Category: Sensors

TowerJazz CMOS camera sensors 8K/HDR, Panasonic, real camera sensors vs Smartphone camera

Posted by – June 24, 2019

TowerJazz offers a broad range of advanced analog process technologies enabling the most cost-effective and versatile IC manufacturing including SiGe BiCMOS and RF CMOS (SOI and bulk) for radio frequency (RF) and high performance analog (HPA) applications; CMOS image sensor (CIS); power management, including 700V BCD; CMOS; Mixed-Signal CMOS and MEMS capabilities, TowerJazz’s modular and customizable processes are available on either 150mm, 200mm or 300mm wafers in its seven fabrication facilities located in Israel, US and Japan, TowerJazz CMOS IMAGE SENSORS are advanced and proven CMOS image sensor technology for optical sensors used in high-end photography, industrial, medical, automotive and consumer applications, including high end camera phones and 3D cameras, TowerJazz claims leadership in CMOS image sensors and pixel technology available on 8” wafers, 180nm with aluminum backend, 8” wafers, 110nm with copper backend, 12” wafers, 65nm with copper backend.

Acellent structural health monitoring using piezoelectric sensors

Posted by – March 21, 2019
Category: Sensors, IDTechEx

Acellent provides real-time data from around the world, which makes for smarter structures and a safer world.

Acellent’s products support a myriad of real world applications including crack detection, corrosion monitoring, and delamination

Silent Sensors talk stretchable sensors and their future

Posted by – February 19, 2019

Marcus Taylor, CEO, Silent Sensors and Dr Peter Harrop, Chairman, IDTechEx discuss sensor technology and its future applications, in particular, sensors for tyres, self-powered sensors, pressure sensors, capacitors, piezoelectric energy harvesting and the batteries used in these sensors.

Silent Sensors is an innovative IoT (Internet of Things) company with a focus on tyres and tyre management. We have a number of exciting opportunities covering holistic tyre lifecycle management, in particular, the development of RFID tagging, sensors and energy harvesting, all of which significantly reduce the total cost of operations of a fleet of vehicles, whether they be construction equipment, trucks, buses or cars.

Filmed at IDTechEx Show! USA
Learn more about our upcoming events:
IDTechEx Show! Europe https://www.IDTechEx.com/Europe
IDTechEx Show! USA https://www.IDTechEx.com/USA

Sheldahl Flexible Technologies conductive inks for biometric sensor

Posted by – February 19, 2019

Sheldahl Flexible Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Flex Ltd., is a US-based company that has been delivering reliable, flexible and printed electronics for over 60 years.

Sheldahl has expanded its flexible circuit strong-hold by establishing a positive reputation for reliability, quality, and cost from Tier two, one, and OEMs in nearly every market around the world. Utilizing additive (printed), subtractive (etched) or hybrid technologies.

Filmed at IDTechEx Show! USA
Learn more about our upcoming events:
IDTechEx Show! Europe https://www.IDTechEx.com/Europe
IDTechEx Show! USA https://www.IDTechEx.com/USA

Arrow shows latest 96Boards and Mezzannine boards


Arrow shows some of their latest 96Boards and Mezzanine boards such as the Renesas ANT96 board based on the Renesas RZ Family Renesas RZ/G1E processor featuring a dual-core Arm Cortex-A7. Novtech Meerkat i.MX7D and Chameleon Cyclone V Altera/Intel FPGA board. NextBiometrics NB-2023-S fingerprint sensor mezzanine board, STM32 Sensor mezzanine board and more. Arrow has more than 5 Mezzanine boards in the pipeline and at least 2 base boards too. Oxalis Layerscape LS1012A.

Smart Hearing Aids, by Achin Bhowmik, CTO at Starkey Hearing Technologies

Posted by – September 3, 2018

Achin Bhowmik, CTO at Starkey Hearing Technologies, talks about redefining what a hearing aid is using sensors and AI, enhancing machine perception to augment the human experience.

Breath! controls breathing when doing Yoga and Pilates

Posted by – August 26, 2018

Breath! discusses their e-textile system which comprises of a smart garment and an app to monitor breathing through sensors within the garment.

Interviewed at the IDTechEx Show! Europe 2018

Microchip PIC16F18446 with 12bit ADC, Computation, ATMEGA4809 8-bit high-performance AVR RISC CPU

Posted by – August 9, 2018

The Microchip PIC16(L)F184xx 8-bit product family features high resolution Analog, Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs) and communication along with eXtreme Low-Power (XLP) technology for a wide range of general purpose and low-power applications. The family offers a 12-bit ADC with computation (ADC2), multiple communications interfaces, a temperature sensor; along with memory features like Memory Access Partition (MAP) and Device Information Area (DIA). The 12-bit ADC2 automates Capacitive Voltage Divider (CVD) techniques for advanced touch sensing, averaging, filtering, oversampling and automatic threshold comparison. The products also have a highly effective power management features such as CPU IDLE/DOZE modes, peripheral module disable (PMD) and peripheral pin select (PPS).

