Design of low power automotive interface

The LIN (local interconnect network) is a 12 V serial communications protocol which efficiently supports the control of mechatronic nodes in distributed automotive applications. The transfer speed is up to 20 kbit/s. The author represents the design of a hardware LIN module (master/slave), which is based on a XILINX programmable logic devices implementation. A top-down approach has been used during the design stage and VHDL has been applied for the design description. The LIN module has been tested on a development platform including a small LIN network (one master and two slave-LIN units).