Panasonic develops world’s smallest inertial sensor signal processing IC chips

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Panasonic Corp has developed an inertial sensor signal processing IC chip measuring less than 2mm on each side, realizing the smallest size in the world. The company has achieved this technology by developing 1.8V 110nm BiCMOS with the industry’s minimum design rule, allowing the surface area of the high-precision analog circuits to be halved.

Mass production of the IC chips has already begun. The newly developed technology will be deployed in signal processing ICs for various sensors.

Panasonic’s inertial sensor signal processing IC chips help reduce the size and enhance the functions of inertial sensor modules to be used in various different products, including mobile products and game machines. In order to miniaturize inertial sensor modules, the great challenge has involved the size of the sensor signal processing ICs which, though just a few square millimeters, occupy a large space within the module.

Sensor signal processing ICs amplify faint signals outputted from a sensor and convert them to electrical signals depending on the inertial force. Since approximately 80% of the area of such an IC chip is occupied by high-precision analog circuits, it had been considered difficult to reduce the area of the IC through fine process formation.

The sensors themselves have also been miniaturized, causing the level of sensor signals to be reduced. This phenomenon necessitated a reduction in low-frequency noise generated in the first-stage amplifier circuit, which amplifies the sensor signals. However, the noise reduction would then result in an increase in area with conventional CMOS analog circuits.