Wearable

Accelerometers support CAN or RS-422 protocols

Tue, Jun 04, 2019

Accelerometers added to the Seiko Epson (Epson) portfolio can monitor the health of the wearer or buildings and infrastructure, as the company releases the M-A352 and the M-A552xxx accelerometers.

The M-A352 accelerometer is designed for infrastructure health monitoring. It  provides the necessary noise performance of one micrG/√Hz or better (servo accelerometer class) for a stable supply and cost competitiveness, says Epson.

The M-A552AC1 and M-A552AR1 three-axis accelerometers boast the same performance as the M-A352 but are equipped with the controlled area network (CAN) and RS-422 interfaces, respectively. These interfaces are widely used in industrial applications. The M-A552AC1 and M-A552AR1 are housed in metal packages that provide IP67-equivalent protection against water and dust.

This level of protection against the elements enables the accelerometers to be used in a range of industrial applications that require long distances, stability and reliability, says Epson.

The accelerometers make it easy for developers to build multi-node (multi-point) measurement systems, synchronised measurement systems and other complex, sophisticated measurement systems. They are easy to install, connect, and use even outdoors and under other harsh environmental conditions, adds Epson, and can reduce customer system development times.

Samples of the new products will begin shipping in the summer of 2019, with volume production scheduled for the spring of 2020.

The MA-A552AC1 (CAN) and MA-A552AR1 (RS-422) accelerometers can be used in structure health monitoring to monitor buildings, bridges, tunnels, and steel towers for earthquake detection, environmental vibration measurement and industrial equipment monitoring. They can also be used in unmanned vehicles (e.g., terrestrial vehicles, undersea probes), and for the measurement of the vibration and path of industrial equipment and vehicles.

Epson Europe Electronics is a marketing, engineering and sales company and the European headquarters for electronic devices of Seiko Epson, Japan. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, since 1989, Epson Europe Electronics has 50 employees, European sales representatives and a Europe-wide network of distributors. Epson Europe Electronics provides value added services for semiconductors, sensors, sensing systems and timing devices for a variety of markets, including industrial, automotive, medical, and communications.

http://www.epson-electronics.de

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Pressure sensor is sensitive for extended temperatures

Tue, May 14, 2019

A ceramic port is included in the design of the Bourns Model BPS140 pressure sensor to enhance its compatibility with certain harsh media, explains the company.

The pressure sensor is added to Bourns’environmental sensors. It is based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology, which provides extremely accurate condition readings in a miniature package size. Designed to deliver high sensitivity/accuracy and long-term reliability, the BPS140 pressure sensors offer extended temperature capability and certain harsh media compatibility.

Model BPS140 is robust with a structure that is capable of handling high pressure ranges (15 to 500 PSI) even at high temperatures. This rugged structure is combined with rear pressure measurement that minimises the number of media-sensitive wetted materials. The purpose of this sensing design is to ensure the measured media only touches the back of the measurement element, explains Bourns.

The structure enhances sensor accuracy because all electronic components and other sensitive surfaces are isolated from the media, explains Bourns. In addition, by reducing the number of wetted materials,  the media sensitivity of the sensor is effectively decreased, adds the company.

Bourns’ latest sensor family offers stable performance over the product’s lifespan, and the ability to work with a wide range of pressures offering a total error band of 2.5 per cent full scale over a temperature range of –40 to +150 degrees C (six sigma process), and a lifetime drift of 0.5 per cent full scale. These features make the BPS140 pressure sensor particularly suitable for a range of industrial, energy, heavy equipment, building and home control and medium/low risk medical designs.

Bourns¨ Model BPS140 pressure sensors are available now, and are RoHS** compliant. Bourns also offers port configuration and calibration customisation.

Bourns manufactures and supplies position and speed sensors, circuit protection solutions, magnetic components, microelectronic modules, panel controls and resistive products.

The company is headquartered in Riverside, California, USA, and serves a broad range of markets, including automotive, industrial, consumer, communications, medical (low/medium risk), audio and various other

http://www.bourns.com

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Water-resistant MEMS pressure sensors meet consumer budgets

Wed, Mar 13, 2019

Water-resistant MEMS pressure sensors, the LPS33W series from STMicroelectronics, exhibit chemical compatibility, stability, and accuracy for use in applications as diverse as fitness trackers and other wearables, vacuum cleaners, and general-purpose industrial sensing.

