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STMicroelectronics
2018/08/03
Industrial Magnetometer and eCompass from STMicroelectronics
With industrial-grade longevity that assures availability for 10 years, the STMicroelectronics IIS2MDC magnetometer and ISM303DAC eCompass enable both reliable, low-power tamper detection for smart meters and precision motion and distance sensing in applications from industrial automation and robotics to smart buildings, smart security, and medical devices.
Both sensors contain an AMR (Anisotropic Magneto-Resistive) magnetometer with high dynamic range of ±50 Gauss, which meets best-in-class benchmarks for resolution and low power consumption. Each also features an integrated temperature sensor, and provides a 16-bit digital output via a built-in I2C/SPI serial interface.
The ISM303DAC’s additional integrated low-noise 3-axis accelerometer with user-selectable full-scale range up to ±16g enables dual-mode magnetic/physical tamper detection. It also serves applications such as antenna pointing, positioning and navigation, robot guidance, and general industrial motion tracking or distance sensing. The magnetic and accelerometer blocks can be powered down independently to maximize energy savings.
Both devices can be configured to generate an interrupt signal for magnetic-field detection and automatically compensate for hard-iron offsets provided from the higher application layer. Additionally, the ISM303DAC can also generate interrupts upon recognition of freefall events, tap and double-tap, activity or inactivity, 6D-orientation thresholds, and wake-up events. A built-in FIFO stores accelerometer data to minimize main-processor intervention and, as a result, reduce system power consumption.
Development support includes drivers for both sensors, and software examples including tilt-compensated electronic compass, dynamic magnetometer calibration, and 6-axis or 9-axis sensor fusion. The STEVAL-MKI185V1 adapter board for the IIS2MDC and STEVAL-MKI184V1 for the ISM303DAC are also available, ready to plug into a standard DIL24 socket on a motherboard such as the STEVAL-MKI109V3 professional MEMS board to assist development using ST’s Unico GUI.
