Integrating sensor devices in a LIN bus network

The automotive industry community as a low-cost network complementing the existing automotive multiplex network has established the LIN standard. The LIN network, consisting in a single wire (up to 40m), single-master, multiple-slaves and speed up to 19.2Kbps represents an efficient alternative for integrating sensors in a low-cost bus architecture. Implementation of the LIN bus implies the addition of specific hardware to the sensor design or, additional software leading to significant CPU overhead (40% or more). The paper presents a new approach to this implementation by using system-on-chip devices. The proposed implementation not only includes the sensor´s signal conditioning hardware but also the specific LIN hardware. More than that, using the re-configurability feature of the system-on-chip devices, the proposed design is able to change its hardware for different sensors or for LIN master or LIN slave configurations.