Transceivers

High-quality portfolio of CAN and LIN transceivers

Automotive and industrial networking, and the transceivers used to enable these technologies, is a rapidly evolving field, providing fast and reliable data transfers in connected vehicles and industrial machinery. In essence, transceivers both transmit and receive analog and digital signals, allowing various types of control in industries where digital connectivity is inevitably on the rise.

Today, transceiver manufacturers provide two broad types across a wide variety of industries, providing the bulk of data processing in all types of machinery. The types are CAN transceivers and LIN transceivers, and their differences are as follows:

• CAN transceiver – Through connection to the CAN (Controller Area Network) bus, CAN transceiver chips shuttle data to and from the bus at medium speeds of up to 1 Mbps. Commonly used within all types of passenger vehicles for engine control, transmission, and braking, as well as within aerospace, building automation, and medical equipment industries. They are generally more prevalent in sophisticated applications due to increased costs when compared to LIN transceivers.
• LIN transceiver – Through connection to the LIN (Local Interconnect Network) bus, LIN transceivers operate along a single wire at speeds of up to 19.2 kbps. Commonly used within automotive applications such as light sensors and climate control, as well as for non-critical components in other industries. The slower speed of the LIN protocol combined with lower costs and easy connectivity mean they are usually used in less critical applications that, thanks to the controller’s smaller size, can easily be integrated into tight spaces.

While both transceiver types offer several pros and cons, the reality is that both are used in combination with many different types of systems. This allows for sophisticated tasks to be routed through high-speed CAN transceivers, and those less critical to be routed through LIN transceiver circuits to balance cost and design factors in larger systems.

Infineon offers three types of transceivers dedicated to automotive applications, with a range of different designs that include FlexRay, CAN, and CAN FD transceivers, and LIN transceivers.

Our FlexRay automotive transceivers can transmit data at rates up to 10 Mbps with collision-free bus access during normal operation. Our range of CAN transceivers is generally used for medium data transmissions; however, our CAN FD transceiver controller ICs establish faster CAN communication speeds of up to 5 Mbps, while LIN transceiver ICs are lower cost and are used for low data rate applications.