Sensor hub lowers the power

FPGA on-chip for hardware reconfigurability

Wearables are already on a slim power budget, but QuickLogic Corp. aims to alleviate some of the designer's grief with a sensor hub with reduced power consumption and FPGA-like reconfigurability. The unit uses just 75µW (68µA at 1.1V) with everything on and running at full speed, and can be reconfigured by the wearables maker.

QuickLogic also provides an extensive library of sensor fusion routines called SenseMe, which lower the power consumption of the application processor by 50 percent, said the company. Algorithms include all the usual suspects such as motion, environmental and light sensing, and those typically adopted in health and fitness. Users can likewise add their algorithms to QuickLogic's own, or for maximum speed burn them into the reconfigurable circuitry.

"Our sensor hubs enable the battery to last for weeks in some devices," Paul Karazuba, director of marketing and media at QuickLogic, told EE Times.

Instead of a power-hungry microcontroller such as Arm's M4 that requires 150µW, QuickLogic employs a DSP-like "fusion engine" that burns under 50µW. The extra 25µW specified for the whole device's 75µW consumption with everything running includes the peripheral interface and support circuitries.

To read the rest of the article, please go to EETimes.

View a comparison table of selected temperature sensors suppliers on GlobalSources.com