editor's blog
Subscribe Now

Smallest Accelerometer

At the same time that Bosch Sensortec announced its orientation sensor, they also announced their BMA355 accelerometer, which is distinguished by its size. Prior to this, the smallest footprint available for an accelerometer was 2×2 mm2. This guy is 1.2×1.5 mm2.

This was done via a die shrink. The MEMS is placed over the ASIC; the ASIC is more or less bonded straight down to its leads; it’s essentially chip-scale packaging.

In fact, they could have made the ASIC even smaller, but they were limited by a couple things:

–          The pad pitch is limited to 0.4 mm, which is standard at this point (smaller pitches are possible, but they’re considered specialized). So they’re now officially pad-limited.

–          They need to be able to put the MEMS chip on top of the ASIC and bond it down; that also sets a size constraint.

Size notwithstanding, they still include the standard interrupts, including motion on/off, double-tap, tilt, and shock. You can find more info in their release.

Leave a Reply

featured blogs
May 21, 2025
The term "brassed off"'”an informal British idiom meaning annoyed, fed up, or unhappy'”reflects a kind of period-specific British vernacular that has faded in modern times...

featured chalk talk

Infineon and Mouser introduction to Reliable Solid State Isolators
Sponsored by Mouser Electronics and Infineon
In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton and Daniel Callen Jr. from Infineon explore trends in solid state isolator and relay solutions, the benefits that Infineon’s SSI solutions bring to the table, and how you can get started using these solutions for your next design. 
May 28, 2024
36,547 views