Japanese firm TDK has started full-scale production of its InvenSense SmartSonic ICU-30201 ultrasonic time-of-flight (ToF) sensor to enhance range and accuracy for smart-home applications.

The ICU-30201 enhances the contextual awareness of products that require accurate presence, proximity and distance measurements, such as robotics, drones, alarm devices, door locks, camera devices and smart building systems. Mass production began this month.

The extended maximum range enables room-scale presence sensing and long-range obstacle detection for smart home and smart building devices. It is the latest release in the SmartSonic sensor family to embed a more powerful on-chip processor with higher computational power.

TDK offers a number of algorithms, including range finding and presence-sensing, which run on-chip, offloading the system MCU and saving power, while users can also write their own algorithms for the sensor. The bottom port package eases mechanical integration.

“ICU-30201 represents the culmination of a vision that MEMS ultrasonic time-of-flight is the perfect technology for room-scale true presence sensing,” said Richard Przybyla, senior director of engineering at TDK subsidiary InvenSense. “With its enhanced maximum range, low power consumption and the on-chip processing power to detect minor motions of a human, product designers finally have an option that beats PIR on performance while remaining on a battery-friendly power budget.”

It integrates a MEMS PMUT (piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer) with a low-power SoC (system on chip) in a small reflowable package. Based on ultrasonic pulse-echo measurements, the ToF sensor provides accurate and robust range measurements to targets at distances up to 9.5m, in any lighting condition, including full sunlight and independently of the target’s colour and optical transparency.

The sensors were demonstrated by accessibility technology company WeWalk during last week’s CES in Las Vegas.

The ICU-3020 (invensense.tdk.com/smartsonic) measures 5.17 by 2.68 by 0.9mm.

Established in 1935, TDK (www.tdk.com) is based in Tokyo, Japan. InvenSense (invensense.tdk.com), a TDK company, targets the consumer electronics and industrial areas with integrated motion, sound, pressure and ultrasonic products that combine MEMS sensors, such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, compasses, microphones, barometric pressure sensors and ultrasonic time-of-flight sensors, with proprietary algorithms and firmware that intelligently process, synthesise and calibrate the output of sensors. InvenSense became part of TDK in 2017. In 2022, Chirp Microsystems merged with InvenSense. InvenSense is headquartered in San Jose, California and has offices worldwide.