Page 18 - EE Times Europe Magazine | February 2020

16 EE|Times EUROPE

COVER STORY

Sensing the Environment

as with uman Senses

High-performance sensors are the drivers of smart devices.

By Rosina Kreutzer irector o usiness evelopment n neon echnologies A

hat had long been considered a vision of the future is now a controls, smart-home appliances, and alarm
reality Devices can detect their surroundings as if they were systems.
human senses and interact with them. Sensors close the gap
WORLD’S SMALLEST AND MOST
W to the digital world. Combined with appropriate software, POWERFUL 3D IMAGE SENSOR
smart devices and robots, for example, can see, hear, smell, or feel and, above all, Whether for reliable face authentication,
improved photo functions, or authentic
“intuitively and contextually understand” their environment, thereby simplifying augmented-reality (AR) experiences, the
our lives. The decisive factor here is the interpretation and linking of information mobile-device market in particular has mas-
from different sensors. sively increased the demand for “seeing in
D” in various fields of application. D depth
Inspired by human nature, Infineon takes a holistic approach and sensors assume a key role in smartphones and for applications that rely
combines a variety of sensors. This results in smart systems that make on accurate D image data. A special and efficient technology for this
interaction between man and machine or device much easier while is runtime ToF technology. Much as a bat uses sound measurement for
reliably processing the situational information obtained. The Infineon echolocation, runtime ToF measures the travel time of a beam of light
ENSI sensor portfolio includes D time-of-flight (ToF) image to enable highly accurate D reproductions of an image. Compared
sensors, radar chips, microelectromechanical system (MEMS) micro- with other D sensor principles, such as stereoscopic or structured light
phones, and pressure and gas sensors. These smart sensors (Figure 1) technology, ToF delivers convincing imaging performance, miniaturiza-
benefit a wide range of applications — voice recognition, smart homes tion, and power consumption for battery-powered devices.
and smart cities, augmented reality, gesture recognition, biometrics, Infineon Technologies AG has collaborated with software and D ToF
robotics, automated autonomous driving, drones multicopters, lighting system specialist pmd technologies AG to develop the world’s smallest

IMAGE INFINEON

Figure 1: Smart sensors detect the environment as with human senses and connect the real world with the digital world.

FEBRUARY 2020 | www.eetimes.eu