For high-cost consumer drones, InvenSense capacitive pressure sensors may become standard

According to the latest Gartner data, the global production of professional drones in 2017 will be close to 3 million, an increase of 39% over 2016, the market revenue is expected to increase 34% year on year, will exceed $6 billion, and in the toy drone market, annual shipments continue to climb to 50 million units. According to China Business Industry research and analysis, it is expected that by 2025, the domestic focus on aerial photography and entertainment market of consumer grade, toy-grade UAV scale is about 50 billion yuan. For such a huge UAV market, how to meet the requirements of customers and consumers for high quality and high cost performance, reflecting the competitiveness and differentiation of products, the barometers that were previously standard on professional drones began to be gradually deployed on toy-level drones. According to the feedback of InvenSense's first-line engineers, "Based on the requirements of height determination and climb, the air pressure sensor has become the standard of the 'differentiated road' of drones."

Focus on differentiation + professional development, the barometer has become a standard drone

Air pressure sensors in UAV applications are mainly used to detect changes in air pressure and set height. There are two kinds of fixed height: first, hover, that is, the UAV is fixed on the preset height position, and now the professional UAV uses the barometer to read the height parameters, so as to achieve a stable hover; The second is the elevation, the barometer can help the UAV achieve accurate takeoff and elevation control, so that the speed is not too fast to control.

Different from resistive barometers in the past, InvenSense's pressure sensors based on capacitive technology have four technical advantages: low power consumption, low noise, excellent temperature stability, and high precision, comprehensively surpassing resistive barometers. InvenSense launched the world's first 7-axis barometer ICM-20789 at the end of last year, and launched the pressure sensor series ICP-10100, ICP-10110 and so on in Q2 this year.

Two-in-one integration + single-axis two-sided case, InvenSense barometer focuses on low power consumption + low noise

InvenSense's 7-axis barometer ICM-20789 is actually a "2-in-1" integrated solution, adding a pressure sensor based on capacitive technology, leading performance and excellent temperature stability to its leading 6-axis (3-axis accelerometer + 3-axis gyroscope)MEMS motion sensor. At the same time, compared with the discrete IMU and single-axis barometer, the 7-axis integration solution of the ICM-20789 can not only save motherboard space, but also help customers reduce costs, providing customers with a simple upgrade path without affecting all aspects of performance.

According to InvenSense engineers: "Due to the professional needs of drones for altitude and climb, the barometer has become a standard drone. With InvenSense's IMU widely used in UAVs and well received in the market, and based on a deep understanding of customer needs, we believe that the 2-in-1 high-performance seven-axis sensor ICM-20789 will be able to provide customers with consistent quality products and satisfactory service."

According to the different market needs of customers, InvenSense also introduced the pressure sensor ICP-10100(2 x 2 x 0.72mm 10L LGA) with excellent performance in terms of power consumption and noise. ICP-10100 adopts the innovative package design of "three small holes" (0.025mm). Compared with the design of a single large hole by other suppliers, InvenSense's three-small hole design is not only more waterproof, but also more conducive to reducing the interference of light, wind, dust and other environmental factors, achieving high precision. It is reported that the ICP-10100 waterproof index is up to 1.5m, 30 minutes (IPx8). In addition, ICP-10100 and ICM-20789, in low noise mode, pressure noise RMS is only 0.8Pa(current at 5.2μA); In low power mode, the noise RMS of the pressure is 3.2Pa(current is 1.3μA), which is nearly 45% lower than similar products in the market. InvenSense also introduced the ICP-10110 in different sizes (2 x 2.5 x 0.92mm 8L LGA).

Towards more application areas, the barometer will become a new selling point of wearable differentiation

With low power consumption and low noise, InvenSense air pressure sensors can actually meet a variety of applications, such as wearable applications, smartphones and so on. In fact, different markets have slightly different performance requirements for barometers, such as the drone market is more concerned about low noise, and wearable IoT applications are more concerned about low power consumption, and InvenSense's two air pressure sensors can well meet customer needs in terms of power consumption and noise. At the same time, based on ICM-20789, InvenSense also provides a posture detection algorithm suitable for the wearable market, and the hardware and software support the measurement of altitude and height.

"Some high-end markets, such as professional outdoor sports wearables, are joining the barometer to achieve accurate measurement of altitude and height, reflecting different market positioning of differentiation and professionalism." InvenSense engineers believe that to break through the current weak growth of the wearable market, differentiation and professionalism are still the key, and InvenSense's 7-axis air pressure sensor ICM-20789 and single-axis air pressure sensor ICP-10100 will quickly bring new selling points for wearable devices.