While exhibiting at Sensors Expo, June 27-28, at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, CA in the MEMS Pavilion, booth #542, Bosch Sensortec announced the BHI260 and BHA260, the first two members of a new generation of smart sensor hubs. The devices are optimized for 24/7, always-on sensor processing and feature ultra-low power consumption.
With the help of an integrated sensor coprocessor and MEMS sensors, the BHI260 and BHA260 can handle sophisticated sensor processing tasks and data buffering without waking up the main application processor, and can even run entirely standalone. Their low power consumption translates into significantly extended battery lifetimes in wearables, hearables, AR/VR devices and smartphones.
To cut time-to-market and reduce design effort for OEMs, Bosch Sensortec has created an open development platform for these devices. This includes a comprehensive integrated software framework in ROM, evaluation kits and a Software Development Kit (SDK).
CPU + Inertial Sensors
To facilitate more complex processing tasks such as automated activity recognition and context awareness, the BHI260 and BHA260 feature "Fuser2" – a 32-bit floating point CPU with 256 kB on-chip SRAM. The CPU draws merely 950 µA at 20 MHz in the super-efficient 'long run' mode, and 2.8 mA at 50 MHz in the high performance 'turbo' mode. The processor delivers up to 3.6 CoreMark/MHz.
The sensor hub family includes state-of-the-art 16-bit MEMS sensors, a 6-axis Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) in the BHI260 or a 3-axis accelerometer in the BHA260. They provide extensive connectivity, up to 25 GPIOs for BHI260 and up to 12 GPIOs for BHA260, and support for integration of other sensor devices, including GNSS and various localization systems.
The smart sensor hubs are compact enough to easily fit into small products such as hearables and wearables. The BHI260 comes in a 44 pad LGA package and measures just 3.6 x 4.1 x 0.83 mm3. The BHA260 is packaged in a 22 pad LGA package and measures 2.7 x 2.6 x 0.8 mm3.
The BHI260 and BHA260 will be available for high-volume applications in Q3/2018. For further details, checkout the BHI260 and BHA260 datasheets.