3-axis accelerometer plus MCU packs motion sensing and smarts

A miniature smart sensor that combines a 3-axis accelerometer with an embedded MCU in an ultra-compact 3 x 3 x 1mm LGA package provides advanced custom motion-recognition.

The MCU acts as a sensor hub that runs sensor-fusion algorithms, and a high-precision 3-axis digital accelerometer, called the LIS331EB iNEMO-A smart sensor. The result is reduced demand on the host controller and application processor combined with decreased power consumption in portable devices.

Applications include motion-activated UIs in phones, tablets, and augmented reality. The accelerometer also contains two embedded finite state machines (FSM) and an embedded FIFO (first-in first-out), enabling custom motion-recognition detection, including specific gesture detection, and a pedometer that can run without using the embedded microcontroller, further reducing the overall power consumption.

The high performance 3-axis accelerometer in the device features a selectable full-scale range of ±2g/±4g/±8g/±16g and houses an ultra-low-power ARM Cortex-M0 core with 64KB Flash Memory and 128KB RAM memory, as well as multiple timers and I/O ports (GPIOs/SPI/I2C/UART).

The smart motion sensor will start sampling in Q2 2013. Unit pricing is US$2.4 for volumes in the range of 1,000 pieces.

Visit STMicroelectronics for more information.