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InvenSense unveils digital dual-axis gyroscope for camera phones and DSCs

Press release, September 14; Meiling Chen, DIGITIMES Asia

Sunnyvale, Calif., September 8, 2009 - InvenSense, Inc., the leading provider of MEMS-based motion processing products for consumer electronics, today announced the new IDG-2000 dual-axis MEMS gyroscope, its next-generation IDG family of MEMS gyros. The IDG-2000 family provides the market with a smaller and thinner gyroscope ideal for improving optical image stabilization (OIS) in digital still cameras and high-resolution, eight-megapixel and above camera phones. The IDG-2000 is fabricated on the larger 8-inch wafer to meet increased volume capacity and to further reduce the overall solution cost to meet competitive price requirements demanded by consumer electronics OEMs.

The IDG-2000, housed in a 4x4x0.9 mm QFN plastic package, is the first digital dual-axis pitch and roll (X- and Y- axis) gyro with integrated 16-bit analog-to-digital converters that allow for direct communication to advanced image processors over an I2C or SPI serial bus, eliminating costly discrete components.

"Optical image stabilization is quickly becoming a standard key feature consumers look for in new cameras," said Chris Chute, IDC Research Manager in the Worldwide Digital Imaging Practice. "Even with millions of digital cameras still being sold worldwide, competition for product differentiation, coupled with lower price points are forcing camera vendors to manage costs more closely than ever. New technologies like the IDG-2000 can help camera vendors remain competitive in the market."

"We advanced the IDG series with this new digital gyro to address a critical market need for an OIS system solution at a lower total cost in a smaller and thinner package to help OEMs reduce blur in images," said Joseph Jiang, vice president, Imaging Business Unit at InvenSense. "We are committed to delivering breakthrough technologies that meet the specific needs of next generation smart phone cameras and DSCs."

By leveraging its patented and high volume-proven Nasiri-Fabrication platform, which integrates MEMS wafers with companion CMOS electronics through wafer-level bonding, InvenSense has driven the gyroscope package size down to the smallest system footprint, while providing the highest performance, lowest noise and the competitively priced solutions in the market.

The IDG-2000 family features lower phase delay from the higher bandwidth of the programmable digital low-pass filter with integrated sigma-delta ADCs. Other key product features include automatic gain amplification control, anti-aliasing filters optimized for OIS applications, and an industry-leading cross axis sensitivity of less than ±1%. An integrated temperature sensor provides temperature compensated bias adjustment. The IDG-2000 measures hand jitter across a wide frequency range of 0.1Hz to 20Hz with exceptionally low noise at 0.033 °/s-rms. Furthermore, the operating frequency in the 30 KHz range is immune to ambient noise. These features are required when taking photos in low ambient light conditions with high resolution sensors or when using zoom at any resolution. Power consumption is reduced by 50% compared to analog gyros with a low 4mA maximum current at 2.1 volts in active mode and 5μA maximum current in sleep mode.

The IDG-2000 family of digital dual-axis MEMS gyroscopes begins sampling in October 2009 to selected OEM partners.