Sensors

Last week Belgian fabless chip company Melexis announced a unique inductive sensing IC that includes a tiny transformer, drive circuit and sense circuit, so Electronics Weekly decided to have a closer look. No permanent magnet, external or internal, is needed, and external magnetic fields are rejected. MLX92442 only requires a nearby electrically conductive object for triggering. It comes in either ...

TDK has put an mems piezoelectric ultrasonic time-of-flight distance sensor inside a 3.5 x 3.5mm package along with its signal chain. “ICU-10201 offers the sensitivity required for obstacle avoidance or proximity sensing, which is used frequently in robotics, drones and robot vacuum cleaners,” according to the company. “The sensor provides millimeter-accurate range measurements to targets at distances up to 1.7m, ...

Diodes has created a trio of tiny magnetic field triggered sensors that operate from low-voltage rails between 1.1 and 2V. Called AH1899x, they have two power pads and a binary output that is either high or low depending on the local field. Packaging is a 1 x 1 x 0.4mm DFN1010-4. To save power, each includes measure-then-sleep logic and only ...

An ultrasound-based sensing technique developed for medicine could have wider application. The question that inspired the technique was: how do we spot leaks from the gut after gastric surgery? Neither ultrasound, CT or MRI scanning could be used to remotely determine local chemistry around the internal wound, according to Northwestern University, which teamed up with the Washington University School of ...

Imaging Development Systems (IDS) is offering Sony’s IMX662 1/2.45 inch 2.16 Mpixel sensor in both colour and monochrome cameras. U3-38C0XCP comes in a completely closed 29 x 29 x 17mm zinc die-cast housing with an integral C-mount lens holder. “The sensors belonging to Sony’s Starvis 2 series are designed for maximum light sensitivity,” according to IDS. “We offer this rolling ...

A new technique applied to avalanche photodiodes improves the operating range or sampling rate of OTDRs, says Ben White. An optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) is a fibre optic network test instrument that measures the characteristics of an optical fibre. It can determine the fibre’s length and attenuation and detect a variety of fault types. The network test instrument works by ...

Leonardo is highlighting the UK’s role in the recently launched NASA PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Climate, ocean Ecosystem) satellite, which will study the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere. It launched at the end of last week, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida (right). The craft has since successfully made contact with ground stations ...

Demonstrations of automotive technology at CES paved the way for autonomous driving and emphasised the role of sensors and AI in vehicle systems, reports Caroline Hayes. Automotive radar has been described as one of the most significant additions to vehicles in the past two decades. In a 3D form, measuring azimuth (horizontal angle) distance and velocity, radar is used in ...

Allegro MicroSystems has introduced a pair of surface-mount current sensors that work from dc to 5MHz. Variants allow six sensitivities between 66mV/A (±20A range) and 20.3mV/A (±65A). Response time is typically 40ns. They are “fast enough for SiC and GaN protection, while also providing low-frequency content for power-conversion control”, said Allegro product manger Matt Hein. ACS37030 and ACS37032 employ dual ...

LEM and Semikron Danfoss have teamed up to monitor current in automotive silicon carbide power mosfet modules. The result is ‘Nano’, a current sensor that is compatible with Semikron’s DCM SiC power modules, which are rated at 750 or 1,200V and 200 to 1,000A. “The idea behind the Nano concept was to design a core-based current sensor that could fit ...