MEMSIC, Inc., a MEMS sensing solution provider, announced today the availability of its MXC400xXC, the world’s first monolithic 3D accelerometer, and also the first 3D accelerometer to utilize WLP technology. The technology breakthrough in combining the 3D IC sensor with full WLP translates directly to a 60% reduction in cost and a 50% reduction in size, enabling a new generation of mobile consumer devices including phones, tablets, toys and wearable devices.

The key to this breakthrough is MEMSIC’s proprietary and patented thermal accelerometer technology, in which the MEMS sensor structure is etched directly into standard CMOS wafers, enabling the world’s only CMOS monolithic solution. This technique uses thermal convection of heated gas molecules inside a sealed cavity to sense acceleration or inclination, and has been used for many years in MEMSIC’s products for automotive stability control and rollover detection, digital cameras, projectors and many other applications. MEMSIC’s designers have now taken the technology to a new level by combining 3D sensing with full WLP while keeping the same small size and low cost.

The MXC400xXC offers a number of benefits to system designers of space- and cost-sensitive consumer devices. In addition to offering the world’s lowest cost, the device provides 12-bit resolution on all three axes, programmable FSR of ±2g/±4g/ ±8g, an 8-bit temperature output, plus orientation/shake detection. With a package size of 1.2 x 1.7 mm, board space is reduced by 50% over industry-standard 2×2 mm solutions. And like all MEMSIC thermal accelerometers, the MXC400xXC has no moving parts, making the sensor structure extremely robust to shock and vibration (withstands shock in excess of 200,000g with no change in sensor performance). This is critically important to wearable and many consumer applications.

Dr. Yang Zhao, MEMSIC CEO and Founder, commented “While we have been supplying thermal accelerometers for more than a decade, the MXC400xXC is a real breakthrough in sensor design, signal processing architecture and MEMS WLP. This is the industry’s first and only monolithic 3D accelerometer with full WLP technology, enabling us to achieve a new level of size and cost, which are critical for mobile consumer devices.”