Hamlin Expands into Hall Sensor Market with Micronas Agreement (0309)

Freiburg, Germany/Diss, UK - April 15 , 2003 - Hamlin, worldwide leading supplier of reed switches and sensor solutions for automotive, industrial, consumer and electronic products and Micronas, a leading supplier of IC and sensor system solutions for consumer electronics, multimedia systems and automotive electronics, have signed a long-term agreement under which Micronas will be the preferred supplier of Hall sensors to Hamlin.

"Expanding into the Hall sensor market is part of Hamlin's strategy to further develop its position as a leading manufacturer of advanced products," said Phil James, managing director of Hamlin. "Having Micronas´ technology and technical support greatly expands Hamlin's custom sensor solutions capabilities and provides the company a competitive edge in terms of what we can bring to the customer. The new alliance will keep Hamlin in the forefront of new product developments which will enable the company to launch new sensor products more quickly and efficiently."

"We are proud that with Hamlin, we have been able to convince a strong partner to leverage Micronas' proven know-how in hall-effect sensor technology for a strategic extension of their product portfolio," explained Peter Zimmermann, automotive market manager at Micronas. "The agreement covers all product ranges from simple hall switches to highly sophisticated programmable sensors with digital signal processing and EEPROM memory."

Both reed switches and Hall effect sensors are magnetic proximity sensors, but they function in significantly different ways. A reed sensor is a mechanical switch in which the precious metal contacts are hermetically sealed within a small glass tube. The reed sensor has a digital output and no analog capability. The reed switch can be magnetically biased to obtain a latching function.

Micronas pioneered the Hall sensor market. It was the first company to offer fully programmable Hall sensors, where the Hall plate, the DSP block and the EEPROM were integrated into one chip manufactured in pure CMOS technology. Together with a patented method of offset compensation invented by Micronas, these sensors are more accurate by an order of magnitude compared to their bipolar predecessors. Due to the programmability they can be matched flexibly to the application and the given application environment. This eliminates expensive mechanical adjustments in the system. Therefore, system manufacturers benefit from reduced system costs as well as from a logistical advantage in that only one part needs to be stocked for a variety of applications.

The contactless measurement principle makes Hall sensors immune to mechanical wear and environmental contaminants such as dirt, vibration and great temperature variations, resulting in a much higher level of reliability. Thus, Hall sensors can replace electromechanical potentiometers in many cases.

Hall Sensors are used for a huge variety of simple position measurements (window closed/open) as well as for angle, rotational speed and current measurements. They are the components of choice for applications in harsh environments such as cars.

About Hall sensors

Hall effect sensors are solid-state devices with no moving parts. They are based on the Hall effect, named after its discoverer Edwin Hall in 1879. A Hall element, a square shaped semiconductor layer, for example, is supplied by a constant current. When applying a magnetic field perpendicular to the current flow, the charge carriers are deflected due to the Lorentz force. This deflection can be measured as the so-called Hall voltage, which is perpendicular to both the magnetic field and the current flow. The Hall voltage is directly proportional to the magnetic field.

About Hamlin

HAMLIN, a BREED Technologies company is recognised throughout the world as a leading supplier of quality electronic components.

As one of the largest reed switch producers in the world, HAMLIN offers unmatched expertise in applying reed switch technology to the development of advanced position sensors and reed relays used in automotive, industrial, consumer and electronic applications. Employing more than 1500 people, the Company operates manufacturing and sales facilities in England, the United States, Germany and Mexico.

HAMLIN product applications range from automotive systems to household appliances. The Company's production process is integrated with engineering, manufacturing and quality controls in an environment of continuous improvement and development, supported by training and strategic investment, fine-tuned by over 50 years of experience in producing quality electronic components.