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ROHM to Highlight Automotive, Industrial and Consumer Solutions at CES 2019

December 11, 2018 by Paul Shepard

ROHM will be showcasing a number of demos highlighting its broad portfolio of innovative sensor and power solutions in the Automotive, Consumer, and Industrial fields at CES 2019 in Las Vegas.

ROHM will exhibit a wire frame car demo integrating a variety of solutions that are expected to be adopted in vehicles of the future, ranging from functional safety and a smart entry system that enables wireless charging for smartphones, passenger detection, and heart rate monitoring to ADAS (i.e. e-mirror, sonar) and flexible exterior lamp designs capable of displaying customized messages and graphics.

And as an official technology partner of Formula E team Venturi, ROHM provided SiC Schottky Barrier Diodes for the main drive inverter for Season 3 (2016-17). However, for Season 4 ROHM worked to improve performance by incorporating full SiC Power Modules comprised of SiC MOSFETs and diodes that decreased the size and weight of the main inverter by 43% and 6kg, respectively, compared with the inverter used in Season 2.

A novel buck dc-dc converter utilizing ROHM's new Quick Buck Booster® technology that enables both buck and buck-boost operation on a single board will also be highlighted. This provides a common design that ensures superior performance while decreasing design load and costs by as much as 50% over conventional solutions requiring separate boards.

ROHM offers complete IoT solutions in the industrial equipment sector to achieve smart factories that are expected to radically transform management and response by enabling real-time monitoring of equipment in order to prevent accidents and failure that can lead to injury and/or production stoppages. The modular solution includes multiple sensors that detect a variety of physical and environmental information, such as vibration, temperature, humidity, color, and light, 16bit MCUs, Wi-SUN communication modules, and gateways that allow for remote monitoring virtually anywhere in the world.

ROHM will also showcase the industry's first contactless current sensor featuring MI (Magneto-Impedance) technology that consists of an amorphous FeCoSiB wire developed using a special manufacturing method. The result is unprecedented sensitivity, low noise, and low current consumption, making it ideal for both industrial (i.e. power meters, power storage equipment) and consumer (home appliances, drones, VR devices) applications.

ROHM Group company Kionix, together with ROHM, recently developed the RoKix Sensor Node, a key component of the new RoKix IoT platform. Centered around Nordic Semiconductor's nRF52840 Bluetooth 5 SoC, the sensor node integrates multiple sensors from ROHM and Kionix that enable measurement of a variety of factors, and includes expansion connectors that allow users to add additional sensors.

This makes it an excellent choice for prototyping and initial set development of consumer IoT applications ranging from wearables, health & fitness devices, toys, and smart home devices to industrial systems such as smart sensor networks, asset management, logistics monitoring, and factory automation.