The IPx8-rated LPS33W is protected by a viscous potting gel inside the cylindrical metal package to withstand salt water, chlorine, bromine, detergents (such as hand soap and shampoo, e-liquids) and light industrial chemicals such as n-pentane. The package lid provides high corrosion resistance, and the cylindrical form factor is easy to use with o-rings in applications that require a sealed enclosure, says ST.

The proprietary gel formula, together with the built-in signal-conditioning ASIC, ensure class-leading 0.008hPa RMS pressure noise thereby allowing outstanding measurement resolution, claims ST. Susceptibility to reflow-soldering stress during assembly is also extremely low, drifting less than ±2hPa and recovering normal accuracy in 72 hours. This is claimed to be more than twice the speed of other sensors. Temperature compensation keeps accuracy within ±3hPa over the operating range from 0 to +65 degrees C.

The LPS33W operates at just 15 microA in high-performance mode, with a 3.0 microA low-power mode and 1.0 microA power-down to help maximise runtime of battery-powered devices. A 128-bit FIFO stores up to 40 slots of 32-bit pressure and temperature data. This saves power by minimising intervention from the host microcontroller. A low-pass filter and I2C and SPI digital interfaces are also built-in.

The LPS33W is in mass production now, in a 3.3 x 2.9mm cylindrical metal case.

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http://www.st.com

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Microprocessor adds Linux distribution to accelerate IoT innovation

Thu, Feb 21, 2019

As part of its commitment to 10-year industrial-grade supply, STMicroelectronics has introduced the STM32MP1 microprocessor series with Linux distribution. According to STMicro, the multi-core STM32MP1 architecture is particularly suited to open-source software-based applications in real-time and power-constrained sub-systems

It also reduces development time using OpenSTLinux mainlined, open-source Linux distribution and the established STM32Cube ecosystem

STMicro has applied its Arm Cortex expertise to expand the capabilities of its STM32 microcontroller to applications which require more performance, resources and large open-source software. The STM32MP1 multi-core microprocessor series has compute and graphics support combined with power-efficient real-time control to support developers of industrial, consumer, smart home, health and wellness applications.

The STM32MP1 series microprocessor uses the STM32-family ecosystem from ST and its partners, including tools and technical support.

“The STM32MP1 brings the strength of the STM32 experience to applications that need MPU compute and graphics support, combined with power efficient real-time control and high feature integration,” said Ricardo De Sa Earp, general manager of STMicroelectronics’ microcontroller division. “Our commitment to consolidating open-source Linux software and microcontroller development support, combined with the longevity that consumer-oriented alternatives cannot equal, establish solid confidence in STM32MP1 for embedded MPU projects,” he adds.

Designers can use the STM32MP1 microprocessor series to develop a range of applications using the STM32 heterogeneous architecture that combines Arm Cortex-A and Cortex-M cores. The architecture performs fast processing and real-time tasks on a single chip, always achieving the greatest power efficiency, says STMicro. For example, by stopping Cortex-A7 execution and running only from the more efficient Cortex-M4, power can typically be reduced to 25 per cent. From this mode, going to standby further cuts power by 2.5k times – while still supporting the resumption of Linux execution in one to three seconds, depending on the application.

The STM32MP1 embeds a 3D graphics processor unit (GPU) to support human machine interface (HMI) displays. It also supports a wide range of external DDR SDRAM and flash memories. The large set of peripherals can be seamlessly allocated either to Cortex-A / Linux or Cortex-M / real-time activities. The STM32MP1 series is available in a range of BGA packages to minimise PCB cost and use the smallest board space.

The release of OpenSTLinux distribution has already been reviewed and accepted by the Linux community: Linux Foundation, Yocto project and Linaro. The distribution contains all the essential building blocks for running software on the application-processor cores.

Enhanced STM32Cube tools, upgraded from the STM32Cube package for Cortex-M microcontrollers, accelerate microprocessor development using Arm Cortex-A-core MPUs.

Two evaluation boards (STM32MP157A-EV1 and STM32MP157C-EV1) and two Discovery kits (STM32MP157A-DK1 and STM32MP157C-DK2) will be available through distribution channels in April.

http://www.st.com

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