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8-Channel Driver Offers Configurable Solutions for Auto Body Electronics, Climate Control

June 5, 2025

STMicroelectronics’ L9206 has six configurable high-side/low-side outputs and two high-side outputs, delivering a flexible solution in a range of compact outlines.

Lee Goldberg

Related To:

Electronic Design

The L9026 8-channel driver from STMicroelectronics integrates six configurable high-side/low-side outputs and two high-side outputs. With a limp-home mode in case of controller failure and two extra input pins for failsafe operation, the L9026 enhances safety and reliability.

Capable of driving multiple relays, solenoids, LEDs, and resistive loads in equipment such as body electronics, climate controls, and fuel-injection systems, the L9026 can handle resistive, capacitive, and inductive loads. The device has an SPI interface with registers for storing the device configuration as well as internal mapping and pulse-width-modulation (PWM) behavior.

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With advanced diagnostic and protection features for each channel, the L9026 eases ISO 26262 system-level qualification up to ASIL B in safety-related applications. Protection against open and short circuits, overcurrent, and overtemperature is incorporated, with real-time diagnostics available at the SPI interface.

Additional features increase flexibility and bring savings to the system bill of materials, such as the bulb-inrush mode that automatically protects against excessive power-on current. The L9026 guarantees operation during cranking with battery voltage as low as 3 V.

The choice of packages includes HTSSOP and a 5- × 5- × 1-mm VFQFPN32 that provides an unusually compact option for in-vehicle use. The L9026 is in production now, priced from $1.60 in the HTSSOP24 and $0.90 in the VFQFPN32 for orders of 1,000 pieces.

About the Author

Lee Goldberg | Contributing Editor

Lee Goldberg is a self-identified “Recovering Engineer,” Maker/Hacker, Green-Tech Maven, Aviator, Gadfly, and Geek Dad. He spent the first 18 years of his career helping design microprocessors, embedded systems, renewable energy applications, and the occasional interplanetary spacecraft. After trading his ‘scope and soldering iron for a keyboard and a second career as a tech journalist, he’s spent the next two decades at several print and online engineering publications.

Lee’s current focus is power electronics, especially the technologies involved with energy efficiency, energy management, and renewable energy. This dovetails with his coverage of sustainable technologies and various environmental and social issues within the engineering community that he began in 1996. Lee also covers 3D printers, open-source hardware, and other Maker/Hacker technologies.

Lee holds a BSEE in Electrical Engineering from Thomas Edison College, and participated in a colloquium on technology, society, and the environment at Goddard College’s Institute for Social Ecology. His book, “Green Electronics/Green Bottom Line - A Commonsense Guide To Environmentally Responsible Engineering and Management,” was published by Newnes Press.

Lee, his wife Catherine, and his daughter Anwyn currently reside in the outskirts of Princeton N.J., where they masquerade as a typical suburban family.

Lee also writes the regular PowerBites series.