Analog Devices has developed a micromachined six degrees of freedom (6DOF) motion sensor for instrumentation and industrial use.

“Most significantly, all testing and calibration is done by us,” ADI product marketing manager Bob Scannell told EW.

Traditionally, ADI has sold multiple separate devices for this application. “The big market has been automotive and consumer where OEMs do the calibration at their end,” said Scannell.

With pre-assembled and pre-calibrated 23x23x23mm modules, dubbed ADIS16350 and 16355, the firm is aiming at the broader industrial market where customers are less familiar with sensors and are less likely to be able to calibrate them.

Inside are five die: three separate single-axis rate gyros and two dual-axis accelerometers, where only three out of the four axis are used.

Gain and offset calibration factors are stored in internal memory and can be re-written if need be, although ADI does not see recalibration as likely.

“During characterisation of the ADIS16350 and ADIS16355, we have performed accelerated life testing, and have used data extrapolated from these tests to set the limits on our specs,” said Scannell. “In other words, we have set the limits wider than what we trim to in order to also account for drift and aging. So, we believe our specifications to be stable over expected life.”

Expected life? “It is the operating lifetime, which is a hard to pin down figure,” said Scannell. “But in general we are targeting applications that have life of much greater than 10 years.”

One intended application is supporting GPS navigation during brief periods of signal loss, and to detect orientation changes, in aircraft, ships, lorries and agricultural equipment.

Another is motion sensing in medical probes, sports equipment, and robots.

The ADIS16350, which is not temperature calibrated, is available now and is $275 (1,000 off).  The temperature-calibrated ADIS16355 will sample in July with production in September.