AMS spin-off creates multi hot-plate air quality sensor
The product is one of the first from startup ScioSense BV (Eindhoven, The Netherlands), a spin-off company from AMS (Unterpremstaetten, Austria).
The embedded intelligence enables the CO2 equivalent output to take account of human-generated gases and provides for an adaptive baseline configuration.
The micro-hotplates provide lasting immunity to contamination by siloxanes, and the part is suitable for use in indoor residential, commercial, professional and in-cabin automotive settings.
The multi-element technology is sensitive to oxidizing gases such as ozone which affect the quality of indoor air, as well as to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as toluene, ethanol, methane, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide. The algorithms supplied with the ENS160 produce three measurement outputs:
Total VOCs (TVOC), which draws on the broad sensitivity of the ENS160 to human-generated and artificial VOCs
eCO2, a commonly used proxy measurement for the density of human occupation of an indoor space
Various air quality indexes which are compatible with international standards
The ENS160 also provides its raw gas measurements for OEMs which want to apply proprietary algorithms.
The ENS160 has a reduced a start-up time on first use and warm-up time after each power on of less than 5 minutes.
The sensor is housed in a surface-mount package which measures 3mm by 3mm by 0.9mm and provides outputs via a serial peripheral or I2C interface. Since all the sensor’s measurement algorithms run on the ASIC on an embedded Cortex-M0 processor core.
Next: Background
ScioSense also supplies an analog version, the ENS145, which is based on the same micro-hotplate technology as the ENS160 uses. It is intended for distributed system designs in which a central host fully controls the measurement outputs derived from the gas sensor inputs that the ENS145 provides.
Product samples and evaluation kits will be available on request from ScioSense and authorized distributors in 1Q21.
ScioSense is a manufacturer of semiconductor-based environmental and flow sensors.
Its product portfolio consists of humidity, gas/air quality, temperature, pressure and flow sensors for building automation, home appliances, IoT/wearables/mobiles, automotive and industrial applications.
ScioSense, a manufacturer of integrated environmental and flow sensors, was founded in 2019 (see AMS forms JV with Chinese firm to offload environmental sensors) as a joint venture between AMS AG and Wise Road Capital (Beijing, China). AMS owns 49 percent of the company and Wise Road Capital 51 percent. The company encompasses a series of acquisitions by AMS including Applied Sensors, ACAM, CMOS Cambridge Sensors and the sensor operations of NXP Semiconductor.
The company employs about 100 people.
It is notable that Wise Road Capital took a stake in Nexperia, the standard products business spun off from NXP Semiconductors NV (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) in 2016, before selling the business on to Wingtech Technology Co. Ltd. (Shanghai, China) (see Chinese firm to buy Nexperia for $3.6 billion).
Related links and articles:
News articles:
AMS forms JV with Chinese firm to offload environmental sensors
Chinese firm to buy Nexperia for $3.6 billion
Sensirion selects site in Hungary for sensor factory
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