Texas Instruments TCAN4550 CAN FD controllers with integrated transceivers

Texas Instruments (TI) has released the TCAN4550 and TCAN4550-Q1 Controller Area Network with Flexible Data Rate (CAN FD) controllers. Supporting data rates of up to 5 Mbps with up to 18 MHz SPI clock speed, the devices are said to be the industry’s first system basis chips to integrate a controller and transceiver for CAN FD. The integrated controllers are suitable for use in building automation, industrial transports and factory automation, and the TCAN4550-Q1 version is AEC-Q100 qualified for use in automotive applications.

The controllers deliver differential transmit capability to the bus and differential receive capability from the bus. They boast wide CAN BUS operating ranges, including ±42 V bus fault protection and ±12 V common mode. The chips provide an interface between the system processor and the CAN bus using a serial peripheral interface (SPI), offering support for both CAN FD and classical CAN.

Featuring multiple operating modes, including standby and sleep, the controllers offer low power consumption through the use of wake and inhibit features. Capable of supporting the bandwidth and data flexibility requirements of in-vehicle networks, the controllers can implement a CAN FD interface on a system using the SPI bus of nearly any microcontroller.