customer ASIC solutions for the automotive, medical, industrial, and consumer markets. This includes ICs featuring CAN transceiver functionality compliant with ISO 11898-2 qualified for 1 Mbit/s. Single-wire CAN as specified in SAE 2411 can also be integrated into the ASICs. CAN transceivers have been implemented in several ASIL-b (ISO 26262) chips.

“The TDK management has given us the clear long-term target to have at least 50 percent of our revenue outside TDK. Currently we are at over 60 percent external revenue, which shows we guarantee the necessary bandwidth for all our customers,” said Bram De Muer, CEO of IC-sense. The company’s expertise areas stay unchanged to sensor and MEMS, power and battery management, high-voltage, and low-power. It is part of the Sensor System Business Company (SSBC) of TDK, which includes Epcos, TDK-Invensense, TDK-Micronas, Tronics, and other TDK divisions.

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