Melexis intelligent tire pressure sensor that provides tire condition and load monitoring

Melexis, a global microelectronics engineering company, has announced the launch of the MLX91805, a smart tire pressure sensor IC, to help OEMs address upcoming tire monitoring regulations that extend to commercial vehicles and enable the development of a new generation of smart tires.

Unlike current rim-mounted TPMS sensors, the MLX 91805 TMS is designed to be embedded inside the tire and integrates an 800g XZ-axis accelerometer that can sense up to 10,000 samples per second. It also integrates a high-precision pressure sensor as well as temperature and voltage sensors.

The MLX 91805 is suitable for commercial vehicle tires, including heavy-duty vehicles and passenger cars. With new EU regulations on tire pressure monitoring for heavy-duty commercial vehicles expected to come into force between 2022 and 2024, multiple sensors in the MLX 91805 can help ensure compliance and provide additional information (such as load), helping to extend tire life and improve fuel economy and safety.

“The contact between the tire and the road has a huge impact on vehicle behavior. Our new sensor IC is designed to obtain this information directly from the road surface,” said Ivan Zagan, Product Manager for Tire Pressure Monitoring Sensors at Melexis. “This world first will help tire manufacturers create a new generation of smart tires that will provide additional value to car owners and operators, maximize the efficiency and safety of new services, and enable the development of autonomous vehicles.”

The MLX 91805 integrates a low-power 16-bit microcontroller and a 315/433 MHz RF transmitter (consuming only 5 mA at 5 dBm output power and sleep current as low as 90 nA), allowing it to operate continuously over the life of the tire using only a small battery. In addition to built-in diagnostics and fault detection capabilities, the product also features a math coprocessor that supports fast and energy-efficient digital signal processing (DSP). To further promote the development of smart tires, the MLX 91805 comes with a Melexis library that helps application-level software acquire and interpret key information, such as accelerometer signals in the tire contact zone.

The MLX91805 is available in a 5 mm x 4 mm DFN14 package.