STMicroelectronics' total solution for sensors, microcontrollers and power management

The 2017 World Mobile Congress - Shanghai (MWCS) was held in Shanghai from June 28th to July 1st. STMicroelectronics (ST), the world's leading semiconductor supplier across multiple electronic applications, exhibited industry-leading IoT and smart driving solutions, and the IoT experience zone became a highlight of the STMicroelectronics booth . Wu Weidong, Director of Analog, MEMS and Sensor Products Marketing, STMicroelectronics Asia Pacific, explained the ST exhibits one by one to the media reporters and communicated with them.

STMicroelectronics exhibited a comprehensive range of solutions for sensors, microcontrollers and power management in smart cities, smart homes, smart hardware and smart industries. For example, a robot developed by a Taiwanese manufacturer uses an ST VL53L0 time-of-flight (ToF) ranging sensor; a toy robot with a self-balancing system using the ST LSM6DS3 motion sensor; and a speech recognition based on the ST SensorTile IoT development kit. Voice control solutions and other fun and interesting applications; smart home gateway with built-in M24SR02 dynamic NFC tag; faucet based on VL53L0 time-of-flight (ToF) ranging sensor; based on ST low-power Bluetooth (BLE) network processor (BlueNRG-MS) Smart switch.

The advantages of ST products in IoT applications

China is currently at the forefront of the promotion and application of the global Internet of Things, and is steadily establishing its position as a global intelligent technology manufacturing center. According to the report of the market research institute TechNavio, the compound annual growth rate of the Chinese Internet of Things market is expected to reach 19% between 2016 and 2020. In response to this trend, STMicroelectronics offers a wealth of products and solutions that make everything smarter, from smartphones to smart homes, smart city and smart factory IoT-related devices, to driving Safer, more environmentally friendly, intelligent intelligent driving technology.

For the Internet of Things, it will involve many challenges such as hardware and development environment. For the IoT market, ST develops products that include sensors, connectors, main chips, power semiconductors, and even software, which make it easy for designers and users to get started or redevelop.

In the field of Internet of Things, ST has its own ecosystem and strengths, and has a long-term accumulation and solid foundation in the technology of main chips, connectors, sensors, etc. All products are extended to the entire infrastructure such as operators and partners. . "In the Internet of Things industry, we can't say that we have no competitors, but more are partners." Wu Weidong stressed.

For many MCU (microprocessor), main chip customers, when they need sensors, connectors, power devices, after comparing all the well-known semiconductor companies, they are more willing to cooperate with ST development, because ST products are the most complete And can provide one-stop service, find one can solve all problems.

ST is also building its own ecosystem, like ST's LoRa and ZTE; NB-IoT (cellular-based narrowband Internet of Things) customers also use ST's LoRa, sensors; or use in NB-IoT reference designs ST's products; Bluetooth or other connectors are used even in the same connection technology design.

Focus on internet cars and autopilot

Before the concept of automatic driving came out, ST actually had a sensor application called “blind area navigation”. The concept of blind spot navigation is that when there is no positioning signal such as GPS, it can only rely on the sensor. In theory, the sensor can detect the acceleration, angular velocity, and geomagnetic direction. Through these signals and software algorithms, you can know the path from point A to point B. Of course, to achieve better accuracy and real-time, it depends on the accuracy specifications of the sensor and software algorithms.

In the future, autonomous driving will be a fusion of positioning, navigation, security, power management and other technologies. Especially in terms of safety, the biggest challenge is how to predict the active collision protection, and the existing airbag protection is passive protection. This predictive protection is a multi-faceted technology. In automotive products, ST offers a variety of different technologies and sensor products. Because the environment faced by cars or autonomous driving is too complicated, including the objective physical environment such as road conditions, day and night, rain and snow. But the biggest challenge is predicting, but also adapt to a variety of environments, different technologies are most effective for an environment, such as radar or infrared have their own strengths. "If these technologies are combined, they can cope with different complex environments." Wu Weidong said frankly.

The best sensor power solution

According to research firm Gartner, by 2020, IoT devices such as smart devices and sensing devices will reach 25 billion, which will undoubtedly face serious challenges in energy consumption growth. How to develop low-power products has become a topic for every semiconductor company.

Wu Weidong made a detailed answer to this question: "Power consumption is indeed a very important issue and indicator in all products of the Internet of Things, such as sensors. At present, ST's research on power consumption has achieved good results. For example, The power consumption of the most popular VR/AR products on the MWC and the sensors in the mobile phone is not a major problem for the entire system."

So how does ST do it? The most power-consuming of all sensors is the gyroscope. After several years of research and development, ST has reduced the power consumption from the initial 3 mA to less than 0.5 mA today. Not only does the hardware meet this important parameter requirement, but it also satisfies The Android system has increasingly clear power consumption regulations for sensors. "The power consumption below 0.5 mA, for the power supply of handheld devices, can extend the product usage time from a few hours to ten hours or even twenty hours. As ST continues to optimize through new technologies or designs, of course There is room for improvement." Wu Weidong stressed.

Sensors will make smart life feel free

ST has a large number of sensor modules and their solutions can cover all smart devices, such as smart bracelet, low-power Bluetooth, NCF mobile payment, are more closely related to smart life. In the future, ST sensor modules will be applied to more scenarios in smart life. For example, the more natural way of interacting with the sound, the mouth can freely control all the smart devices in the room. The smart sound that is popular on the market this year is the application of a new technology.

STMicroelectronics offers intelligent, energy-efficient products and solutions that are relevant to everyday life. STMicroelectronics' products are dedicated to working with customers to enable smart driving, smart factories, smart cities and smart homes, as well as next-generation mobile and IoT products. The idea that science and technology advocates technology to lead a life.augmented will make smart life more casual and free, so that people can enjoy technology and enjoy life more.