New Magnetometer Technology Achieves Optimal Noise, Power, and Cost Balance

Melexis, a leading provider of innovative sensor solutions, has introduced its latest Hall-effect sensor, the MLX90394 Triaxis micropower magnetometer. This sensor is designed to address the trade-off between low noise, current consumption, and cost, making it an ideal solution for various applications.

The MLX90394 offers on-the-fly selectable modes and advanced configurability, allowing for high reuse and fast time to market. It is a contactless solution that can be used in rotary, linear, and 3D joystick control in gaming and industrial peripherals.

One of the key advantages of the MLX90394 is its ability to replace mechanical solutions, such as traditional potentiometers. Potentiometers often face issues like contamination of the wiper surface and packaging constraints. By using the MLX90394, these concerns can be overcome, resulting in a more reliable and cost-effective solution.

Another significant advantage of the MLX90394 is its versatility. It can be deployed in various operations, including linear, rotary, joystick, and push button applications. This versatility simplifies the supply chain by replacing multiple existing components, leading to cost savings and improved efficiency.

In addition to its smart and non-contact design, the MLX90394 offers a longer lifespan compared to potentiometers and contact-based switches. Its ultra-slim and small design (2x1.5x0.4 mm) also contributes to creating sleeker human-machine interfaces (HMIs).

The MLX90394's architecture provides several benefits compared to existing solutions. It enables the measurement and output of each magnetic axis individually, and it includes a built-in thermometer for selectable temperature measurement. This feature allows for additional digital signal processing (DSP) compensation.

The temperature and position data are output in 16-bit resolution, and the MLX90394 supports I2C interface pins with different modes. Moreover, the product has two I2C addresses inside, which can be selected by changing the electrical pinout connection.

The core technology behind the MLX90394 is Melexis Triaxis technology. This innovative technology enables low noise (<9μT) independent 3-axis measurement in micropower operation. The chip has an average current consumption of 3μA for X or Y measurement and 4.3μA for Z, making it highly efficient.

Another notable feature of the MLX90394 is its Wake-up On Change (WOC) functionality. This feature allows for a swift return to operation with pulsed or latched hardware pin-interrupts (XYZ). The WOC thresholds can be configured to accurately transition from Power Down mode to active mode in both high movement applications and those with slow drift movements.

The MLX90394 is available in two compact UTDFN-6 (LD) packaged designs with different measurement ranges: ±5mT (0.15μT/LSB) and ±50mT (1.5μT/LSB). All variants are RoHS certified and suitable for deployment in ambient conditions between -40oC to 105oC, with a supply voltage between 1.7V to 3.6V, making them suitable for a wide range of embedded and IoT electronics environments.

To learn more about the MLX90394 and its capabilities, visit www.melexis.com/MLX90394.