Details of sensor operation and ST value
ST manufacturers a host of state-of-the-art Digital sensors for different use cases:
- accelerometers are referenced to the gravitational field of the Earth and are often used to detect the orientation of an end product or to wake up a system when external movement is detected. ST MEMS accelerometers provide high accuracy with extremely low power consumption.
- gyroscopes measure object rotation and are commonly combined with accelerometers in 6-axis iNEMO MEMS Inertial Modules with very high accuracy, stability, low power consumption and can even include Machine Learning Cores for advanced processing.
- inclinometers are used for high accuracy angle or tilt measurements, especially over wide and changing operating temperature ranges. They can also detect low frequency vibrations for Structural Health Monitoring applications. ST MEMS inclinometers offer high accuracy, stability and measurement repeatability.
- vibration sensors measure vibrations up to several kilohertz frequencies and are especially useful in Condition Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance applications. ST MEMS vibration sensors offer flat frequency response with effective filtering.
- high-g accelerometers are used to detect and measure high energy shocks, impacts and crashes up to a few hundred g’s in force.
- magnetometers measure magnetic fields from Earth or other magnetic materials such as magnets, rotating motors and electromagnetic fields. When combined with accelerometers, e-Compass components can be used to detect absolute orientation in navigation applications requiring high accuracy and low power consumption.
- pressure sensors measure absolute air or liquid pressures and can accurately detect changes in altitude even in the order of a few centimeters. ST MEMS pressure sensors provide high accuracy with low power consumption in water-resistant packages.
- proximity sensors based on time-of-flight can be used to detect distances, objects and people up to several meters away. ST proximity sensors offer long distance sensing in industrial applications such as inventory management.
- cameras can apply image processing algorithms when monitoring industrial environments and processes. ST offers global shutter image sensors optimized for near infrared scenes.
- temperature sensors provide accurate ambient temperature measurements and can be used to calibrate other sensors according to operating temperatures.
3rd party analog sensors such as strain gauges can also be coupled with accurate ST operational amplifiers for signal conditioning or with dedicated ST current sensing ICs to monitor loads.
ST solutions
Sensor data can be processed by STM32 MCU control units with Cortex-M0 cores for moderate processing requirements, Cortex-M4 cores for more intense processing with Floating point units, and finally Cortex-M7 cores for Digital Signal Processing (DSP) functions. Microcontrollers support industrial standard wired connectivity options such as Industrial Ethernet, CAN bus, RS-485 and IO-Link with additional transceivers, or wireless communication through Bluetooth Low Energy or LoRa and 3 rd party Wi-Fi or cellular/NB-IoT connectivity modules. Sensor data integrity and security is ensured with STM32Trust framework using STSAFE Secure Element and SIL/IEC 61508 functional safety X-CUBE-STL SW package. Full designs are supported with power management components especially for standard industry +24 and +48V voltages with ST buck regulators.
