Tired of encoders that take space and need maintenance? A sensor design makes motion systems smaller and easier to use.
Design engineers working on compact, precise motion systems often struggle with the size, cost, and maintenance demands of magnetic and optical encoders. Renesas’ new family of magnet-free inductive position sensor (IPS) ICs directly addresses these issues by offering a smaller, more reliable, and cost-efficient alternative that needs no magnets or moving parts.
These IPS devices are built for applications where long-term stability and durability matter most such as robotics, medical tools, smart building systems, appliances, and motor drives. They deliver consistent position sensing even in harsh environments with high temperature, dust, moisture, vibration, or strong electromagnetic fields. Because the sensors are immune to stray magnetic interference and operate without contact, they eliminate the need for periodic maintenance common with traditional encoders.
Each IC uses a simple metallic target with single- or dual-coil configurations to measure absolute rotary, linear, or arc positions. Engineers can achieve accuracy better than 0.1% of the full-scale range. The RAA2P3226 offers 19-bit resolution and 0.01° accuracy for precision robotics, while the RAA2P3200 handles high-speed motor commutation with propagation delays below 100 ns. The RAA2P4200, on the other hand, suits low-speed medical and industrial systems. Automatic calibration and linearization further reduce design complexity and setup time.
To help engineers customize sensor designs for their systems, Renesas has also introduced a web-based Inductive Position Sensor Coil Optimizer tool. It automates coil layout, simulation, and tuning, allowing users to quickly achieve the desired accuracy and performance for different manufacturing or application constraints.
“Our new web-based coil design tool is a game changer for inductive position sensing,” said Leopold Beer, Vice President of the Sensors Division at Renesas. “In the past, developers had to rely on chip suppliers for technical expertise when working with inductive position sensors. We completely removed this hurdle. This intuitive tool lets developers fully customize the sensing element and automatically fine-tunes it to achieve maximum accuracy and robustness at the system level. This dramatically lowers the barrier of entry and enables more customers, regardless of their expertise level, to confidently integrate inductive position sensing into their designs.”
