Most people who learn about my travel to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) assume that I will be only checking out the latest smartphones, smart speakers, and smart cars on the show floor. I do get to a bit of that, but much of my time is spent behind closed doors where tools and products for developers can be found, such as the latest Alexa Voice Service (AVS) kit or the next automotive Ethernet switch chip. Some of what I see will show up in subsequent articles, often because the technology is shown under embargo.
That said, here are a few items I saw that I can talk about now.
MEMS Sensors
TDK was showing off a pair of new sensors. The InvenSense ICP-10100, an ultra-low-noise and ultra-low-power MEMS capacitive barometric pressure sensor, comes in a 2- × 2- × 0.72-mm waterproof package, and is good to 1.5 m. It can detect extremely small pressure differences of ±1 Pa. This allows the chip to detect altitude changes of less than 5 cm. with a temperature coefficient of ±0.5 Pa/°C. Applications include altitude hold for drones.
TDK worked with Asahi Kasei Microdevices Corp. (AKM) to develop an advanced three-axis magnetometer. It utilizes TDK’s tunnel-magnetoresistive (TMR) element and an advanced electronic compass ASIC from AKM. The system comes in a tiny 1.6- × 1.6- × 0.6-mm package. It has very low RMS noise on the order of 400 nT-rms, and it only uses 40 µA when operating at 100 Hz. The high sensitivity of 10 nT/LSB allows the sensor to detect minute changes in magnetic fields very precisely. Applications include and orientation precision such as virtual, augmented, or mixed reality (VR, AR, and MR), and indoor navigation.
Automotive Radar
Automotive technology was a central theme with NXP, revealing innovations such as the NXP Automated Drive Kit and the MR3003 Radar transceiver chip (Fig. 1). The chip has superior output power and low noise figures that enable short or long detection range. It has low phase noise, and excellent linearity enables superior separation of objects.