6-axis MEMS-based Intertial Measurement Unit

Austria based SensorDynamics has recently presented a low-cost 6-axis IMU.
The unit measures angular rate and acceleration in all three spatial directions and contains a continuous self-diagnosis capability.
The IMU has total dimensions of 23x32x22 mm with an angular rate resolution of as low as 0.0039 Degree/s/bit and an acceleration resolution of as low as 0.002 m/s^2/bit for measurement ranges of 100 Degree/s and 2g respectively.

[Link]

Trees as batteries

A topic slightly off topic in this blog, but I think it is really cool.
Do you remember the experiment we probably all did in school where you stuck two metal-rods into a lemon to create electricity.
At first sight this sounds fairly similar is based on completely different principle however.

Voltree has developed a method utilizing the pH difference between the inside of the tree and the soil to create electricity. They use this to power remote sensor nodes which form a wirless mesh network in order to monitor remote forests.

[Link]

MEMS inertial measurenemt unit in new Wii-controller

Apparently Nintendo plans to unveil a new controller for the Wii-console containing a 2-axis gyroscope.
This is attached to the current sensor (containing a 3-axis accelerometer) extending its sensing capabilities.
With the help of this InvenSense IDG-600 gyroscope the controller is essentially turned into a 5-axis Inertial Measurement Unit.

[Link]

New MEMS Timing device

California-based company SiTime has recently presented a MEMS-based timing device, a Voltage Controlled MEMS Oscillator (VCMO)

Combined with an ASIC containing a phase-locked loop, the device provides:

• Frequency between 1 and 110MHz
• Pull ranges of ±30 PPM, ±60 PPM, ±120 PPM or ±240 PPM
• Operating voltages of 1.8V, 2.5V, 2.8V or 3.3V
• Frequency tolerance of ±25 PPM, ±30 PPM, ±50 PPM and ±100 PPM

[Link]

MEMS-based fingerprint sensors

A new ultrasound-MEMS-based fingerprint sensor has recently been presented by a company called Sonavation.

They claim the "Sonic Slide 3000" is the worlds thinnest fingerprint sensor with superb accuracy and low power requirements.
The sensor is based on a piezoceramic array with an imaging zone of 9.6mmx0.4mm creating a 256 shade geryscale image of the finger.

The applicaiton maybe questionable, with more and more fingerprint-based applications all around us, but the technology is rally interesting as there could be lots of other applications for it.

[Link]

Fujitsu Siemens chooses STMicro sensors for free fall detection

Fujitsu Siemens will use STMicroelectronics' free-fall detection solution consisting of a 3-axis motion sensor and software to protect it's new Esprimo Mobile family of professional notebooks.
When the sensor detects a possible free-fall event of the notebook, it automatically prompts the system to move the magnetic read/write head of the hard0disk drive to a safe position before hitting the ground thereby maintaining data integrity.

Analog Devices presents high peformance MEMS microphone for Consomer Electronics

Analog Devices has presented a new MEMS microphone based on their iMEMS process which was previously mostly used for accelerometers.
The new microphone (ADMP412 PDM) has digital output, extremely good signal-to-noise 61-dB A-weighted, is capable of high-fidelity audio-video playback, conference calling, voice recognition, VoIP compliant and is aimed specifically at the consumer product market.

Pocket-sized MEMS SVGA projector by Nippon Signal

Nippon signals has recently presented it's newest generation of hand-held projectors.

They are quite small (9 x 5.5 x 2 cm) but still a bit larger than the usually quotes "pack of cigarettes". The interesting part about the device is that it uses semiconductor lasers which are then processed by a MEMS scanner to produce SVGA (800x600) images in RGB colour.

The actual MEMS scanners have a total dimension of 1x1x0.5 cm each.

[Nippon Signals]