News

Compact AS5040 system-on-chip is ideal for company's broad range of industrial sensors

austriamicrosystems (SWX: AMS), a leading global designer and manufacturer of analog integrated circuits for industrial, medical, communication and automotive applications, is providing its AS5040 small size 10-bit magnetic rotary encoder IC to encoder specialist Megatron Elektronik AG & Co. The AS5040 will be included in a broad range of the Megatron’s next-generation contactless rotary encoder products.

Headquartered in Germany, Megatron Elektronik AG & Co. specializes in producing cost-effective solutions for off-the-shelf and customized industrial encoder systems, such as contactless angle sensors, precision potentiometers, incremental encoders, linear displacement sensors and industrial joysticks.

The innovative AS5040 magnetic rotary encoder IC is a true system-on-chip (SoC) integrating field sensing Hall elements, analog front-end and digital signal processing. The rotary position is contactlessly sensed by a small rotating magnet that is placed above the device. The AS5040 can detect 1,024 absolute positions in a full turn, which corresponds to a resolution of 0.35 degrees.

Because of its contactless measurement method, the AS5040 is ideally suited for harsh environments. It is highly reliable and immune to adverse environmental conditions such as dust, moisture, vibration and even unwanted magnetic fields. Additional features include a user programmable zero/index position and a safety feature that monitors for the presence of the magnet.
"We are very excited about the business opportunities for our encoder product family based around austriamicrosystems innovative AS5040," said Thomas Kunz-Vizenetz, CEO of Megatron. "Thanks to excellent support from austriamicrosystems and the AS5040 competitive edge, we are well placed to provide robust, cost-efficient solutions."

"We work as closely as possible with our customers to ensure that their design-to-market cycles are as short as possible," said Matjaz Novak, Marketing Director Industry & Medical at austriamicrosystems. "The AS5040 is a perfect fit with Megatron's product lines and their new Hall-based encoder family is an example of the exciting new solutions they will be offering to their clients. The need for simple, reliable contactless sensors continues to grow and, with our industry-leading magnetic encoder product family, we enable our customers to develop a broad range of competitive solutions."

About austriamicrosystems
austriamicrosystems is a leading designer and manufacturer of high performance analog ICs, combining almost 25 years of analog design capabilities and system know-how with its own state-of-the-art manufacturing and test facilities. austriamicrosystems leverages its expertise in low power and high accuracy to provide industry-leading customized and standard analog products. Operating worldwide with more than 850 employees, austriamicrosystems focuses on the areas of power management, sensors & sensor interfaces, portable audio and car access in its markets Communications, Industry & Medical and Automotive, complemented by its Full Service Foundry activities. austriamicrosystems is listed on the SWX Swiss Exchange in Zurich (ticker symbol: AMS).