Saturday, February 01, 2003

Analog Devices' New Accelerometer Opens Cost-Sensitive Market Opportunities for MEMS Technology

-Industry’s lowest cost integrated MEMS accelerometer is made possible by ADI’s high volume manufacturing and leading iMEMS technology

Analog Devices Inc. , a leader in MEMS technology for over a decade, today introduced the ADXL311 accelerometer, a fully integrated, low-power, low-g device that is the lowest priced integrated MEMS accelerometer available. The new accelerometer makes MEMS technology more accessible to cost-sensitive markets and will create many new applications. Leveraging the company’s high volume production capability and featuring its reliable iMEMS® technology, the ADXL311 will sell for $2.50 each in quantities of 10,000.

“Since introducing the industry’s first commercially available MEMS accelerometer in 1993, Analog Devices has reduced MEMS accelerometer prices by more than a factor of 10.” said Marlene Bourne, senior analyst, In-Stat/MDR. “With this new announcement, ADI will continue to remove price barriers and enable many exciting new applications.”

Game controllers were among the first consumer electronics applications to use Analog Devices’ iMEMS accelerometers when OEMs featured these products at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 1999. Today, the company’s list of customers is growing. In personal computing devices and handsets, for example, the ADXL311 enables single-handed menu scrolling, map panning or web browsing without the use of a stylus or push buttons. Designers of sports and health-related devices such as pedometers and calorie counters are considering the ADXL311 for step counting, distance traveled and speed measurements. The ADXL311 can also be used in portable blood pressure monitoring devices to ensure proper arm positioning. The new ADXL311 will make the integration of tilt- and motion-sensing features affordable in a variety of new input devices and electronic toys.

“By leveraging our extensive high volume MEMS accelerometer experience, we have been able to continuously reduce costs to levels previously thought unattainable,” said Paul Ganci, product line director, Micromachined Products Division, Analog Devices, “With less than one failure per billion hours of operation, our iMEMS products exemplify Analog Devices’ commitment to world-class quality and reliability.”

The ADXL311 uses Analog Devices’ reliable iMEMS (integrated Micro Electro Mechanical System) surface micromachining technology with proven circuit, sensor and process reliability performance of better than 1 FIT (failure in time). This is the same technology that Analog Devices has used to deliver more than 100 million accelerometers. The new ADXL311, along with future low-cost iMEMS accelerometers, will play a significant role in enabling tilt- and motion-sensing features in many cost-sensitive applications.

About the ADXL311

The ADXL311 is a dual axis, ±2 g (at full-scale) accelerometer with analog outputs that can measure both dynamic acceleration (e.g. vibration) and static acceleration (e.g. gravity). The new accelerometer integrates moving microscopic silicon parts and sophisticated signal conditioning to produce a complete two-axis accelerometer on a single monolithic IC and features lower power requirements (200 mA per axis at 3V operation) than any accelerometer in its price range. The typical noise floor is 300 micro g per root Hertz at 3V operation and allows signals below 5 milli g to be resolved for bandwidths below 60 Hz. The ADXL311 is packaged in a 5 mm x 5 mm x 2 mm 8-lead hermetic LCC package and provides the most accurate low-power, low-cost method of measuring tilt, shock and vibration.

Price and Availability

The ADXL311 is priced at $2.50 in quantities greater than 10,000 units. The product is now sampling and will be available in volume production Q1 2003.

About Analog Devices’ Leadership in MEMS Technology

As a pioneer in the micromachined IC industry, Analog Devices produced the first fully-integrated, single-chip MEMS-based accelerometer in 1991. Since then, Analog Devices has maintained its leadership and remains the industry’s only high-volume producer of single-chip accelerometers, having shipped more than 100 million units to date. Designed initially for use in safety-critical front and side impact airbag applications, iMEMS accelerometers provide complete cost-effective sensing solution useful in a wide variety of other inertial applications. ADI’s iMEMS technology is used to design and manufacture accelerometers, gyros and optical MEMS devices for a wide range of applications.