Ithaca, New York – Monday, November 10, 2008 – Kionix announced today the expansion of its digital-output, tri-axis accelerometer product line with the KXTE9 product series. With embedded algorithms for orientation and activity monitoring, the KXTE9 simplifies the adoption of increasingly-popular, motion-based functionality in consumer electronics while reducing operating power consumption to the world’s lowest levels for such feature-rich products.
“The typical operating current for a fully operational KXTE9 is 30 µA,” said Eric Eisenhut, Vice President for Sales and Marketing. “Kionix has proven to be a leader in enabling applications in mobile products that rely on inertial sensors. This newest innovation takes the historical, industry-expected, current consumption from 200-300 µA down to 30 µA.”
The advanced, orientation-detection feature of the KXTE9 reports changes in landscape, portrait, face-up, and face-down conditions. This sophisticated, embedded algorithm eliminates the need for continuous data collection and complex calculations by a microprocessor. Accordingly, the KXTE9 enables the implementation of screen rotation—such as that found on some high-end mobile phones— into any handheld device. With a few adjustable parameters, the screen-rotation algorithm can be optimized for an intuitive user experience.
In addition to orientation detection, the KXTE9 features an activity-monitoring function. This function reports changes in a device’s motion state, either moving (active) or not moving (inactive). By providing this information to the device, the KXTE9 enables power management, a critical function in today’s mobile devices for prolonging battery life, and other novel motion-based applications.
A highly-manufacturable product with consistent product performance across use conditions, the KXTE9 operates across a supply voltage of 1.8V to 3.6V DC. The part is RoHS compliant, halogen-free, and delivered in a 3×3x0.9mm LGA package.
About Kionix
Kionix, Inc., founded in 1993, is a privately-held company located in Ithaca, New York, USA. The Company pioneered high-aspect ratio silicon micromachining based on research originally conducted at Cornell University, and today enjoys a global reputation for MEMS product design, process engineering, and quality manufacturing. Consumer electronics leaders worldwide utilize Kionix’s technology for motion-based gaming, user-interface functionality in mobile handsets, personal navigation, and hard disk drop protection in mobile products. Kionix’s MEMS products are further diversified into the automotive, industrial, and health care sectors. The Company offers one of the industry’s broadest families of MEMS inertial sensors including single-, dual-, and tri-axis accelerometers, gyroscopes, and unique combination sensors. Kionix is ISO9001:2000 and TS16949 registered.
