Focus on Electronics

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March 2003

Motorola e-field imaging IC for safety systems

Motorola, Inc. says it has developed the industry's first integrated circuit (IC) that generates and detects a low-level electric field (e-field) and powers and supports a microcontroller (MCU)—all in a single chip. E-field sensing provides a means for tracking electric current that can then be "imaged" to determine what is changing the current. According to Motorola, it builds on the strengths of many alternative technologies, such as optical and acoustic sensing, while avoiding several of their weaknesses, such as not being able to detect objects that are not in the line of sight. The applications of low-level electric field imaging are many but, until recently, have been restricted by difficult implementation of practical systems.
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