A cost-saving failsafe system IC for driver and monitoring functions where safety is critical, such as parking brakes, power steering and other applications with DC motor control. The multi-functional IC, designed with Atmel's state-of-the-art 0.8 µm BCDMOS technology, offers flawless performance for very slow supply voltage ramp-ups and ramp-downs. An 8-bit SPI interface supplies communication to an external microcontroller. Four protected and current-limited driver stages control relays; a gate driver with charge pump and bootstrap controls an external FET. Three status LEDs can be controlled via three separate outputs. All internal blocks are supplied by a specific internal voltage regulator. The system supply voltage and all internally-generated voltages are monitored; in case of over- or undervoltage, all drivers are switched off.
