Diodes, Inc. Releases Micropower Omnipolar Hall Effect Sensor Switches

Diodes Inc. announced the release of a new series of Omnipolar Hall Effect Sensor Switches. The AH188x series is said to specifically target the increasing demand for portable contactless switch applications, which includes clamshell cell phones, notebook PCs and PDAs.

These new devices are said to address a broad section of the portable market’s need for tighter sensitivity, multiple outputs and polarity independence. The AH188x series offers both dual and single polarity specific outputs, lower power, higher magnetic sensitivity and greater performance than that of comparable products from market-leading handset component suppliers.

The AH188x series uses what is described as a unique scheme of two hall plates to detect a magnet’s polarity eliminating the need to orientate the magnet in manufacturing. The AH188x series offers both dual and single outputs. The AH1883 offers a single output well suited for notebook cover switch applications. The AH1885 and AH1886 offer dual outputs with a wide selection of magnetic operating and release points in support of clamshell-style cell phones. The AH1887 offers dual polarity specific outputs, including active high or active low for use in slider-style cell phones with multiple screens and keypads. The AH188x devices operate from 1.65 to 3V making them well suited for single cell battery applications.

"The AH188x series builds on the success of our AH1884 that was released in June and demonstrates the company’s ability to work closely with OEMs to develop application-specific devices in support of their market growth opportunities," stated Mark King, Diodes, Inc.’s Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing. "This product family exemplifies our commitment to develop products for high-growth markets, which we fully expect to leverage in order to rapidly grow market share and forge long-term partnerships with top-tier OEMs."

Other features include chopper-stabilized, high-sensitivity thresholds, superior temperature stability and insensitivity to physical stresses. The AH188x series supports an industrial temperature range of -40 to +85°C and is packaged in an SOT-553, which is fully compliant to RoHS standards including green molding compound.