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IOT SENSORS AND MEMS
Sensors Glue Virtual and Real Worlds,

Says TDK InvenSense CTO

By Anne-Françoise Pelé

he internet of things (IoT) is changing the way we interact with the world
around us. Everyone — and everything — is connected and soon will be
T interconnected. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices and
sensors assume an essential job in collecting, monitoring, and analyzing data,
often in real time.
In an interview with EE Times Europe, Peter Hartwell, CTO of TDK Inven-
Sense, laid out a future in which IoT technologies transcend the individual
experience and become invisible. It’s a future in which sensors are the glue
between the virtual and the real worlds.
Peter Hartwell, CTO of TDK InvenSense
EE TIMES EUROPE: [Last year], you something that was just sort of esoteric, just
were inducted into the SEMI-MEMS & for the geeks and just for the early adopters to
Sensors Industry Group Hall of Fame, really see. Hartwell: opefully, there will be a beneficial
a distinction that acknowledges your One of my favorite memories was literally in relationship.
substantial and lasting impact on this a restaurant [where] I watched a grandfather We were a young fabless company. We very
industry. How do you feel about it? and his granddaughter looking at something much understood the sensors and the impor-
Peter Hartwell: If I had to summarize in one on an iPhone. You literally had a 70-something tance of the software. TDK is a materials and
word how I feel: old. I still feel that MEMS is a and a four-something looking at something manufacturing company, driven fundamen-
new industry. I have been doing this literally on an iPhone, and a 70-something and a tally by quality. There is this Japanese word
since high school; I have not deviated from four-something using a computer, and we had we use, monozukuri, which means “if you
the path. I have watched a lot of people go off enabled that. [Just] four years before, neither of want to build something, build it well.” We
and do other things. It is a huge honor to be them would have been computer users. [Now], now talk about the concept of kotozukuri,
recognized by your peers for [your] contribu- not only were they using a computer, but they which is the idea that if you want to build
tions [in] moving the technology forward. So I were having such a good experience that the something, build it well but build it with pur-
would say old and honored. mum took a picture of them. pose, try to do something for the customer,
The technology transcends and becomes understand the customer’s needs. It allows
EETE: You have more than 25 years of transparent. So when I look at where I am us to look across the whole vertical, from the
experience in commercializing silicon trying to go, moving forward, it’s … how we raw materials that go into building some-
MEMS and working on advanced sensors make that technology just disappear into [the thing, which is fundamental to the quality
and actuators. You also have over environment] around us to where we are no and performance, all the way up to how that
40 worldwide patents on MEMS and longer surprised that technology worked or experience is going to affect our customers
sensor applications. What are the main did something. It just becomes natural. and our customers’ customers.
achievements or determining decisions Coming back to the voice interface concept, It has been a great mix of two different
in your career? the computer keyboard is 140 years old, if competencies and strengths. Together, we
Hartwell: For me, it has been looking at how you go back to the time that typewriters are much more than [we were] when apart
sensors are going to be the driver for change. were invented. My son, who is eight, looks because we get that system level now across
It was a realization I came to early. My first at a keyboard [and] sees only one button. It all sectors, whether it is in IoT, in automotive,
MEMS job was at Hewlett-Packard, and from is the Siri button or the Ok Google button. or in consumer electronics. We have a better
there, it was, “What is a computer company [His expectation is,] “I am just going to push toolset to attack the whole market.
going to do with sensors?” We were building it and talk to it, and it just works.” With that
these brains, and they were blind, deaf, and expectation, what is it going to look like when EETE: Looking ahead, what are the next
numb to what was going on in the world. the technologies just disappear into the back- steps in TDK’s InvenSense expansion
Sensors gave them the ability to see the world ground and we are more efficient and have in terms of product development and
and eventually to interact with the world. better and safer experiences? technology roadmap?
It seems so natural to us now, and we have Hartwell: We are doing a lot of work right
the compute power behind that to interpret EETE: In 2017, TDK made its sensor now on ultrasonics. Before the acquisition,
commands as simple as changing the music. ambitions clear when it acquired inside InvenSense, we had a very nice ultra-
We are realizing that sensors are going to be InvenSense and its strong software sonic fingerprint sensor, acquired by TDK
the interface between the digital world and team, well-versed in AI, predictive [when it purchased InvenSense]. We have
the real world. control, and analysis of movement. [since] acquired another company, Chirp. It is
My second job was at Apple. There, I was How has InvenSense technology been a great fit inside TDK because of TDK’s knowl-
able to see the impact of making technol- leveraged in TDK’s smartphone and IoT edge in ultrasound materials. [The Chirp
ogy accessible to the masses and not having businesses? business] is one of the very big business units

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