TDK, TI Team on Sensor Module with Built-In Edge AI and Wireless Mesh Connectivity

Jan. 5, 2023

The ultra-compact multi-sensor module, which integrates TI’s CC2652R7 SimpleLink wireless MCU, aids real-time prediction of anomalies in machinery and equipment.

David Maliniak

Related To: Microwaves & RF

Click for more CES 2023 coverage

Among several CES 2023 launches, TDK Corporation is unveiling its TDK i3 Micro Module, claimed as the world’s first module with built-in edge AI and wireless mesh connectivity capability. Through TDK’s collaboration with Texas Instruments (TI), the i3 Micro Module integrates the TI SimpleLink platform, which features the CC2652R7, an Arm Cortex-M4F multiprotocol 2.4-GHz wireless 32-bit microcontroller (MCU) for real-time monitoring.

The new module also integrates TDK’s IIM-42352 high-performance SmartIndustrial MEMS accelerometer and digital output temperature sensor, edge AI, and mesh network functionality into a single unit, facilitating data aggregation, integration, and processing.

The i3 Micro Module’s ultra-compact, battery-powered, wireless sensor enables users to achieve sensing at most any desired position without physical constraints like wiring. This dramatically expedites the prediction of anomalies in machinery and equipment, enabling an ideal condition-based monitoring (CbM) implementation.

Monitoring through real-time visualized empirical equipment data instead of relying on manpower and scheduled maintenance, understanding the health of machinery and equipment to help extend utilization life, and minimizing production downtime by preventing unexpected failures—all contribute to establishing an ideal predictive maintenance system. TDK designed the i3 Micro Module for truly “smart” sensor-node edge implementation aimed at a wide variety of production equipment, empowering the ongoing global evolution toward smart factories.

The i3 Micro Module solution is expected to be available through most global distribution partners by the fourth quarter of 2023. See a demo at TDK’s booth #16181 at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 5-8, 2023, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

Click for more CES 2023 coverage

About the Author

David Maliniak | Executive Editor, Microwaves & RF

I am Executive Editor of Microwaves & RF, an all-digital publication that broadly covers all aspects of wireless communications. More particularly, we're keeping a close eye on technologies in the consumer-oriented 5G, 6G, IoT, M2M, and V2X markets, in which much of the wireless market's growth will occur in this decade and beyond. I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, developers, and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

You can send press releases for new products for possible coverage on the website. I am also interested in receiving contributed articles for publishing on our website. Use our contributor's packet, in which you'll find an article template and lots more useful information on how to properly prepare content for us, and send to me along with a signed release form.

About me:

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy, leaving to rejoin the EOEM B2B publishing world in January 2020. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.