Swiss electronics company ST Microelectronics has introduced miniature motion sensors for use in consumer devices such as fitness trackers and smart tags and professional applications such as industrial asset monitors, robots and drones.

The six-axis sensors, or inertial measurement units (IMUs), are part of the firm’s sustainable technology initiative that drives responsible product development.

Sensors that support event reconstruction let smart applications distinguish between different types of incidents, enhancing capabilities such as accident alerting, tool-use monitoring, robot teaching, sports-performance analysis and concussion detection. The consumer-oriented LSM6DSK320X and industrial-grade ISM6HGK256X achieve this with a super-symmetric gyroscope architecture that increases sensing precision, combined with precise accelerometer tracking across a wide dynamic range. These capabilities also enhance use cases such as drone-flight stabilisation, structural-condition monitoring and game controllers.

“By maximising the signal strength and resilience in an extremely compact form factor, the architecture of our latest six-axis motion sensors will drive powerful new features in smart applications,” said Simone Ferri, executive vice president at ST Microelectronics (www.st.com). “Moreover, meeting today’s leading sustainable-materials codes such as BPA-free, Pb-free and others helps smart-tech innovators address environmental and regulatory expectations as these become progressively tougher, encompassing additional classes of materials.”

The super-symmetric architecture comprises two mirrored electromechanical structures, acting in counter-phase to each other, thereby cancelling the effects of external vibrations and shocks. Combined with a fully differential signal chain, this structure increases detected-signal strength and resilience.

The internal structure is also extremely compact, enabling each IMU to contain one gyroscope with two separate accelerometers in a single package. The dual accelerometers allow simultaneous measurement of low-range disturbances up to ±16g and high-g events up to ±320g, ensuring these IMUs never miss an event. This contrasts with single-accelerometer IMUs that cannot perform measurements while switching between low-range and high-range modes.

The consumer-oriented LSM6DSK320X and industrial-grade ISM6HGK256X also contain STM’s MLC machine-learning corethat embeds AI processing directly in the sensor to reduce the application’s energy consumption and save resources.

Developers can leverage extra libraries including STM’s Motion XLF, and sensor-fusion and context-awareness software, in addition to basic libraries, that enhance power and flexibility to address diverse applications.

The IMUs are supported within the STM MEMS Studio development environment. The Steval-MKI257A adapter board for the LSM6DSK320X and Steval-MKI258KA adapter board for the ISM6HGK256X will be available in the eSTore and from distributors by November 2026.

The LSM6DSK320X (www.st.com/en/mems-and-sensors/lsm6dsk320x.html) for consumer applications operates over a temperature from -40 to +85˚C. The industrial-grade ISM6HGK256X (www.st.com/en/mems-and-sensors/ism6hgk256x.html) handles temperatures from -40 to +105˚C and is included in STM’s ten-year longevity programme that assures long-term component availability. The IMUs come in 2.5 by 3 by 0.83mm packages.