AEK-MCU-C4MINI1 All-in-one, fast-prototyping, user-friendly MCU and motor control evaluation board based on the Chorus SPC58EC80

The AEK-MCU-C4MINI1 offers more than a standard MCU board. Leveraging on a user-friendly interface, it allows fast ECU prototyping with basic motor control drives, serial communication ports and LCD resistive display dual connection.

The AEK-MCU-C4MINI1 is designed to address Automotive and Transportation applications as well as other applications requiring automotive safety and security levels. A cryptography dedicated MCU core, employed as hardware secure module (HSM), is paired with dual 180 MHz general-purpose 32-bit cores, all hosted by the on board SPC58EC80E5 MCU, featuring a total 4 MB of flash memory.

The board layout has been conceived to speed up the user development thus offering an easy prototyping evaluation tool.

The general-purpose and serial connectors have been standardized and grouped by peripheral function types.

The MCU peripherals are extended with the VNH7040AY embedded H-bridge motor driver for DC motor control, featuring advanced diagnostic features (short-to-ground, short-to-battery, and open load conditions). The board has a dedicated supply capacity for an external 5 V or 3.3 V load with maximum current capability of 2.75 A.

The AEK-MCU-C4MINI1 allows plugging an AEK-LCD-DT028V1 touch display board for multiple application and debug purposes, such as monitoring the motor current, printing serial data, or for hardware debugging, without the need of connecting any PC terminal console. For this LCD board, two connectors are provided on the board, one on the top and one on the bottom. The two connectors shall not be connected and used at the same time.

The top connection facilitates the debugging phase (for example, when testing signal connections and data exchange), while the bottom one reduces the total occupied space by the two boards, making it the preferred choice for deployment purposes.

The MCU ADC reference voltage is provided by a stable linear voltage regulator (LDO) embedded in the L5963 IC.

The board hosts an OpenOCD debugger/programmer, several MCU peripheral connectors as well as various general-purpose buttons and LEDs.

For system reset during the development phase, a reset button was added to the board layout. In addition, a reverse battery protection circuit has been integrated for higher safety.