CAN is a differential bus where complementary signals are sent over two wires and the voltage difference between the two wires defines the logical state of the bus. The differential CAN receiver monitors this voltage difference and outputs the bus state with a single ended logic level output signal.

The CAN driver creates the differential voltage between CANH and CANL in the dominant state. The dominant differential output of the TCANC340x-Q1 is greater than 1.5V and less than 3V across a 60Ω load as defined by the ISO 11898-2 standard. These are the same limiting values for 5V supplied CAN transceivers. The bus termination resistors drive the recessive bus state and not the CAN driver.

A CAN receiver is required to output a recessive state when less than 500mV of differential voltage exists on the bus, and a dominant state when more than 900mV of differential voltage exists on the bus. The CAN receiver must do this with common-mode input voltages from –12V to 12V. The TCANC340x-Q1 device receivers meet and exceed these receiver input specifications.