Compact, low-power magnetometer provides precision heading data in small battery-powered devices
Featuring innovative TMR technology, the BMM350 from Bosch Sensortec enables new applications such as eliminating motion sickness in VR headsets, while providing a huge reduction in power consumption compared to the previous generation device.
Bosch Sensortec has introduced a magnetometer, the BMM350, which combines excellent performance with low power consumption, making it ideal for use in portable and wearable devices powered by a small battery. Its slim chip-scale package has a footprint of just 1.28 mm x 1.28 mm, enabling its integration into space-constrained products such as augmented or virtual reality (AR/VR) headsets.
The 16-bit, three-axis BMM350 magnetometer provides the position data required in emerging applications such as detecting head orientation for 3D audio, and pixel latency reduction in AR/VR, which improves the user experience and prevents motion sickness.
In indoor navigation, the BMM350 can be used to improve positioning accuracy when no satellite signal is available. It also provides position and speed measurement in e-bikes and other vehicles.
The BMM350, based on innovative tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) technology, includes a field shock recovery feature. This capability, developed by Bosch, makes the device highly immune to external magnetic fields, ensuring that it maintains high accuracy at all times.
The average operating current of the BMM350 is only 200 μA at a 100 Hz data rate, which is 20 times lower than the previous generation device, the BMM150. Noise is also three times lower on the x,y axis, and sensitivity is four times higher.