STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor supplier serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, has launched new inertial sensors containing the intelligent sensor processing unit (ISPU) to power the onlife era: interacting with intelligently trained devices by moving around.” on” edge to “in” the edge.
The ISM330ISN always-on six-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU) for motion and position detection uses its built-in intelligence to deliver unmatched performance and accuracy for its size and power. Ideal for IoT and industrial applications, ST's new IMU sets accelerate response time and extend battery life in equipment such as condition monitors for predictive maintenance, as well as battery-operated asset trackers and industrial applications such as robots.
The intelligence built into the ISM330ISN allows smart devices to perform advanced motion detection functions on the sensor without interacting with the external microcontroller (MCU), saving energy at the system level. ST's approach integrates a specialized processor, the ISPU, into a small area directly on the sensor chip, optimized for machine learning applications. This allows the ISM330ISN module to have a 50% smaller footprint and consume 50% less power than a typical packaged MCU.
Developers can program the ISPU using ST's NanoEdge AI Studio, an industry-proven ST tool that many customers have used to deploy AI applications on STM32 microcontrollers. This technology is now available for ISPU programming, allowing users to easily generate automatically optimized machine learning libraries. Designing an AI learning-capable anomaly detection library directly within ISPU is possible with minimal data and just a few clicks. No specific data science skills are required.
“Intelligence previously implemented at the edge of the network, in an application processor, is now migrating to the deep edge, within the sensor,” said Simone Ferri, general manager of marketing for the Analog MEMS and Sensors group at STMicroelectronics. “Our ISM330ISN IMU heralds a new category of smart sensors, leveraging embedded AI to handle complex operations such as pattern recognition and anomaly detection with greatly increased efficiency and performance.”
While presenting new AI-powered creative opportunities, the ISM330ISN has the same 3 x 2.5 x 0.83 mm package contour as conventional inertial modules. Designers can quickly and cost-effectively upgrade their products without the obligation to change the established circuit board layout.
The ISM330ISN is covered by ST's 10-year longevity program, which provides long-term availability assurance for product designers and manufacturers.
Technical information
The ISM330ISN is part of ST's iNEMO family of IMUs. It contains a 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope with low-noise sensing performance and an output data rate (ODR) of 6.6kHz. With ISPU, the sensor ensures consistent high accuracy while consuming only 0.59 mA in combined mode with active accelerometer and gyroscope.
ST's ISPU architecture, based on digital signal processing (DSP), is extremely compact and power efficient, with 40Kbytes of RAM and occupying just 8,000 ports on the sensor array. Performing floating-point operations with single-bit precision, ISPU is ideal for machine learning and binary neural network applications.
ST's ISPU and NanoEdge.AI tools were selected for the Embedded Award at Embedded World 2022, in the Hardware and Software categories, respectively. The event takes place in Nuremberg, Germany, from June 21st to 23rd. ST will be exhibiting during the fair (Booth 148; Hhall 4A).
