Industrial

Every industrial setting requires sensory perception. Carrying on in the tradition of the 19th century Industrial Revolution where changes in manufacturing, transport, communication and agriculture had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions, MEMSIC’s product portfolio enables users working in factories, in corporations, with heavy equipment, on-board large vessels, in manufacturing facilities, etc. to enhance their environment with numerous sensing solutions. Our accelerometers offer solutions in auto leveling and vibration monitoring while our inertial systems enhance the performance of agriculture and construction equipment and our wireless sensor solutions automate and monitor the usage of buildings.

Vibration Monitoring 
Projector Auto Keystone
Machine Balance Modules
Antenna Stabilization
Agriculture and Construction Equipment 
Towed Sonar Arrays
Building Automation

Vibration Monitoring

Accelerometers are the core of the vibration monitoring data collection process. They are said to be one of the most successful micro sensors ever developed. Accelerometers are used most often in predictive maintenance and condition-monitoring applications as the source of the electrical signal that corresponds to the vibration level. The accuracy of a vibration monitoring system depends on the quality of data received from the accelerometer. Crossbow provides a wide range of choices to help customers find a product that meets their requirements.

Products:
The GP series accelerometer is a general purpose device that is ideally suited for vibration analysis, automotive testing, instrumentation and equipment monitoring.

The TG series provides customers with a high performance accelerometer suitable for seismic instrumentation, precision tilt and sway monitoring, and measurement of orientation

Other Applications Where Vibration Monitoring May Be Useful are:

• Structural Vibration - analysis and identification of vibration sources and problems in structures
• Product Testing - vibration and shock testing to identify potential design problems
• Acceptance Testing - testing and analysis to ensure products comply with specified vibration tolerance limits
• Workplace Vibration - measurement and analysis of vibration from hand tools and other equipment

Customer Benefits Include:

• Superior Performance
• Small Size
• Low-Cost
• MEMS Technology

Projector Auto Keystone

The Inclination sensing within a Digital Projector is used by the image processor to automatically correct the distortion due to projector tilt (Auto-Keystoning) as well as the inclination measurement to detect whether the Projector is mounted up-side down (i.e. mounted on the ceiling) to invert the image accordingly.

MEMSIC offers very accurate angle measurement over temperature using accelerometers to measure inclination in one or two axes to enable the Digital Projector to offer image adjustment when displaying an image onto a vertical wall while taking into consideration the angle that it sits at on the desk top or hangs from the ceiling. Hand held projectors (Pocket projectors/ Pico projectors/ and Embedded cell phone projector s) also benefit from this functionality by using MEMSIC’s low cost accelerometer device.

• Guaranteed low offset drift over the temperature
• Free from mechanical shock and resonance problem at production line as well as field
• Vertical mount offers low sensitivity drift over the temperature
• Hand held projector image correction

Products: MXD2020EL, MXC6235xQB, MXC6200xUV

Balance Module – Washing Machines

To improve the efficiency of washing machines ‘clothes spinning’ speeds are now approaching 1500 RPMs. It has been proven that it is much more efficient to spin as much water out of the clothes as opposed to having the clothes dryer evaporate the water with heat. These higher spin speeds require the load to be properly distributed and balanced. If the load is unbalanced, the drum will hit the side of the machine or the machine will move and vibrate too much. Additionally most machines usually have a mechanical resonance in the 150RPM range. OEMs want to make sure the load is sufficiently distributed before increasing the spin speed through the mechanical resonance point. If the load is not distributed sufficiently the machine needs to decrease the spin speed and redistribute the load and try again.

Historically washing machine manufacturers have used a smart motor controller that monitors the phase difference between the voltage and current being delivered to the motor to detect the out-of-balance condition. This works well at the higher RPM but not so well at low RPMs where it is most important to know if the clothes are distributed well.

MEMSIC’s Out-Of-Balance Module solves the problem of being able to detect low and high RPM out-of-balance conditions. It is a complete assembly that can be mounted directly to the tub of the washing machine. It consisting of an accelerometer mounted on a small PCB and installed in a water tight plastic housing. The main control board communicates to it over the I2C bus wiring harness.

• Water tight plastic housing
• I2C interface
• 2.7V to 5.25V operation
• Easy Mounting

Products: MXC62020GMW

Antenna Stabilization

MEMSIC's inertial systems are used in conjunction with a series of motors and gimbals for stabilization.

Antenna Stabilization systems typically use the MEMSIC inertial sensor data (azimuth and elevation) to actively point the antenna at a desired satellite position in the sky. Our Products are excellent choices because they measure absolute roll, pitch, and azimuth.

Camera Stabilization systems require fine precision from an active stabilization system like the MEMSIC inertial systems to avoid errors caused by sensor noise, bias, or bandwidth/phase delay. Two common uses of inertial products are horizon leveling and jitter reduction. Horizon leveling is typical done on aerial cameras as they zoom in on a particular target on the ground or distance. A MEMSIC vertical gyro is strapped down to the aircraft and supplies roll and pitch data to the active gimbal. The gimbal uses the roll, pitch data and the gimbal's azimuth location relative to the aircraft in order to hold the camera at a constant angle relative to the horizon.

