Title
Heating-, ventilation-, and air conditionig appliances
Mixed signal ASIC improves performance-cost ratio for humidity- and temperature sensing
Technologies used

Mixed Signal ASIC

Industrial sector (PRODCOM code)
    332 Manufacture of instruments and appliances for measuring, checking, testing, navigating, exc. industrial process
Abstract
The company E+E Elektronik GmbH situated in Engerwitzdorf, Austria, has since the start in the early 80ies been involved in the manufacturing of sensor elements and systems for the climate control industry. Based on a long experience in thin film technology E+E offers sensors and transmitters for the following variables:
· Humidity
· Air velocity
· Temperature
The company produces several sensor-elements for the measurement of Temperature, Relative Humidity and Mass-Flow of gases.
E+E provides products for different industries, the most important ones being the automotive industry, the HVAC-industry systems (HVAC = Heating-Ventilation-Air-Conditioning), instrumentation and control, domestic appliances, agriculture etc.
The company has 110 employees. Of those five are involved in electronics development.
The experience of the company prior to the start of the AE was with electronics for sensors. This included development of circuits in bipolar- as well as in CMOS technology and designs with 8-bit microcontroller. Most designs are realised with SMT.
The object to be improved in the AE was a family of products all being transmitters for combined measurement of relative humidity and temperature. Typically these devices consist of a sensor probe, a PCB, and a casing protecting against environmental influences.
The main objective of the project was to reduce the size and the production costs of the product. This was done by designing a mixed signal ASIC, with which these goals can be achieved. Additional improvements are e.g. technical ones: enhanced functionality, lower power consumption, and the system is more stable in terms of temperature dependence and drift.
The design of the prototype took 18 months with a budget of 167,7 K€. The payback period will be approximately 2,5 years and ROI is expected to be about 350% over the product lifetime of 6 years.
The application experiment is especially interesting for companies involved in the design of sensors and their processing electronics.
Company
E+E Elektronik GmbH
Langwiesen 7
A-4210 Engerwitzdorf
AUSTRIA
Detailed information
You can also benefit from microelectronics

Mixed Signal ASIC technology provided E+E Elektronik GmbH with the means of improving its products and enhancing its market position. You can also achieve significant benefits by acquiring the right microelectronics technology and utilising it in your product or manufacturing process. You can get help from FUSE to realise this.

FUSE is a technology transfer programme, funded by the European Commission to stimulate the wider use of microelectronics technologies by European enterprises to increase their competitiveness and enhance their economic growth. The demonstrator described here is one of many examples in the public FUSE portfolio covering the whole spectrum of microelectronics technologies and spanning a wide range of applications and industry sectors.

FUSE provides you with:

  • Best practice in acquiring specific microelectronics technologies and conducting full development projects through the FUSE portfolio of real life demonstrator documents.
  • Local training and expert support to plan your innovation realistically and help you conduct your project successfully.

Further information and support relating to this and other demonstrators can be obtained from the addresses below.
Further information   Guiding Technology Transfer Node
For further information and support regarding this case study, please contact a Technology Transfer Node (TTN) in your region.
Homepage: http://www.fuse-network.com
Research Institute for Integrated Circuits
Altenberger Strasse 69
A-4040 Linz
Austria