Purpose and Mission
The Devices & Sensors Laboratory of Asahi Kasei EMD is dedicated to the development of sensors – S-cube Sensors – as complete sensor systems comprising individual physical and chemical sensor devices together with the signal-processing architectures and information-processing algorithms necessary for their optimum internal and external interfaces and operation, enabling their intuitive, interactive utilization in a wide range of electronic products and equipment.
Society is now entering the age of ubiquitous networking and ubiquitous computing,
and computer, sensor, and networking systems are becoming a functional part of
vehicles and aircraft, cellphones and telecommunications, and appliances and equipment
for home and leisure, business, and industry. In all of these, architecture and
algorithms play an increasingly important role, for the extraction of information
from sensor signals and its processing and presentation in optimum forms when
and where it is essential, as a part of everyday life.
The work of the Devices & Sensors Laboratory is directed to providing comprehensive
sensor systems for high value-added products, through the development and incorporation
of advanced architectures and algorithms. It is uniquely positioned for this purpose,
as part of the Asahi Kasei Group and its wide-ranging operations and expertise
in fields ranging from housing construction and household products to industrial
process technology, medical equipment, and advanced analog-digital semiconductors.
Sensors as Systems
Conventional sensors are generally quantitative-mode physical devices for the detection and measurement of various forms of energy – in effect functioning as transducers – converting energy from target fields or substances to electrical signals. Common examples include temperature, pressure, light, weight, vibration, acceleration, and magnetic sensors.
Today, as we move toward ubiquitous networking and computing, the requirement
is for sensors that are themselves complete systems, comprising not only such
physical and chemical sensors but also the hardware and software necessary to
extract, process, and present the required information immediately, interactively,
and intuitively.
The S-cube Sensors of the Devices & Sensors Laboratory are conceived, designed,
and developed to meet this need.
Application-driven S-cube Sensor design and development
For S-cube Sensors, the development and design process begins with conceptualization
of the sensor application – its purpose and mode of use, in the hands of
the user.
Guided by this concept, it proceeds to the identification of the requisite environmental
parameters to be measured, through the development of appropriate algorithms for
extraction of the required information from these parameters, together with the
design of the optimum IC circuit architecture for processing of physical-sensor
output signals, and finally to the selection of optimum physical sensors for the
requisite signal delivery.
This is the reverse of the conventional sensor design process, in which the goal
is the improvement of the performance characteristics of the physical sensor itself – characteristics such as accuracy, reliability, sensitivity, dynamic range,
size and weight, and energy consumption – and proceeds from consideration
of the means to make these improvements.
All of these characteristics are important in the design and development of the S-cube Sensors, as well, but always as part of the sensor solution that best serves the purpose, context, and ease of use of the S-cube Sensor, as seen by the user.