Jitter reduction is simply measuring the activity of the camera and applying corrective signals to the motors. An Inertial Measurement Unit that measures rate only is typically used since no absolute position information is required. In digital video applications, jitter can be removed without the use of motors but sophisticated signal processing and rate/accelerometer data from an IMU. Placing the sensor on the camera allows the controller to do closed loop control around a zero rate / null sensor reading. In other words the sensor is actually measuring the error signal for the controller.

Products:
VG700-The VG700CB is an intelligent vertical gyro for measuring roll and pitch angles in dynamic environments. The VG700CB uses Crossbow’s third generation Fiber Optic Rate Gyro technology resulting in superior performance, reliability, and stability over time.

VGS440- The Crossbow VGS440 is a standalone GPS-Aided MEMS-Based Vertical Gyro System. In addition to enhanced attitude measurements, the VGS440 also provides velocity and heading data at up to 100 Hz. The inertial systems are aided by both GPS velocity and GPS track to improve stability and reduce the latency associated with standalone GPS measurements

Accelerometers–New generation of light-weight airborne remote sensing platforms offering very high spatial resolution and an unparalleled operational flexibility.

• Complete Dynamic Information - Angles, Rates, Accelerations -Calculates roll, pitch and heading angles by integrating the angular rate sensor outputs. An adaptive vertical erection algorithm compensates the roll and pitch for gyro bias-induced errors using the long term gravity reference provided by the accelerometers
• Analog and Digital Outputs
• Low-Voltage, Light Weight–New generation of light-weight airborne remote sensing platforms offering very high spatial resolution and an unparalleled operational flexibility.

Agriculture and Construction Equipment

Precision guidance and automated control of heavy farm and construction vehicles to centimeter accuracy under dynamic conditions requires a combination of Inertial and GPS sensor technology. Such accuracy is not achievable by human operators. MEMSIC has developed robust and cost-effective OEM solutions for these applications that include single-axis and multi-axis inertial systems and inclinometers. Differential GPS signals are combined with inertial sensor measurements to provide the most reliable system performance

Products:
NAV440 -The NAV440 is a combined GPS Navigation and GPS-Aided Attitude & Heading Reference system (AHRS) that utilizes both MEMS-based inertial sensors and GPS technology.

VG440 –The VG440 is a MEMS Based Vertical Gyro System that can operate as either a standalone system or as a GPS-aided system with enhanced attitude accuracy.

CXTLA –The CXTLA single and dual-axis analog tilt sensors offer high-resolution, accuracy, and fast response in an inexpensive, easy-to-use package

• Robust Sensors and Enclosures -Water resistant, vibration resistant, light-weight and environmentally sealed.
• High Reliability – Solid-state MEMS sensors with MTBF > 25,000 hours
• Low-Cost – Solutions that provide unmatched value in terms of both price and performance.

Towed Sonar Arrays

Towed sonar arrays have contributed significantly to the dramatic increase in the state of the art of anti-submarine warfare technology. A towed sonar array is an array of acoustic hydrophones which are towed behind a surface ship at a predetermined depth. For this purpose, orientation detecting heading sensors have been developed. A heading sensor is essentially a compass that provides an electrical output corresponding to the orientation of the towed array relative to the earth's magnetic field. MEMSIC has used its magnetic and MEMS accelerometer expertise to create solutions tailored for use in these applications.

Products:
CHS Series-The CHS series of high performance fully calibrated, small diameter heading sensors are ideally suited for towed sonar array and seismic streamer applications. A 3-axis fluxgate magnetometer and 3-axis micromachined accelerometer are combined with digital signal processing electronics and fully integrated within a small diameter pressure rated housing.

• Accurate Heading in any Orientation- They provide heading information in any orientation.
• Small Diameter Package- Towed Sonar Arrays demand an accurate and very small heading sensor. The products are small, low power heading sensors operating from a single +5V supply.
• Sealed Pressure-Rated Housing- Qualified for operation in deep water with pressures up to 2500 psi.
• No Gimbals or Fluid Sensors- A principal advantages of starpdown systems over gimbals are cost. For applications requiring attitude control of the host vehicle, strapdown gyroscopes provide more accurate rotation rate data than do the attitude readouts of the floating gimbaled systems. Another major disadvantage of a floated system is difficulty of accessing the inertial sensor assembly for diagnostic testing, maintenance or repair.

Building Automation

Companies delivering solutions for building automation increasingly rely on wireless sensor and control systems to avoid expensive installations and maintenance of wired systems. Simple point-to-point wireless networks are prone to failure due to environments with tough RF conditions. Making sensor solutions smarter, more available, economic and easier to deploy and manage is vital for applications such as energy management, HVAC control, occupancy monitoring, security and asset protection, and meter reading.

Our highly reliable, low-power, bi-directional wireless sensor network technology is designed into innovative building automation systems. MEMSIC’s solution enables these building applications to operate for many years without requiring attention (e.g. battery replacement). Interoperability with existing control devices, building automation networks, and IP networks is critical for realizing the benefits of wireless sensor networks in building automation.

• Cost elimination of hard-wiring
• Mobility and ease-of-network reconfiguration
• Improving operational visibility for energy management and occupancy