Technology, Process and Cost

Analog Devices High-End Accelerometers and Gyroscopes Comparison

By Yole SystemPlus — May 2021

Comparison of different accelerometers and gyroscopes from Analog Devices integrated in high-end IMUs.

Complete teardown with:

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Comparison of different accelerometers and gyroscopes from Analog Devices integrated in high-end IMUs.

For the development of robotics, smart agriculture, autonomous vehicles and navigation and stabilization applications, accurate motion capture sensors have played a central role. The requirements in high precision, long mission life and high reliability are not provided by standard consumer solutions. In such high-end inertial sensors for industrial applications, Analog Devices competes with Sensonor, Colibrys/Safran, Silicon Sensing Systems and other silicon MEMS companies.

Analog Devices has developed different accelerometers and gyroscopes. We have selected six of them, the ADXL203, ADXL355B, ADXL362, ADXRS290, ADXRS295 and ADXRS195. In this report, we investigate the differences in manufacturing process and integration of these devices in different inertial measurement units (IMUs) from ADI with different levels of precision.

Most of the accelerometers and all gyroscopes contain one main MEMS device and the corresponding Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) in the same package. All the MEMS devices are manufactured with surface micromachining techniques. The cap and the MEMS sensor are assembled with eutectic bonding or glass frit bonding. Accelerometers are assembled with ceramic packaging or a Land Grid Array (LGA) package and all gyroscopes are assembled in a LGA package.

The same accelerometers and gyroscopes are integrated in different IMUs. For different applications we can find combinations of the same accelerometer and gyroscope. Then every IMU is calibrated for different application grades like robotics, internet of moving things, autonomous machines, avionics, precision instrumentation, guidance and navigation.

The report contains a detailed comparative physical analysis with process descriptions and a comparative manufacturing cost analysis between the three accelerometers and the three gyroscopes. A teardown, a bill of material, cost and selling price estimation of each IMU selected is also available.