Sensors Converge and Fierce Electronics presented the Best of Sensors Awards at the Sensors 2021 Conference and Expo on September 23
The 2021 Best of Sensors Award in the embedded technologies category went to Socionext America for their SC123x Series all-in-one 24GHz radio-controlled FMCW radar sensors.
"Socionext is honored to be nominated by Sensors Converge for our 24GHz radar sensing technology in the 2021 Best of Sensors Awards embedded technology category," said Teruaki Hasegawa, head of Socionext's IoT & radar sensing unit. "Radar sensors enable a wide variety of applications for monitoring, process control, and human safety. The company is committed to the advancement of sensing technology for improving people's lives in many ways."
The SC123x series of sensors features wide area detection (30 feet range with a 120-degree field of view), compact form factor (9 x 9 x 1 mm footprint), and ultra-low power operation (0.5mW average power consumption). They combine a high level of integration into a single integrated circuit, and their full CMOS-based semiconductor design helps lower manufacturing costs and reduce power consumption.
The SC123x series was designed for use in advanced smart home devices. Some of its applications include video doorbells, video conference systems, security cameras, air quality monitors, lighting, dash cams, appliances, home electronics, and more.
Radar has many advantages over traditional sensing technologies. Consider the video doorbell devices that are starting to become popular. The SC123x series allows users to set up a distance threshold to monitor people and objects entering or exiting the area in front of the video doorbell. The SC123x series 24GHz radar sensor can detect objects within a 120-degree field of view and a range of up to 30 feet.
The SC123x sensor can determine the detailed distance of an object in its field of view and track both its distance and movement in real-time. Once the object has passed the distance threshold, the smart device can use the information provided by the radar to trigger an alert for the homeowner as well as trigger the built-in camera to start recording video.
Design kits are now available for both the 24GHz and 60GHz sensing units. The evaluation kits come with the necessary USB cable, sensor code library, GUI-based evaluation software, the evaluation software operation manual, API specifications, and sample source code for the API.
Socionext was founded in 2015 from the system IC organizations of Fujitsu and Panasonic and is headquartered in Yokohama, Japan. The company combines world-class expertise, decades of experience, and the resources of two successful companies with a proven track record in the electronics industry. Socionext is a leading supplier of standard and customizable SoC solutions for industrial, consumer, and automotive markets. Socionext America is the company's U.S. branch headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is one of the world's leading fabless ASIC suppliers.
Find the complete list of finalists in the Best of Sensors 2021 Awards here.