AMS introduces digital temperature sensors for wearables and data centers

     Ams has announced the launch of the AS6221, the world's most accurate digital temperature sensor. The sensor has a short measurement conversion time of only 35ms. Its entire operating temperature range is -40°C to 125°C. The AS6221 achieves a measurement accuracy of ±0.09°C over a temperature range of 20°C to 42°C, making it ideal for human or skin temperature measurements. There are no competing digital temperature sensors on the market today that can achieve accuracy better than ±0.10°C.

     The digital temperature sensor AS6221 is packaged in a WLCSP package with a footprint of just 1.5mm x 1mm and absorbs 6μA of current at an output data rate of 4Hz. The standby current is only 0.1µA. This compact, low-power sensor is ideal for battery-powered portable and wearable devices such as advanced lifestyle or fitness monitoring wristbands and smartwatches. In high-end computing systems and servers, it can also precisely tune the operation of the processor to maximize system throughput without overheating.

     The launch of the AS6221 extends ams' position in the health monitoring technology market, along with existing products such as the AS7038RB blood oxygen monitoring device, the AS7030B biosensor, devices for medical imaging systems, and the NanEye family of image sensors for endoscopy.

     Alexander Rensink, business unit Manager for Position Sensors at ams, said: "Skin temperature is a key metric in high-end consumer products such as smartwatches and lifestyle monitoring wristbands, so design engineers invest a lot of time and effort to achieve and then verify high temperature measurement accuracy in all operating conditions. The AS6221, introduced today, makes this task easier by providing a more accurate measurement output, simplifying the integration of temperature sensing into the system, and providing the flexibility to support a wide range of operating voltages."

     The high accuracy of the AS6221 is specified over the entire 1.7V to 3.6V supply voltage range of the device. In contrast, the most accurate competing sensors can only achieve the highest accuracy at a single voltage point, resulting in less accurate outputs across the rest of the operating voltage range.