MEMSIC Inc., a sensing solution provider, today announced the availability of its MMC3524xPJ Three-Axis Magnetic Sensor. This fully integrated device achieves a dramatic increase in performance over competing devices, particularly in the areas of stability over temperature and time, and insensitivity to external magnetic disturbance. In particular, the offset drift over temperature is <1.5mGauss, which is more than 100x better than the nearest competitor. Additionally, the device can withstand a magnetic disturbance of up to 100G without recalibration. This enhanced stability enables the elimination of the inconvenient and frequent “figure-8” user calibration, delivering a whole new user experience in mobile phones, tablets and wearable devices.
The MMC3524xPJ uses MEMSIC’s proprietary anisotropic magnetic resistive (AMR) technology to achieve its high performance. With a full scale range of +/- 24 Gauss (+/- 2400 μTesla), and an RMS noise of 2mGauss (0.2uT), the device offers a dynamic range 2x – 5x greater than its competition. This results in a more accurate heading determination with less averaging. When combined with MEMSIC’s proprietary algorithms, this enables a heading accuracy of <1 degree, a necessary requirement to enabling Location Based Services in mobile devices.
Power consumption is also critical to mobile and wearable devices in order to extend battery life. At 50uA (10Hz rate), the MMC3524xPJ reduces current consumption by 5x compared with industry-leading products, and is one of the few devices to run from a single 1.8V supply. In addition, the MMC3524xPJ offers a sleep current of 5nA (max), which is 1000x lower than the competition.
“The magnetic sensors in all previous and current generation mobile phones and tablets require a frequent and cumbersome ‘figure 8’ recalibration in order to get an e-compass function with acceptable accuracy,” said Dr. Yang Zhao, MEMSIC CEO. “This is a real burden and annoyance to the user, especially with the tablets and larger phones. With our new MMC3524xPJ, we have virtually eliminated this burden, enabling a new level of user experience and paving the way for accurate pointing in a new generation of Location Based Services.”
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The MMC3524xPJ is offered in an industry-standard 1.6 mm. x 1.6 mm. x 0.5 mm package and operates from a single 1.8 V or Dual 1.8V / 3V supplies, making it ideal for mobile applications such as electronic compassing in cellular phones and tablets, pedestrian navigation, gaming controls, wristwatches, in-vehicle GPS navigation, and other magnetic field measuring applications.