Date: 19/04/2012

AS5048 14-bit magnetic encoder from austriamicrosystems for noisy environment applications

Austriamicrosystems has released a 14-bit magnetic encoder chip "AS5048" with new features to get accurate and reliable angle measurements in microcontroller-based applications.

The AS5048 provides a PWM output and either an SPI or I2C interface that supplies absolute angle measurements to a host microcontroller. The application's mechanical design does not need to allow for precise initial alignment of the sensor IC and the two-pole magnet it is paired with. The zero position is programmed into the AS5048 magnetic encoder one time only on assembly, via a simple SPI or I2C command and hence does not require any special programming device.

The AS5048 is tolerant of misalignment between the sensor IC and its paired magnet and of variations in the air gap, as well as of variations in temperature from -40°C to +150°C. Its 14-bit measurement engine provides for resolution down to 0.0219°. With linearization and averaging implemented in the host microcontroller, it can deliver angle measurements accurate to 0.05°.

The AS5048 is manufactured at austriamicrosystems' wafer fab in Graz, Austria. The IC's high sensitivity means that it can be paired with low-cost magnet types such as ferrites, operating reliably in magnetic fields as weak as 30mT.

This device rejects interference from stray magnetic fields because of its integrated hall sensors and signal processing circuitry. Hence this device can be used in electrically and magnetically noisy industrial and medical environments.

An internal voltage regulator enables the AS5048 to operate from either a 3.3V or 5V supply. It is available in a 14-pin TSSOP package. Multiple devices can be daisy-chained to produce a serial data read-out.

Alfred Binder, marketing manager at austriamicrosystems, said: "austriamicrosystems is a long-standing supplier of magnetic encoders to thousands of customers, and feedback from these customers on our existing devices has helped us to make the new AS5048 a very attractive product. It is accurate and robust like all of austriamicrosystems' magnetic encoders, easy to assemble in an end product, and now even easier to implement in microcontroller-based designs."

The AS5048 magnetic rotary encoder IC is available for production today.

For more, visit www.austriamicrosystems.com/Magnetic-Encoders/AS5048.