The Microchip ATmega4809 is a microcontroller featuring the 8-bit AVR processor with hardware multiplier – running at up to 20MHz and with up to 48 KB Flash, 6 KB SRAM and 256 bytes of EEPROM in 48-pin packages. The series uses the latest Core Independent Peripherals with low power features. Including Event System, intelligent analog and advanced peripherals.

Sensel PressureGrid Force Sensing Multi-touch sensor

Posted by – August 4, 2018

https://sensel.com creates multi-touch, highly sensitive, low power, and mobile, Sensel’s PressureGrid makes computing more comfortable and creative.

Interviewed at the IDTechEx Show! USA http://IDTechEx.com/USA

Smart Tires by Silent Sensors, Energy Harvesting, RFID for rubbers elastomers, polymers


Marcus Taylor, CEO of Silent Sensors (http://silentsensors.com) demonstrates their Energy Harvesting and RFID products for use in rubbers elastomers and polymers, with a special focus on tires. Tires, first and foremost, are safety products. About 20% of all accidents on the road are caused by underinflated tires. Underinflated tires also translate into increased fuel consumption and increased tire wear. All the components they use have to be automotive grade.

At the IDTechEx Show! Europe, Silent Sensors introduced a new supercapacitor that is very flexible and able to withstand high temperatures, which is necessary for tire manufacture and production.

Filmed at IDTechEx Show! Europe: http://IDTechEx.com/Europe

Learn more about the IDTechEx Show! USA: http://IDTechEx.com/USA

Printed Electronics World – The source for global news on printed, organic and flexible electronics, interpreted by experts: http://printedelectronicsworld.com

XCo Tech precise motion tracking (2cm at 10ms) for elite sports

Posted by – July 25, 2018

XCo Tech (https://xco.io) provides 2cm accuracy in all movements for elite level sports teams and athletes, being able to monitor exact movements in sport, fitness and healthcare using precision location technology and unique cross platform software for their sensor based system.

Interviewed at the IDTechEx Show! USA: http://IDTechEx.com/USA

BOE under-display TFT Fingerprint sensor with Guillaume Chansin Irimitech

Posted by – July 11, 2018

BOE shows their new under-display fingerprint sensor at SID Display Week 2018. It is an optical sensor with a resolution of 500 dpi placed directly under an OLED display based on TFT circuitry that has been certified to meet the TEE standard. Other companies like Synaptics have shown similar concepts before, but this is the first time the under-display fingerprint sensor is made with TFT. Dr Guillaume Chansin who is a consultant in sensor technology at Irimitech gets a hands-on demo. He says there are advantages in using TFT instead of CMOS to make a large sensor that could potentially be the same size as the display in the future. According to BOE the sensor material is not silicon so it is cheaper to manufacture. They can make the sensor on glass or on flexible plastic (for matching with flexible OLED displays).

Holst Centre IMEC fingerprint sensor in display, organic photodiode frontplane, IGZO backplane


Holst Centre demonstrated next-gen technology that integrates the fingerprint sensor into the display. Using flat-panel display (FPD) compatible processes, Holst Centre researchers created a 6×8-cm, 200 ppi active matrix imager with a solution-processed, ultrathin organic photodiode frontplane and an IGZOTFT backplane. The imager was demonstrated in a biometric palm print and multiple-finger detector. They believe the palm print is a more secure biometric than fingerprint scanning; and the processing of all building blocks in the palm print imager is compatible with existing FPD technology platform.

Filmed at the I-Zone demo and prototype area at SID Display Week, the world’s largest and best exhibition for electronic information display technology.

BeBop Sensors, Smart Glove sensing with haptics, Drum Pad at CES 2018

Posted by – January 25, 2018

BeBop makes fabric sensors that are piezo-resistive, they showed off their latest product the Forte Wireless Glove that can sense finger movements and incorporates haptic feedback. Ideally used in VR applications, this glove can work for 15 hours on a single charge, it is a one size fits all model, very fast response up to 150 frames/second for gaming applications, unique haptic actuators embedded at each finger tip. BeBop also showed pressure sensing foot pads and hand tracking system both using their fabric sensor technology. The company has been shipping its sensors into musical instruments sold by its sister company KMI, one such example was the BopPad a musical drum pad that is in the market already. BeBop is silicon valley based startup, expecting to go into mass production this year.

Open Source Foundries IoT Zephyr, Linux, IoT Gateways, Bluetooth Mesh microPlatforms demo


Open Source Foundries is a spin off company off of Linaro, composed of a talented group of engineers to work more directly with companies, OEMs, ODMs, small, medium to large companies to bring new open source products and solutions more rapidly to the market. Leveraging all the work done by Linaro and speeding up the time to market, enable rapid product development, here demonstrating some of the open source IoT solutions provided based on Zephyr on ARM Cortex-M and Linux on ARM Cortex-A using the Linaro Technologies Division (LTD) microPlatforms system.

