Senior marketing manager Giovanni de Majo said the part, which was developed at ams’ Eindhoven site, is supported by demo kits and is in mass production.
“The industry is moving from a time when sensors were mainly analogue towards digital systems,” he noted. “This enables smaller sensors with lower power consumption. Before, these types of sensor would have been aimed at industrial applications, but are now suitable for use in consumer products.”
The ENS210 features a monolithic die containing the control logic and the sensing elements. Using a special packaging technology, the sensor die is supplied in a plastic housing measuring 2 x 2 x 0.75mm. This is said to be small enough for it to be designed into smartphones and wearable devices, such as fitness monitors. For the latter application, said de Majo, the sensor would allow humidity to be factored into the overall fitness assessment.
Meanwhile, the device can be paired with ams’ CCS811 or CCS801 gas sensors to provide a solution for indoor air quality monitoring. Based on the micro hotplate technology developed by recently acquired Cambridge CMOS Sensors, the CCS811 – a gas sensor SoC – detects volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor environments. It features an embedded microcontroller which runs ams algorithms to convert raw sensor readings into equivalent total VOC and equivalent CO2 measurements. Relative humidity and temperature measurements taken by the ENS210 allow the system to adjust CCS811’s digital output by compensating for changes in the environment.
The CCS801 offers the same functionality, but works with a host MCU. Both parts are supported by evaluation kits.
“Consumer demand for information about indoor air quality is growing quickly,” said Paul Wilson, senior marketing manager. “The evaluation kits make it easy for designers to model the system’s operation and to verify that it produces consistent, reliable information.”