News

Alps Electric has added the “HSHCAL101B” PC board module to its HSHCAL Series lineup of capacitive digital temperature and humidity sensors for major home appliances. Mass production will begin in January 2017.

Air purifiers, refrigerators, air-conditioning systems and other major home appliances on the market today are increasingly equipped with functions for sensing a wide range of environmental parameters, such as temperature, humidity, air pressure and ambient light, for the purpose of enhancing comfort and convenience for users and improving the energy-saving performance of the equipment.

Sensors used in these appliances in the past have predominantly provided analog output, but there has been a rising need in recent years for integration of sensors with digital output, which do not necessitate analog-to-digital conversion of measured data by a microcontroller inside the appliance. Sensors must also be installed in an optimal location inside the particular appliance to be able to perform more accurate measurement. In many cases, that is away from the main circuit board and the sensor has to be mounted to a separate PC board.

Alps Electric has responded to the market by newly developing the HSHCAL101B, a module consisting of an HSHCAL Series Capacitive Digital Temperature & Humidity Sensor—boasting outstanding performance and a strong track record—mounted to a PC board. As well as being easy to install in a position enabling accurate measurement of temperature and humidity, as was the challenge, the product helps to reduce the manufacturing workload by eliminating the step of preparing a separate board.

Ensuring reliability, the sensor part of the module employs a cover structure for protection from dust, dirt and other foreign matter, and the component terminal is covered in moisture-proof film. In addition, I²C interface support and a built-in connector allow easy wiring to the main board.

The HSHCAL Series Capacitive Digital Temperature & Humidity Sensor makes use of Alps Electric’s original MEMS process technology to realize an industry-leading compact size and low profile.^* It works in 100% relative humidity (dew point) and achieves high temperature sensing precision of ±5%. The sensor also houses an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for temperature characteristic compensation, allowing simplification of surrounding circuits inside the equipment.

By not only enhancing sensor performance, but also expanding product varieties, including through the creation of modules, Alps Electric will keep contributing to greater functionality and performance of end products.