editor's blog
Subscribe Now

A Mobile Environment Sensor

Bosch Sensortec recently announced a new environmental sensor, the BME680. It actually builds on prior devices. The first was simply pressure and temperature; the next added humidity; and the BME680 adds gas sensing to that.

 BME680.pngWe’ve looked at a variety of ways to do analyte detection in the past, so I was curious as to which of those Bosch used in this device.

And the answer is: none of the above.

The humidity is detected by a polymer that adsorbs water and affects a capacitance; then again, that’s not what’s new in this device.

The gas sensing is not as specific as what we’ve looked at. It’s a single membrane onto which a number of different analytes can adsorb. I wasn’t able to get much more detail than that; in general, they detect volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and alcohol. It’s a consumer-friendly sensor that doesn’t give specific numbers for specific gasses; it simply says whether or not there’s an issue with the air. It’s driven by the indoor air quality (IAQ) guidelines that regulatory bodies issue.

So while it may not be as selective or specific as what some of the other techniques provide, it is targeted at mobile devices, so size (3-mm square) and low power are key deliverables. And, realistically, it’s unlikely that most phone users would do much with specific analyte numbers anyway.

You can get more detail from their announcement.

 

(Image courtesy Bosch Sensortec.)

Leave a Reply

featured blogs
Dec 1, 2023
Why is Design for Testability (DFT) crucial for VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) design? Keeping testability in mind when developing a chip makes it simpler to find structural flaws in the chip and make necessary design corrections before the product is shipped to users. T...
Nov 27, 2023
See how we're harnessing generative AI throughout our suite of EDA tools with Synopsys.AI Copilot, the world's first GenAI capability for chip design.The post Meet Synopsys.ai Copilot, Industry's First GenAI Capability for Chip Design appeared first on Chip Design....
Nov 6, 2023
Suffice it to say that everyone and everything in these images was shot in-camera underwater, and that the results truly are haunting....

featured video

Dramatically Improve PPA and Productivity with Generative AI

Sponsored by Cadence Design Systems

Discover how you can quickly optimize flows for many blocks concurrently and use that knowledge for your next design. The Cadence Cerebrus Intelligent Chip Explorer is a revolutionary, AI-driven, automated approach to chip design flow optimization. Block engineers specify the design goals, and generative AI features within Cadence Cerebrus Explorer will intelligently optimize the design to meet the power, performance, and area (PPA) goals in a completely automated way.

Click here for more information

featured paper

Power and Performance Analysis of FIR Filters and FFTs on Intel Agilex® 7 FPGAs

Sponsored by Intel

Learn about the Future of Intel Programmable Solutions Group at intel.com/leap. The power and performance efficiency of digital signal processing (DSP) workloads play a significant role in the evolution of modern-day technology. Compare benchmarks of finite impulse response (FIR) filters and fast Fourier transform (FFT) designs on Intel Agilex® 7 FPGAs to publicly available results from AMD’s Versal* FPGAs and artificial intelligence engines.

Read more

featured chalk talk

Portable Medical Devices and Connected Health
Decentralized healthcare is moving from hospitals and doctors’ offices to the patients’ home and office and in the form of personal, wearable, and connected devices. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton and Roger Bohannan from Littelfuse examine the components, functions and standards for a variety of portable connected medical devices. They investigate how Littelfuse can help you navigate the development of your next portable connected medical design.
Jun 26, 2023
19,413 views