Company Profile

TDK-Micronas GmbH

TDK-Micronas is the center of competence for magnetic-field sensors and CMOS integration within the TDK group. TDK-Micronas has gained operational excellence for sensors and actuators production in over 25 years of in-house manufacturing. It has been the first company to integrate a Hall-effect based sensor into CMOS technology in 1993. Since then, TDK-Micronas has shipped over six billion Hall sensors to the automotive and industrial market. The operational headquarter is located in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany). Currently, TDK-Micronas employs around 1,000 people.

 

Product Line - Magnetic Field Sensors

TDK-Micronas supplies a wide range of magnetic field sensors based on the Hall effect or TMR technology covering switches, linear, direct angle and current sensors for many different kinds of automotive or industrial applications.

Major Automotive trends for CO2 reduction and car electrification are asking for tighter controls, thus increasing the demand for magnetic-field sensors. TDK-Micronas develops high accuracy sensors designed to withstand harsh under-the-hood environments: insensitive to vibrations, temperature drift and dirt. In the autonomous driving, electronic systems are evolving from fail-safe to fail operational. TDK-Micronas supplies the required sensor solutions and functional safety expertise and offers a wide portfolio of switches, linear and direct angle sensors with diversified communication channels and redundancy levels.

The Hall switch portfolio includes ISO 26262 compliant multipurpose switches (HAL 15xy), commodity products (HAL 14xy) as well as highly precise customer programmable devices (HAL 1002). The linear Hall-sensor portfolio ranges from simple entry-level products (HAL 18xy), to more elaborated devices with integrated capacitors (HAL/HAC 83x) and versatile sensor families with various output formats and package variants in single or dual die configuration (HAL/HAR 24xy). The most recent Hall-effect based product family is the family of 3D position sensors for up to 360° angular or up to 40 mm linear position measurements (HAL 37xy). The new masterHAL® sensor family (HAL 39xy) offers a unique stray-field compensation concept as well as real 3D position measurement. Hall effect and TMR technology based current sensors (HAL 24xy/HAL 39xy) can be used for core-based or coreless current sensing, required for example for monitoring higher power electrical vehicle batteries.

Our expertise in Hall sensors also benefits Industrial applications. In the field of factory automation, initiatives such as Industry 4.0 and Made in China 2025 as well as the emergence of 5G communication accelerate the adoption of collaborative robotic arms with associated sensors and actuators. Global robotic is set to be the next wave of growth for the electronic industry. From commercial home care up to the humanoid social robot, there are many opportunities for TDK-Micronas' sensors and embedded motor controllers.

 

Product Line – Embedded Motor Controllers

Networking and communication determine our world today, making it permeated by electronics and digitization. In the Automotive environment, the number of microcontrollers is increasing with the amount of small BLDC and stepper motors to be controlled. TDK-Micronas can draw on more than 15 years of experience with controlling these kinds of motors, supporting customers to making their applications smart.

The overall performance of the second generation embedded motor controller family (HVC 4223F/ HVC 4420F) has no equal. Driven by an state-of-the-art ARM-Cortex-M3, all motor-application relevant functionalities (automotive grade power supply, µC-related IPs, LIN-2.1/2.2 interface, built-in H-bridges) are already integrated in one single device. The reduction in the number of external components to a minimum and the flexible periphery of the product enable direct control of BDC, BLDC, and stepper motors. Thanks to this flexibility, the embedded motor controllers offer an effective system solution for small and medium-sized electric motors, so that a common product platform can be used. This gives our customers a decisive competitive advantage through an extremely shortened implementation phase and fewer resources required for the development process of their various applications.

High reliability during the service life, reduction in weight and overall dimensions are further key properties that are also required for Industrial and Consumer applications or Robotics.