MEMS gyro is made for industrial application

A low power, highly programmable gyroscope contains all of the embedded calibration, tuning, and control functionality required to detect the rate at which a system is rotating.

Analog Devices has unveiled the newest addition to its iSensor family of highly integrated intelligent sensors, a low power, highly programmable gyroscope that contains all of the embedded calibration, tuning, and control functionality required to detect the rate at which a system is rotating.

The single-component solution, which leverages Analog Devices' iMEMS Motion Signal Processing technology, requires less than half the design space of existing multicomponent discrete solutions, but offers more advanced control functionality.

Using the iSensor gyroscope, designers of industrial applications where control is essential - such as instrumentation, platform stabilisation and navigation - can realise the benefits of inertial sensing in their systems at a lower cost and up to six-month faster development times.

In the past, designers needed to invest significant development time to integrate embedded control features around available gyroscope cores, as well as investing in the capability to motion test and calibrate the sensors; in addition, significant and costly evaluation and prototype design iterations were required to tune the sensor to their system requirements.

The ADIS16250 fills a product gap between the ultra-high-performance, high-cost and fully integrated gyros well known to the military, and the more recently available moderate performance and less integrated gyros which require significant expertise and test infrastructure on the part of the end user.

"Gyroscopes have traditionally been used in military and automotive applications in which designers have years of in-house expertise with sensor cores and the test infrastructure required to tune them", said Andy Garner, Product Line Director of the iSensor Group at Analog Devices.

"However, there are other applications - industrial navigation, stabilisation and precise instrument movement, for instance - that benefit from being able to determine motion or direction".

"In the past, low volumes and lack of expertise would have dissuaded designers from investing in gyroscope technology".

"Now, Analog Devices' iSensor gyroscope embeds all the test infrastructure and functionality needed to facilitate these new applications, at one tenth the cost of the high-end gyros available today".

The ADIS16250 gyroscope builds on the ADIS1620x family of iSensor accelerometers that was announced in October 2005.

The ADIS16250 is the first MEMS gyroscope to provide both digital range scaling and embedded programmability, eliminating a significant barrier to integrating gyroscopes into industrial systems.

The programmable features are accessible via a standard interface, enabling rapid adaptation to application-specific requirements, and easing design challenges by providing direct control of device sensitivity, sample rate and output filtering.

The gyroscope output is pre-calibrated and indicates the rate at which the device is rotating.

Depending on the application requirements, the user can digitally scale the sensitivity from +/-80 to +/-320deg/s, with the device dynamic range scaling with it.

Some applications require a wider range of measurement and can accept lower sensitivity to achieve it, while others require higher sensitivity at a lower range of measurement.

Unlike competitive offerings, which require different product options for different measurement ranges, the ADIS16250 gyroscope provides designers with the flexibility to scale the device in-system to meet their application requirements.

At the core of the iSensor gyroscope is ADI's iMEMS gyroscope, which is well-suited for high-volume cost sensitive applications.

The ADIS16250 is designed for applications where design flexibility and ease-of-use are critical.

It provides an easily programmable SPI interface, enabling designers to control such key device parameters as sample rate, filter response, self test, rate alarms and power management modes.

By empowering designers to control these specifications, the ADIS16250 eliminates the need for sophisticated system design, detailed debugging, and extensive external control.

It also includes auxiliary ADC (analogue-to-digital convertor) and DAC (digital-to-analogue convertor) ports, and general purpose I/O for easy interfacing to other sensors and for further system control.

Device outputs are factory calibrated, providing accurate sensing while eliminating significant customer expense and test infrastructure requirements.

The ADIS16250 also features an auto-zero mechanism, allowing in-system calibration to account for system tolerances and drifts.

The ADIS16250 iSensor gyroscope is sampling now with full production slated for August 2006.

The sensor is available for $48.50 per unit in 1000-piece quantities.

The device is packaged in an 11 x 11 x 5.8mm laminate-based LGA (land grid array) package.

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