STMicroelectronics Unveils Motion Sensor For Vehicle Electronics
Published:12-October-2009
By Staff Reporter
A sensor that provides accurate measurements of vehicle movement for systems
STMicroelectronics has unveiled a new motion sensor that provides accurate measurements of vehicle movement for systems, such as adaptive front lights, auto-leveling high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps, inertial brake lights, e-parking brake, advanced anti-theft systems and control of vehicle dynamics.
The AIS226DS is a two-axis in-plane accelerometer, which is more accurate than is possible using two individual sensors. The new AIS226DS can also resolve tiny angles of incline, smaller than 0.02 degrees. The ability to accurately measure incline is important in auto-leveling lamp, e-parking brake, and HSA (Hill Start Aid) applications, said the company.
Other vehicle systems that can use the AIS226DS include event recorders for monitoring accidents or abusive driving, and GPS navigation systems using movement data for improved dead reckoning when the satellite signal is lost. There are also many non-automotive applications, such as vibration sensing in industrial equipment, black-box security monitors for shipping containers, inclinometers, and robotic systems.
The AIS226DS owes part of its high sensing accuracy to the low intrinsic noise of the electronic interface chip, which includes high-precision 16-bit analog-to-digital converters. The low noise allows usable converter resolution of 14 bits over a significant bandwidth, corresponding to a resolution of 0.25mg (on 2g full-scale).
The company claims that the sensor is also highly stable and maintains high accuracy (plus or minus 70mg) throughout the automotive temperature range -40 to +105 degrees C, offering offset drift in the range of 0.2mg per degree C.
STMicroelectronics is a developer of automotive semiconductors and Micro Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) technologies.
