Date: 28/05/2009

AMS and Fraunhofer partnering to develop magnetic encoder Ics

Austriamicrosystems (AMS) and Fraunhofer IIS have signed co-operation agreement to develop magnetic motion sensing devices based on Fraunhofer's patented HallinOne magnetic sensor technology.

The combined effort will lead to the development of new family of magnetic encoder components for industry applications such as industrial, medical and automotive electronics markets.

The Fraunhofer's HallinOne sensor technology enables measurement of magnetic fields in horizontal and vertical dimensions, detecting the magnetic field vectors (both magnitude and direction) at any measured point. The beauty of these sensors is, they can be implemented in a standard CMOS process making it possible to have integrated sensors, logic and analog functions in same VLSI semiconductor chip/die.

"We are very pleased to engage in this cooperation with austriamicrosystems who has an established track record in design and manufacturing of linear and rotary magnetic encoders on the market", said Josef Sauerer, Head of IC Development for Analog Systems at Fraunhofer Institute IIS. "For us, this joint program offers an ideal platform which enables us to offer our innovative magnetic sensing technology to the marketplace."

"This cooperation with Fraunhofer Institute allows us to further expand our comprehensive magnetic encoder product portfolio", said Matjaz Novak, Marketing Director at austriamicrosystems. "With the HallinOne sensor based products, we want to offer to market new innovative and cost efficient solutions for a variety of motion sensing applications."