eニュース 3/2010
Electronica 2010:
VTI Announced Expansion into Consumer Gyros and Timing Devices
Already end October, VTI announced that the company is taking a new direction and expanding heavily into the consumer electronics segment. “We are now leveraging our expertise in high performance MEMS and intend to bring out products targeting the consumer segment that will challenge the current market offering,” said Markku Hirvonen, President and CEO of VTI.
Booming Consumer MEMS Market
For a MEMS pioneer since 20 years, the timing for this strategic move is ideal. The consumer MEMS market is booming as motion control becomes more and more standard in user-interface applications, such as mobile phones, gaming devices and TV remote controllers. According to iSupply the market grows in 2010 approximately 20 %, and Consumer Electronics is foreseen to be the biggest MEMS market by 2014. “MEMS sensors are included almost in every new “must have” trend products”, said Mr. Jérémie Bouchaud from iSupply in the Electronica Forum.
Emerging Applications for Gyros
VTI, represented by Mr. Sten Stockmann, participated also in the Electronica Forum panel discussion. The participants discussed among other things future MEMS applications. “Remote controllers and pointing devices will become one important MEMS application as TV sets become more and more multi-task”, said Mr. Stockmann. The CMR3000 – the world smallest and least power consuming 3-axis gyroscope introduced at Electronica by VTI – is a perfect solution for these kind of devices.
Time for MEMS Timing Devices
For VTI, another very interesting focus area is Silicon MEMS timing devices. There is an enormous opportunity for MEMS-based timing and frequency control devices. The challenge has been to overcome issues related to accuracy and stability. VTI is currently developing the MEMS oscillator solution and believes having made a major technological breakthrough in this field. The first VTI MEMS Oscillator product is planned to be launched in 2011.
”MEMS Oscillators will not replace quartz in the short term”, said Mr. Stockmann in the Electronica Forum. “But we do believe that there are certain applications where MEMS Oscillators will be more competitive as far as cost-efficiency, size and low power consumption are concerned.”
ERA, The Prize Winning Electric Car Includes VTI Gyros
Since a couple of years, VTI participates in a Finnish Electric Car project. Last September, ERA – the car designed and built entirely by Finnish students within this project – was awarded the second place in the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE vehicle design competition in the United States.
“Electric RaceAbout is an excellent piece of work. Basically everything in the car was developed by these university students. It’s a really high-performance electric sports car and probably the most impressive-looking of all the entrants. One of its specialties is that each wheel has its own motor. ERA was a clear favourite from the beginning because it was so well executed," says Bob Larsen, Senior Advisor, Technical Operations for the Prize.
With a single charge, ERA will take you at an average speed of 110 km/h from Naples to Rome – that’s some 200 kilometres – consuming an amount of energy that is equivalent to 1.6 litres of petrol per 100 kilometres.
Within the ERA project, VTI has supplied technical sensor expertise and advice and also the gyroscopes for the ESC system of the car.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.raceabout.fi/era/
CMR3000 Challenges the Current Consumer Gyro Market Offering
Low power, high performance, small package - these are the main advantages of the CMR3000, VTI's brand new consumer gyro. Launched in Electronica 2010, CMR3000 has raised quite a lot of interest within the Consumer Electronics market.
"CMR3000 has been developed mainly for remote controllers, gaming devices and mobile phones. The smallest size available in the market makes it ideal for the ever smaller consumer devices. In addition, the very low power consumption is particularly suitable for battery operated devices", says Mr. Pekka Kostiainen, Product Manager at VTI.
Product Structure Enables Multiple Advantages
The CMR3000 utilises a shared sensing mass and coupled resonator structure in orthogonal multi-mode operation. This eliminates cross talk between axes and requires only one drive loop. Patented simplified low current consuming phase-shift readout electronics and wafer level quadrature signal design enable excellent stability in real life environments. "Sensitivity stability over both temperature and humidity is excellent", confirms Mr. Kostiainen.
Lowest current consumption
The CMR3000 boasts the market’s lowest current consumption of 5 mA and is enhanced with a power save feature. In duty cycled operation, further current consumption reductions of tens of percent can be achieved. This can almost double the battery life in a portable device, such as a remote controller, significantly improving the user experience.
Volume Production to Start in 2011
CMR3000 has been sampled among selected VTI customers since summer 2010. Volume production and availability to all customers will begin in the first quarter of 2011. "Serving high volume Consumer Electronics market requires flexibility and cost efficiency. “Our manufacturing strategy can be described as a hybrid model. We are utilising our own fabrication for Automotive and Medical products, as well as for R&D purposes, and mass producing our high volume consumer products utilising an outsourced supply chain. In this way we are getting the best of both worlds,” says VTI President and CEO Mr Markku Hirvonen.
For more information about CMR3000 Consumer Gyro, please visit the product pages.
VTI to Enter MEMS Timing Device Market
For MEMS pioneer VTI, timing devices represent a natural step forward in a highly interesting market.
“In an analysis on emerging MEMS products, Yole Développement puts MEMS oscillators as having the highest market value in 2015 and the highest Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) from 2009 through 2015. The forecasted value of MEMS oscillators in 2015 is USD 644.9 million from USD 7.9 million in 2009,” says Mr. Sten Stockmann, Vice President, VTI Consumer Electronics.
VTI’s timing device products will leverage VTI’s proprietary 3D MEMS and packaging technology. VTI currently uses its Chip-on-MEMS (CoM) technology to produce Chip Scale Packages (CSP) for its consumer based sensors. This same technology is being utilised for oscillators in a reverse configuration of MEMS-on-Chip (MoC).
Miniaturisation favours MEMS technology
Quartz crystal – the most common piezoelectric resonator used in timing devices – is facing clear difficulties in overcoming the challenges of miniaturisation in the most advanced consumer devices. Oscillation stability and frequency sensitivity are negatively impacted as the size of the quartz resonator shrinks, which is partially due to the increased crystal impedances of these smaller resonators. Small quartz resonators are also more susceptible to shock induced frequency deviations as smaller packages leave less tolerance for mechanical vibration.
Silicon MEMS resonators are a viable alternative to quartz crystals. Tiny resonators can be etched in silicon, offering a product that is miniature in size and low cost given the batch semiconductor manufacturing processes on large (8 inch) wafers. In addition, MEMS resonators are very robust to shock and vibration.
VTI’s solution offers cost-efficiency, small size and superior performance
The MEMS resonator technology that is currently available on the market suffers from poor initial accuracy and a wide temperature drift. A typical MEMS resonator can be off by 10,000ppm from its target frequency. On top of this, a MEMS resonator has drift over temperature of approximately 30ppm per degree Celsius, or an additional 3000ppm over a standard temperature range of minus 20 to plus 70 degrees Celsius.
With this type of resonator technology, complex ASICs have to be designed to compensate for the frequency inaccuracies, adding size, cost, power and noise. The end result is an oscillator that offers minimal cost benefits and no competitive differentiation.
VTI’s technology overcomes these common hurdles and offers performance that is more comparable to traditional quartz based oscillators. VTI will launch its first timing device product in 2011.