The lack of a secure IoT solution has the industry scrambling. The Open Source Foundries team believes that a world can exist in which all connected devices can be secured and updated in a timely fashion. In this demonstration shown at the Linaro Connect San Francisco 2017, the team showcases its secure end to end FOTA (firmware over the air) solution implementing the latest in connected technologies.

At Open Source Foundries, software is their passion, hacking hardware is their favorite past time, so they have created the OSLight project to convert off the shelf hardware into secure connected devices. They have inserted a Red Bear NRF52 BLE Nano 2 into these lamps, to allow them to communicate over BLE with various cloud services. In the first demo, they demonstrate creating a secure BLE mesh network with these lamps. They show the ability to securely pass messages through the mesh network to control the state of the LED lamp. The next demo shows a set of 96Boards Nitrogens sending temperature data to the SoftBank IoT Cloud with the ONEM2M protocol using 6lowpan over BLE. The third and final demo introduces a variant of the OSLight project, a fully 3D printed light bulb. Instead of a simple LED array it has a 12 LED WRGB NeoPixel which is powered by line voltage, stepped down to 5VDC.

For microcontrollers, they offer their Zephyr microplatform, an open source software reference based on Zephyr RTOS and MCUboot. This software stack implements secure boot, unified microkernel, and IP (TCP or UDP) using 6lowpan over BLE. At the protocol level they’ve embraced industry standards such as LWM2M/ONEM2M/HTTPS/MQTT to provide an array of options for their customers, whilst ensuring no vendor lock in. Open Source Foundries subscribers are offered continuous validated software updates throughout the life of their product for a fixed monthly subscription fee.

On the gateway, they offer their Linux microplatform, which is again, an open source reference based on the latest Linux kernel version, and a minimal Yocto based userspace with a container runtime (Docker). By isolated the OS from the containers, each can be updated independently while providing limitless potential for the applications it can run. For updates they again implement standards, and stay vendor neutral to allow their customers to choose the solution that is right for them. Continuous validated updates for the OS and containers are also offered for this platform for a reasonable fixed monthly fee.

Peratech 3D force-sensing Touch sensors

Posted by – July 15, 2017

Peratech 3D multi-touch matrix sensors unlock the next-generation in HMI experiences, enabling new gestures, simplified interfaces, and endless flexibility. So sensitive they can be integrated under multiple top surfaces including plastics, metals, glass and flexible displays. Better still, they can be deployed in curved applications. Because our matrix sensor can be dynamically reconfigured through firmware, a single or small number of sensor design(s) can fit multiple applications, dramatically reducing development and tooling costs. Peratech 3D multi-touch sensors are low power, immune to EMI and water events, work with gloved hands and passive stylus, and can be transparent as well as opaque. Filmed at the SID Display Week.

Henkel Stretchable electronic materials used to make formable, non-flat circuits

Posted by – July 8, 2017

Henkel AG & Company, KGaA, is a German chemical and consumer goods company headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. It is a multinational company active both in the consumer and industrial sector. Founded in 1876, the DAX 30 company is organized into three globally operating business units (laundry & home care, beauty care, adhesive technologies) and is known for brands such as Loctite, Persil, and Fa amongst others. In the fiscal year 2016, Henkel reported sales of 18.7 billion euros and an operating profit of 3.172 billion euros. More than 80 percent of its 51,350 employees work outside of Germany. Filmed at the IDTechEx Show!

Playtronica, play music with fruits, cats and anything

Posted by – July 8, 2017

Playtronica is an open-source toolkit for creating immersive sensory interactions interactive musical experiences. Touchme and Playtron are devices that transform human touch into midi notes. Work with any conductive material, vegetables, cats and humans. Sounds are generated by Playtronica’s web sampler or any other online midi synth. Filmed at the IDTechEx Show!

You can watch some musical sessions played using the Playtronica here, here and here.

Bainisha body motion capture using flexible wearable sensors and electronics

Posted by – May 21, 2017

Bainisha shows their body motion capturing in their high performance wearable systems consisting of wearable second skin patches for remote motion capturing, in which batteries, antennas, electronics and sensors (including both the Bainisha sensor and IMU’s to form a hybrid system) are embedded, that can be worn 24/7 up to 3 weeks, delivering a 4D super accurate topological map of the measured body part for top level analytics. Filmed at the IDTechEx Show.

8Power self-powered Sensor Network (IoT with no batteries, no charging)


8Power presents the Track100, a 100% self-powered Energy Harvesting LoraWan LPWA GPS Tracker for creating Sensor Networks that run on vibrations and solar. These can be installed all over the place, never having to go back to change the batteries nor recharging the devices to power the Sensor Network IoT. 8Power Ltd received the Best Technical Development within Energy Harvesting Award at the IDTechEx Show. Filmed at the IDTechEx Show.