Brief Functional Description
The star coupler is part of the electrical, physical layer in a FlexRay™ communication network. The E910.56 provides interfaces to connect up to four branches of twisted pair physical bus lines to other bus drivers or star couplers. It also interfaces with a communication controller (CC) and a µC. Via SPI the bus driver (BD) provides status information concerning failure detection on the bus lines (e.g. short circuit, ground loss) and overtemperature condition to a host controller (HOST). An interrupt signal is generated whenever the failure status changes.

FEATUREs
► Part of the FlexRay™ electrical, physical layer
► Active star coupler connects up to 4 branches (FlexRay™ busses) to nodes or other active stars
► Support of data rates up to 10 Mbit/s
► Optional support of low power mode for an ECU
► Remote wake up via bus line
► Enhanced diagnosis capability provided via SPI with interrupt generation
► Protection against overload damage by current limitation and overtemperature detection
► Bus driver outputs withstand - 27 V / + 40 V DC voltage
► Low EME due to balanced differential transmission

APPLICATIONs
► Star coupler and additionally usable as transceiver in FlexRay™ nodes (ECUs)