Power management IC shrinks automotive screen size

By replacing four or five discrete ICs with a single power management solution, the MAX16923 significantly shrinks solution size and makes it easier for automotive designers to increase the number of displays from two to five per vehicle, or even more.

The number of automotive displays per vehicle continues to grow as OEMs seek to make cars more attractive with advanced instrument clusters, infotainment, heads-up displays, centre displays, rear-seat entertainment and smart mirror applications. Designers struggle with the complexity of adding these screens because the required power supply circuitry competes for space with a myriad of other electronic systems inside the car.

The MAX16923 offers high integration with four power rails, featuring both a high-voltage and low-voltage buck converter, a high-voltage and low-voltage low-dropout (LDO) regulator, electromagnetic interference (EMI) mitigation and a watchdog timer in a single IC. 

Its high level of integration can reduce an automotive power solution from four or five ICs down to one chip, without making the temperature rise significantly. This also helps ease design complexity and reduces the power solution size up to 50 percent compared to the closest competitive solution. Additionally, EMI mitigation and the watchdog timer improve reliability of each display.

Advantages:

• Smallest solution size: Offers a power management IC to integrate five functions (HV buck converter and LDO, LV buck converter and LDO and watchdog timer) into a single IC to reduce complexity and solution size.
• Lower cost: Reducing a five-chip solution to a single chip shrinks space by up to 50%, achieving smaller PCB size and lower bill-of-material (BOM) costs.
• Low EMI: Spread spectrum, slew-rate controlled switching and programmable switching frequency reduce EMI interference on low noise signal to the display.

“Growth in the automotive display segment over the next five years will be strong as OEMs increase the number and size of displays in cars,” said Greg Basich, Associate Director of the Automotive Infotainment & Telematics service at Strategy Analytics. “Some premium vehicles may have as many as 10 displays. In this environment, designers are also grappling with the growing number of electronics they need to integrate into cars as space constraints may limit this expansion."

Szukang Hsien, Executive Business Manager, Automotive Business Unit at Maxim Integrated, added: “By reducing the number of ICs needed to support each display, the MAX16923 greatly reduces design complexity and board size issues. This highly integrated power solution along with the MAX20069 TFT bias and LED driver are able to cover the power requirements needed for 12.3 inch and smaller displays.”