Bosch has developed a motion sensor containing an inertial measurement unit (IMU) that delivers high accuracy and power efficiency for consumer use cases.

Tiny MEMS motion sensors make consumer products easier to use and improve how smartphones and other gadgets interact with people. These sensors are precise, compact and power-efficient, however they are complex for basic applications.

To address this, Bosch Sensortec is launching the BMI323, an affordable IMU with performance and integrated features enabling a shorter development time.

“The BMI323’s combination of simplicity with an excellent price-performance ratio will open up new applications for IMUs,” said Stefan Finkbeiner, CEO of Bosch Sensortec. “These will include standard consumer products, such as toys, gaming controllers, remote controls, wearables, fitness trackers, smartwatches as well as tablets and laptops.”

Like its predecessor the BMI160, the BMI323 is a general-purpose, low-power IMU that combines precise acceleration and angular rate (gyroscopic) measurement with intelligent integrated features that are triggered by motion.

Its integrated features make development faster and easier for OEMs. For example, it includes Bosch Sensortec’s plug-and-play step counter software, so users don’t need to spend time developing their own algorithms. Other features include motion detection that can turn subsystems on or off when a device, such as a TV remote control, is put down or picked up, thus reducing power consumption.

Compared with the BMI160, the BMI323 provides improved accelerometer performance as well as lower power consumption. In high-performance mode, using both the gyroscope and the accelerometer, it has a current consumption of 790µA compared with 925µA on the BMI160, which represents a reduction of nearly 15%.

The six-axis BMI323 has a self-calibrating 16bit triaxial gyroscope, a 16bit triaxial accelerometer, and a 16bit digital temperature sensor housed in a 2.5 by 3.0 by 0.83 mm³ 14-pin LGA package that is pin-to-pin compatible with the BMI160 and others.

It is the first IMU device announced by Bosch Sensortec to include the new I³C interface, in addition to the I²C and SPI interfaces.