Silicon Laboratories Inc. has introduced the C8051F52/3x family of automotive microprocessors for body electronics and other point-of-control applications including power windows, doors, sunroofs, trunks, seat positioning and mirrors. The MCUs are said to leverage Silicon Laboratories’ experience in designing high-performance mixed-signal MCUs in a small footprint.

C8051F52x MCUs offer 25 MIPS performance and feature a ±0.5% internal oscillator with 8K flash, a 12-bit a/d converter, a dedicated LIN 2.0 controller, 16-bit timers/PWM, SPI and UART interfaces, and six I/O lines, in a 3 mm x3 mm QFN package. The C8051F53x MCU family has the same feature set but adds 10 additional I/O lines and is offered in 20-pin QFN and TSSOP packages. Both families integrate additional analog features such as programmable comparators, voltage regulators and on-board temperature sensors.

Silicon Laboratories vice president Derrell Coker said the integrated LIN 2.0 controller combined with the high-precision internal oscillator enables designers to implement LIN master-mode communication networks without the need for external timing components. The C8051F52/3x MCUs also include power-on-reset, brown-out protection, and a watch-dog timer reset, and they maintain full performance over the -40 ºC to 125 ºC automotive temperature range.

“Ultimately, solutions that accomplish the application requirements at the lowest system cost will drive the next wave of electronics in automobiles,” Coker said.