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Article Excerpt
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.'s Sensor Products Division (Tempe, AZ, 480-413-3333(www.freescale.com), formerly known as Motorola Sensor Products Division, has expanded its inertial sensor product portfolio to help drive opportunities for silicon accelerometers into new challenging, cost-sensitive, largely untapped, but potentially very high volume applications.
Freescale's new MMA62xxQ series of dual (X and Y) axis low-g silicon micromachined capacitive accelerometers, available in ranges from 1.5 g to 10g, complement Freescale's single-axis low-g accelerometer product line and provide the benefits of dual-axis sensing to OEMs/ODMs involved in the consumer market, as well as other non-automotive (e.g., industrial, medical) markets for low-g accelerometers. In September 2002, Freescale introduced low-g (1.5g, 5g, 8g) Z-axis and X-axis accelerometers.
Freescale's MMA62xxQ MEMS accelerometers are designed for end-products or embedded systems where there is a need to measure small forces resulting from tilt, motion, positioning, shock or vibration. Such sensors utilize a two-chip solution consisting of a surface micromachined g-cell acceleration sensor and an ASIC for amplification, signal conditioning, low-pass filtering, and temperature compensation.
The new dual-axis low-g sensors range, which detect movement in two directions, offer size and performance benefits over single-axis accelerometers. Size is increasingly a vital feature in the design of a variety of products, including handheld devices (such as cell phones and PDAs), and hard disk drives. By using a single sensor that integrates two axes, designers can reduce component count, saving valuable space while increasing heat dissipation and reducing cost. The MMA62xxQ sensors are housed in a 6x6x1.98mm, quad flat no-lead (QFN) package that has a 73% smaller footprint than the SOIC-20 package.
Bob Tucker, inertial sensors operations manager, explained that Freescale leveraged its expertise in high-volume production of silicon micromachined accelerometers for automotive applications (e.g., high-g accelerometers for crash sensing for front- and side-air bag deployment, and low-g accelerometers for vehicle dynamic control and rollover mitigation) to develop the MMA62xxQ MEMS linear accelerometers for promising non-automotive applications.
Bob Johnson, manager of product marketing for non-automotive applications, noted that Freescale's MMA62xxQ dual-axis accelerometers are specifically aimed at high-volume consumer applications (particularly portable devices), where the new accelerometers are finding opportunities in a diverse range of applications for measuring tilt, position, movement, vibration, or shock.
The new dual-axis MEMS capacitive accelerometers offer such features/capabilities as: signal conditioning; a 1-pole low-pass filter; temperature compensation; self-test capability; low current/power; 2.7 V to 3.6 V operation (the typical supply voltage is 3.3 V); linear output; ratiometric performance; fast power-up/response time; elimination of multiple, angled design boards for 3D sensing applications; high accuracy, frequency, and resolution; and robustness, high shock survivability, and high sensitivity. Units with a 1.5 g measuring range are designed to provide high sensitivity and accuracy for detecting low-level acceleration forces, while offering low noise.
The MMA62xxQ low-g, dual-axis accelerometer family includes the following products: MMA6260Q (1.5 g, 50 Hz bandwidth response, typical sensitivity of 800 mV/g) ; MMA6261Q (1.5g, 300 Hz bandwidth response, 800 mV/g sensitivity); MMA6262Q (1.5g, 150 Hz bandwidth...
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