At the forefront of MEMS design
Drawing under 1.55 mA, Bosch Sensortec’s BHI160 packs a complete 6-axis accelerometer and gyroscope solution together with the company’s proprietary data fusion core, the Fuser Core into a 3.0×3.0x0.95mm LGA package.
The device can receive extra sensor inputs through its I2C interface for additional data fusion by the Fuser Core, a 32-bit microcontroller optimized to execute Bosch Sensortec’s sensor fusion and activity-recognition algorithms.
The Fuser Core uses significantly less power than standard microcontrollers, claims the company, with a saving of up to 95 percent compared to Cortex M0 and up to 90 percent compared to Cortex M4 based devices. Delivered in a smaller package (2.2×2.2×0.95mm), the BHA250 does not integrate the gyroscope, but again, it could source the data from external sensors.
By offloading sensor processing to the BHI160 or BHA250, as well as buffering sensor data locally on the devices, system designers can ensure the main application processor is never woken up just to process sensor data, allowing always-on smartphone applications within a much lower power budget.
Both sensors are specifically designed for applications in Android smart phones, implementing the full Android Lollipop sensor stack inside the devices where they provide a flexible, low power solution for motion sensing and sensor data processing. Samples are scheduled to be available to selected customers in the second quarter of 2015.
On the audio front with the AKU151, Akustica has released what the company claims to be the world’s only microphone with both very high Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and high performance density (SNR/mm3) in a tiny top-port package.
Aimed at wearable applications, the 3.42×1.70×0.93mm AKU151 delivers a high SNR of 65dB, almost twice the acoustic performance density (SNR/mm3) of any other top-port MEMS microphone according to Akustica. The AKU151 is also optimized for low power applications, consuming only 60uA during standard, full-performance operation.
Delivered in a 2.65×3.50×0.98mm bottom-port, metal-lid package, the AKU350 features a single-ended output for 67dB SNR and a tight +/-1dB sensitivity matching. With its high SNR and accompanying microphone-to-microphone uniformity, the AKU350 is optimized to meet the needs of smartphone manufacturers who use multiple microphones with noise cancellation algorithms.
The microphones are the result of in-house MEMS, ASIC, and package design with in-house fabrication facilities. They are the first to make use of new ASIC design elements that optimize performance depending on the target market. They are also the first to be built using a new MEMS architecture and fabrication process which includes additional material layers and optimized thicknesses of current layers, stated Akustica.
Visit Akustica at www.akustica.com
Bosch Sensortec GmbH at www.bosch-sensortec.com
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