Motion sensors measure movement and impacts for use in fitness trackers, drones, robots, and industrial equipment.
STMicroelectronics has introduced two six-axis inertial measurement units (IMUs) that combine a gyroscope with two accelerometers to capture motion and high-impact events simultaneously. The sensors are designed to improve event reconstruction in consumer and industrial applications, including fitness trackers, smart tags, industrial asset monitors, robots, and drones.
The LSM6DSK320X for consumer devices and ISM6HGK256X for industrial applications use a super-symmetric gyroscope architecture to reduce the effects of external vibrations and shocks. Their dual-accelerometer design measures low-range disturbances up to ±16 g and high-g events up to ±320 g at the same time. This allows the sensors to capture a wider range of motion and impacts without switching between low-range and high-range measurement modes, which could cause some events to be missed.
Event reconstruction helps applications identify and distinguish between incidents based on recorded motion data. This supports functions such as accident alerts, tool-usage monitoring, robot teaching, sports-performance analysis, and concussion detection. The sensors can also be used for drone-flight stabilisation, structural-condition monitoring, and game controllers.
The super-symmetric architecture consists of two mirrored electromechanical structures that operate in opposite phases to cancel the effects of external vibrations and shocks. Combined with a fully differential signal chain, the design improves signal strength and resistance to interference.
The compact internal structure allows each IMU to integrate one gyroscope and two separate accelerometers in a single package. Both devices also include STMicroelectronics’ machine-learning core (MLC), which processes machine-learning tasks directly within the sensor. This can reduce application energy consumption and free up system resources.
Developers can use software libraries such as Motion XLF, sensor-fusion, and context-awareness libraries, along with basic libraries, to support different applications.
The LSM6DSK320X operates over a temperature range of -40°C to +85°C, while the industrial-grade ISM6HGK256X supports -40°C to +105°C. The latter is also covered by STMicroelectronics’ 10-year longevity program, which supports long-term component availability.
Both sensors are part of the company’s ST Sustainable Technology initiative, which focuses on responsible product development.
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