I love attending Sensors Expo and not just because I get to meet very smart people who are doing interesting things. I also get to deliver the glad tidings to the winners of the Best of Sensors Expo Awards!
The Best of Sensors Expo Awards seeks to identify those new products—released since the last Sensors Expo—that are distinctive, promise to change the way people work, and fill a real need.
Gold Award Winners
Within the Sensors category, winners included the 6DX miniature 6 degrees of freedom sensor that can measure angular ranges up to 50,000°/s and accelerations up to 6000 g and SBG Systems' IG-500N miniature attitude and heading reference system (AHRS) which also incorporates a GPS receiver and barometric sensor. Within the Data Acquisition Product category, MicroStrain won for its HS-LINK high-speed wireless sensor node and PowerCast Corp. won for its P2100 Powerharvester energy harvesting module that converts RF to a DC voltage and stores it in a capacitor.
Silver Award Winners
Infinite Power Solutions Inc. picked up an award in the Sensors category for its INFINERGY Micro Power Module micropower energy storage device (similar to a thin-film battery in that it's wafer-thin and stores power but with integrated energy management electronics and almost lossless energy storage), HBM - LDS Test and Measurement won in the Data Acquisition Products category for its GEN5i portable, high-speed DA and transient recorder. MicroStrain was recognized for its 3DM-GX3-25 miniature AHRS in the Sensor Components category, and Moog Inc. was awarded a silver in the Sensors category for its LifeGuard IQ air bubble detector.
Bronze Award Winners
Cymbet Corp. follows up last year's success with another award, this time for its EnerChip EH energy harvesting module that combines the company's thin-film batteries with energy harvesting and power management circuity. In the Sensors category, Kionix Inc. won for its KXTF9 triaxial MEMS accelerometer with Directional Tap/Double-Tap, Silicon Sensor Systems won for its CRS09 rugged MEMS gyroscope, and VTI Technologies Inc. won for its CMA 3000 tiny low-power MEMS accelerometer that eliminates the need for external packaging.
Honorable Mentions
National Instruments was awarded an Honorable Mention in the Data Acquisition Products category for its Wi-Fi DAQ data acquisition devices. Endevco Corp., EPCOS Inc. and Sensortechnics Inc. took home Honorable Mentions in the Sensors category for, respectively, their 7264G crash accelerometer, T5300 tiny digital MEMS barometric pressure sensor, and CLC capacitive level sensor.
Look for a detailed description of the award winners in the July 2009 What's New at Sensors email newsletter.
Many thanks to Ed Ramsden and Deb Lickness for helping me judge the products nominated, to the Sensors Expo staff for all their help in making the awards program run so seamlessly, and for the companies who continually surprise us with their inventiveness. And lastly, a big thank you to the readers who I was lucky enough to talk with at the show. It was great to meet you!