Tessenderlo-Ham, Belgium, 6 November 2025 – Melexis introduces the MLX81350, its fourth-generation, automotive LIN motor driver delivering up to 5 W (0.5 A) per motor. Designed for air conditioning flaps and automated air vents in electric vehicles (EVs), the cost-effective MLX81350 combines quiet, efficient motor operation with simplified system integration and trusted reliability.
Precise control of cabin airflow and temperature is increasingly critical in modern vehicles, particularly EVs, to enhance passenger comfort, improve energy efficiency, and support advanced thermal management systems. To meet these demands, vehicles often incorporate a greater number of air conditioning flap motors as well as electronic air vents. Engineers in this segment face a demanding set of requirements: reliable operation, seamless integration, and silent motor behavior, while managing system costs.
The MLX81350 meets these challenges by delivering a well-balanced combination of performance, system integration, and cost-efficiency. This fourth-generation integrated circuit (IC) is a 0.5A smart LIN motor driver built on high-voltage SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology. It offers flash programmability, high robustness, and function density while reducing bill-of-materials (BoM) complexity. By integrating both analog and digital circuitry, it provides a true single-chip solution that is fully compliant with industry-standard LIN 2.x/SAE J2602 and ISO 17987-4 specifications for LIN slave nodes.
At the core of the MLX81350 is its evolved software architecture, designed to enhance performance and efficiency over the previous generation. Key to this advancement is improved stall detection and the addition of sensorless, closed-loop Field-Oriented Control (FOC). This enables smoother motor operation, lower current consumption, and reduced acoustic noise to better support a wide range of automotive HVAC and thermal management applications.
The MLX81350 maintains pin-to-pin compatibility with its predecessors, allowing engineers to migrate existing designs with minimal effort. Its LIN interface enables seamless communication within vehicle networks, while built-in protection and diagnostic features — including over-current, over-voltage, and temperature shutdown — ensure safe and reliable operation in demanding automotive environments. In addition, the IC offers a rich set of peripherals to support advanced motor control and system integration, including a configurable RC clock (24-40 MHz), 4 general-purpose I/Os (digital and analog), 1 high-voltage input, UART, SPI and I²C master or slave interfaces, 5× 16-bit motor PWM timers, 2× 16-bit general timers, and a 13-bit ADC with <1.2 µs conversion time across multiple channels.
The IC is designed according to ASIL B (ISO 26262) and offers flexible wake-up options via LIN, external pins, or an internal wake-up timer. It features low standby current consumption (typ. 25 µA, max. 50 µA) for energy-efficient operation, and internal voltage regulators allow direct powering from the 12 V battery, supporting an operating voltage range of 5.5 V to 28 V. Combined with robust protection features, high integration, and advanced motor control, the MLX81350 provides engineers with a cost-effective, high-performance solution for modern air conditioning flaps and electronic vents in EVs.
“By combining sensorless FOC, advanced software integration, and cost-effective design, the MLX81350 delivers both the performance and affordability demanded by the automotive industry,” said Marc Lambrechts, Product Line Director at Melexis. “With our decades of experience in automotive motor drivers and full supply capacity at launch, Melexis provides engineers with both supply security and technical confidence, helping them meet the noise, performance and cost targets of modern electric vehicles.”
The MLX81350 is available now. Learn more at www.melexis.com/MLX81350.
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