It is precisely because the 3D sensor market to see the huge business opportunities, the major sensor manufacturers are racked their brains to seize the market.Recently, Japanese TDK announced the acquisition of high-performance ultrasonic sensor business ChirpMicrosystems (hereinafter referred to as 'Chirp') to acquire the agreement , Chirp will become a wholly owned subsidiary of TDK.It is reported that the transaction is expected to be completed within a few days, TDK is expected to take this into the potential of the 3D sensor market.
It is understood, Chirp mainly focused on the development of high-performance ultrasonic sensor, the product compared to the existing technology size smaller, lower power consumption, can accurately measure the distance between objects.In addition, Chirp's solution has a very broad application prospects, Such as AR / VR (Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality), as well as smartphones, cars, industrial machinery, and other ICT (Information and Communication Technology) applications.In fact, Chirp is building a sonar chip with a 3D sensor that uses a super The combination of a sonic transducer and a mixed-signal chipset eliminates the noise and other ambient noise that interfere with the accuracy of the sensor and enables very accurate sensing and detection from a few centimeters to a few meters. Due to this feature, Chirp's ultra Not only does the sonic sensor dramatically improve the AR / VR user experience, but it can also be used for proximity detection of smartphones and distance tracking of obstacles while traveling.
'TDK is committed to driving the growth of systems in the automotive, smart phone, healthcare and industrial industries, and our vision is to be a leading solution provider to sports, acoustics, environmental (pressure, temperature and humidity) and ultrasonic sensors for IoT applications "Said Noboru Saito, TDK's senior vice president and CEO of Sensor Systems Business." Chirp's unique high-value 3D sensing technology complements our sensor solutions product line and helps TDK become a leader in ultrasonic MEMS technology '
In recent years, TDK has been working to expand its lineup of sensor products. At the end of 2016, TDK acquired handphone gyro maker InvenSense for 1.3 billion USD and received InvenSense products including fingerprint sensors and microphones Applications for IoT devices such as networked factory equipment, medical devices and automobiles; in May 2017, TDK acquired ICsense NV, a maker of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), to further expand its sensor business.
It is worth mentioning that, in addition to TDK, Sony and Apple are also 'eyeing the 3D sensor market.' Among them, Sony is accelerating the development of image sensors, the technology can accurately measure the distance by projecting infrared pulses, as well as calculate the object required to reflect light Time; and last year, Apple invested 390 million US dollars Finisar, raising the TrueDepth camera infrared transmitter output.