High performance MEMS accelerometer targets industrial and automotive applications

Murata has announced the SCA3300 series of high performance three axis MEMS accelerometers aimed at a broad range of industrial and automotive applications. Measuring 7.6mm x 8.6mm x 3.3mm this small surface mounted MEMS sensor offers a user selectable measurement range of 1.5g, 3g or 6g and features better than 10mg offset stability. Offering best-in-class characteristics for MEMS sensor inclination measurements the series has a non-linearity of 0.1% and typical noise density 37ug/vHz. Mechanical over damping of the sensor enables extremely high performance measurements in harsh, vibrating environments. This compact sensor, packaged in a pre-moulded dual flat lead SMD housing operates from a 3.3VDC supply and consumes only 1mA during normal operation making it suitable for battery powered applications. In its low power mode, consumption drops to about 0.5mA. Communication with the host application is via an industry standard SPI interface. The device is a highly reliable 3D MEMS sensor that is qualified according to the automotive AEC-Q100 quality standard. The sensor also features extensive failsafe functions and flags for diagnostics. These include monitoring of an internal reference signal, checksum techniques for verifying communication and signal saturation / over range monitoring. The unique diagnostic feature in three axis accelerometer is continuously running self-test. The patented continuously running self-test verifies the proper operation of whole signal chain from MEMS sensor movement to signal conditioning circuitry in each measurement cycle. Operating temperature range is from – 40C to + 125C. Target applications for the device include levelling and alignment systems, inertial measurement units for heavy machinery, navigation systems, AGVs, and construction and surveying tools. There is also a wide range of different future applications in high accuracy automotive inertial sensing, like in autonomous driving (ADAS) and intelligent transmission control that can be enabled by this sensor. Inclination sensing in weighing scales is another example application. To aid the product design process an evaluation board is available for the device that incorporates a Java-based GUI to graph sensor output, data logging and data rate calculations.