TI's MEMS innovation provides IR temperature measurement capabilities for portable consumer electronics

With the industry's first single-chip IR MEMS temperature sensor
Enables new user applications and device features

TI Korea (CEO Jaejin Kim, www.ti.com/ww/kr ) June 7, 2011 – TI has enabled contactless temperature measurement for portable consumer electronics through the industry's first single-chip passive IR (infrared) sensor. The TMP006 digital temperature sensor utilizes IR technology to accurately measure the case temperature of mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Moving beyond the current method of estimating case temperature based on system temperature, system developers can optimize device performance and provide users with more convenient features. Furthermore, the TMP006 can measure external temperatures, enabling the development and implementation of a wide variety of new features and applications. (For product orders and more information, please refer to www.ti.com/tmp006-pr )

Steve Anderson, Senior Vice President of TI’s High Performance Analog Business Unit, said, “The TMP006 can meet customers’ requirements for optimal temperature management capabilities for processors and optimize system performance and safety even as power consumption for processing increases and dimensions are miniaturized.” He added, “In addition, mobile device manufacturers, such as those using mobile phones, can measure the temperature of objects from outside the phone using the TMP006, triggering entirely new capabilities that application developers can utilize creatively.”

The TMP006 is the most integrated device in the company's product family. It integrates a Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) thermopile sensor, signal state optimization, a 16-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC), a local temperature sensor, and a voltage reference onto a single 1.6mm x 1.6mm chip. In addition, this product, which provides a perfect digital solution for non-contact temperature measurement, has been miniaturized by up to 95% compared to other thermopile sensors.

Key Features and Advantages
• Miniaturizes solution size by up to 95% compared to competitors by integrating MEMS sensors that support analog circuits
• Uses a quiescent current of 240µA, which is 90% lower than competing solutions, and uses only 1µA of current in shutdown mode.
• Supports a wide temperature range of -40°C to -125°C with ±0.5°C accuracy on local sensors (under normal conditions) and ±1°C accuracy for passive IR sensors.
• Includes I2C/SMBus digital interface
• Battery management, interface, audio codec, wireless connectivity