Wearable applications such as fitness trackers, smart watches and wristbands are becoming more and more popular - not only among sports enthusiasts - but also for businessmen and regular end customers that value a healthy way of life. These new devices help to track activities, steps and the amount of calories burnt during sports activities but also during people's everyday life. An important factor that drives the popularity of this segment is the small size, especially compared to e.g. smartphones. However, that means that there is also less space available for batteries. In addition, to ensure a complete picture of one's activities, they have to be always-on. Frequent charging of the devices is not accepted by the user. Hence, low power consumption is a key requirement for sensors, while users expect an accurate measurement of their activities. Therefore, new products rely more and more on useful and precise data from sensors. Usually, higher sensor precision and more demanding sensor use cases come along with higher power consumption. Here, new power-saving concepts and precise, smart sensor technology are required. These concepts are also important for IoT related use cases where batteries have to last for many years.

 

In this speech, we will present specific use case examples to outline how MEMS sensor technology helps to overcome the challenges related to wearables and IoT and how manufacturers and end-customers can benefit from these solutions.

Francois Beauchaud is based in Sunnyvale, California in the Business Development team at Bosch Sensortec where he actively works on the topic of Internet of Things and on new product initiatives. From 2010 to 2014, he held the position of Senior Field Applications Engineer North America at Bosch Sensortec. Previously, he worked as Applications Engineer for Bosch Sensortec in Germany from 2008 to 2010. He graduated with a Masters Degree in Electronic Engineering from the Institut des Sciences Appliquees (INSA) of Lyon, France in 2007. While pursuing his Engineering Diploma, Francois Beauchaud obtained a Master Degree in Microelectronics from the University Claude Bernard of Lyon.

Bosch Sensortec GmbH, a fully owned subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH, develops and markets a wide portfolio of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors and solutions tailored for smartphones, tablets, wearable devices and IoT (Internet of Things) applications. The product portfolio includes 3-axis acceleration, gyroscope and geomagnetic sensors, integrated 6- and 9-axis sensors, environmental sensors, optical microsystems and a comprehensive software portfolio. Since its foundation in 2005, Bosch Sensortec has emerged as the MEMS technology leader in the markets it addresses. Bosch has been both a pioneer and a global market leader in the MEMS sensor segment since 1995 and has, to date, sold more than 9.5 billion MEMS sensors. More than every second smartphone worldwide uses a Bosch Sensortec sensor.

 

For more information, please visit www.bosch-sensortec.com , twitter.com/boschMEMS