Freescale unveils new era of sensing with Xtrinsic portfolio

ORLANDO, USA (Freescale Technology Forum): Expanding on its more than 30 year sensor history, Freescale Semiconductor is introducing its Xtrinsic sensing solutions – products designed with the right combination of high performance sensing capability, processing capacity, and customizable software to help deliver smart, differentiated sensing applications.

Freescale’s Xtrinsic sensing solutions have built-in intelligence and make complex calculations and decisions within the context of their environments. This offloads the host processor of these extensive processing requirements, enabling design innovation and more efficient systems.

As one of the first solutions embodying these advanced functions, Freescale is releasing the intelligent, high precision Xtrinsic Motion Sensing Platform based on the integration of an accelerometer, processing core, memory, and multiple embedded functions. The platform’s user definable capabilities and multiple sensor inputs deliver extensive flexibility to mobile consumer applications.

Freescale is also aligning its next generation microcontroller-based touch sensing solutions to the Xtrinsic portfolio. Xtrinsic Touch Sensing Software Suite 2.0 expands capacitive touch sensing capability beyond 8-bit to 32-bit microcontrollers.

“The rising demand for multifunctional personal electronic devices and intuitive applications from smart phones to medical devices to GPS has revved up the demand levels for sensors,” said Jérémie Bouchaud, director and principal analyst, MEMS & Sensors at iSuppli.

“In order to facilitate the ‘fusion’ of the signals from the various sensors while reducing the power consumption, iSuppli sees an increasing demand for technologies that incorporate multi-sensing and MCU capabilities within one platform. This allows a broader range of functionality and at the same time offloads the power hungry host processor.”

The growing popularity and availability of smart, connected mobile devices for consumers is creating new markets, new product categories and requiring more personalized, immersive experiences.

According to iSuppli, the MEMS market for mobile and consumer devices is expected to top $2.7 billion by 2013. Sensors are driving this evolution in today’s consumer electronics devices and now a new level of sensing innovation is needed to continue the development of cutting-edge devices. Large-scale deployment of sensors is not only being witnessed in smart mobile devices, but also in products such as gaming equipment and cameras.

“At Freescale, we have always dedicated ourselves to providing our customers with sensing solutions that help them build leading edge devices,” said Tom Deitrich, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale’s RF, Analog & Sensor Group.

“With Xtrinsic sensing solutions, our vision is to offer a diverse and differentiated product portfolio to meet the expanding needs of the automotive, consumer, and industrial segments. Xtrinsic solutions offer ideal blends of functionality and intelligence designed to help our customers differentiate and win in highly competitive markets.”

Advanced motion sensing control for system-level impact
The Xtrinsic Motion Sensing Platform MMA9550L manages multiple sensor inputs and can perform intelligent, system-level decisions within the application. The MMA9550L extends 3-axis accelerometer functionality with a programmable core and on-chip memory to enable advanced motion sensing capability.

Combining attributes essential for mobile phones and consumer applications, including a small 3 x 3 x 1 mm package, 14-bit resolution, low-noise and low-power, the MMA9550L is a highly flexible and configurable sensor decision engine. Up to 12 inputs are seamlessly consolidated by the sensing hub on the MMA9550L, which operates with a slave port configurable as either IIC or SPI allowing calibration, compensation and sensor functions to be offloaded from the system applications processor.

Xtrinsic Motion Sensing Platform MMA9550L samples are planned to be available to customers in Q3 2010. The MMA9550L is expected to be in production in Q1 2011.

Availability of Xtrinsic Touch Sensing Software Suite 2.0 is planned for Freescale MCU customers in mid-July. In addition, a Touch Sensing Software evaluation board (TSSEVB) is available at a suggested resale price of $99. The board is designed to provide customers with the technology necessary to begin creating capacitive touch sensing applications with Freescale MCUs.