Explore the reference design for a modern luxury side mirror that incorporates automatic dimming, folding capabilities, and more, all in a compact and flexible form factor.
The automotive full-featured side mirror module significantly advances vehicle safety and convenience. This system integrates various technologies such as cameras, sensors, and displays to enhance the driver’s situational awareness and reduce blind spots. Providing a clearer and wider view of the vehicle’s surroundings, these modules help prevent accidents and improve overall driving experience. Additionally, they offer features like automatic adjustments, heating elements for defogging, and integrated turn signals for better visibility and communication with other road users. Integrating these features into a single module streamlines the design and functionality of modern vehicles, making them safer and more user-friendly.
The reference design for a modern luxury side mirror incorporates a range of features to enhance driver safety and convenience, including automatic dimming for glare reduction, folding capabilities for tight parking spaces, LED indicators for blind spot detection, puddle lights, turn signals, and heaters for defogging and deicing. The design aims to provide a compact, multi-functional integrated solution that can adapt to varying load requirements, essential for automotive electronics designers.
Texas Instruments reference design TIDA-020027 includes comprehensive diagnostic and fault-protection features such as integrated current sense, overvoltage and overcurrent protection, current limiting, and shoot-through protection, which can be configured based on the side mirror’s load protection requirements. Key components of the system include 300-mA motor drivers for mirror tilt control, an 8-A motor driver for folding the mirror assembly, a 16-mOhm power switch for the mirror heater, an electrochromic mirror driver, three 300-mA LED drivers, and a LIN interface for communication. The design utilizes multi-channel motor drivers (DRV8906-Q1 and DRV8873-Q1), a power switch (TPS1HB16-Q1), and an op-amp-based buffer circuit (LM2904B-Q1) to drive the motors, LEDs, electrochromic load, and heating element. These components were chosen for their high integration capabilities and scalability.
One of the primary design considerations was the form factor, to maintain flexibility for various load configurations while keeping the overall size within the typical dimensions for a mirror module. The total solution size is 3.2 square inches. The design’s flexibility allows it to accommodate different sizes and types of mirrors, ensuring functionality across various vehicles. By carefully selecting components, the design effectively balances the need for a compact form factor with the requirement for flexibility.
Texas Instruments has thoroughly tested this reference design, which includes a Design Guide, Bill of Materials (BOM), schematics, Gerber files, Printed Circuit Board (PCB) layout, and more. Please visit the company’s website for further information on this reference design. To explore this design in greater detail, click here.
