Indoor air monitoring, you must understand the evolution of VOC sensors

Today, people are paying more and more attention to the quality of the surrounding air. This concern extends from the outdoor macroscopic air quality to the air quality in the indoor micro-environment. In assessing indoor air quality, there is an important indicator of VOC, VolaTele Organic Compounds. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines VOC as any carbon-containing compound involved in photochemical reactions in the atmosphere, other than carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, carbonic acid, metal carbides, carbonates, and ammonium carbonate. Baidu Encyclopedia's description of VOC is: "The form that can evaporate at room temperature exists in the air. Its toxicity, irritancy, carcinogenicity and special odor can affect the skin and mucous membranes, causing acute damage to the human body... An important class of air pollutants."

Therefore, the more people know about VOC, the more "stressed" it is. It is foreseeable that in the future indoor air quality assessment, there will be more and more demand for VOC monitoring. This will undoubtedly bring more market opportunities to VOC sensors.

However, similar to other IoT applications, the market demand for indoor air quality monitoring is also characterized by fragmentation and diversification. How to evolve a competitive product according to the needs and changes of the market environment is a must-answer for sensor manufacturers. Today we may wish to understand the "evolution theory" of VOC sensors by analyzing the product layout of the AMS VOC sensor.

To be a market leader in today's market, there are several basic conditions: good performance, small size, and low power consumption. Ams' classic CCS801 is one such device: it can sense a wide range of VOC gases and provide PPB-level accuracy; it is available in a 2 x 3 mm DFN package with a small footprint; with an optimized low-power mode, Power saving, can be used for portable devices; using a special process, the service life can reach 5 years; provide software drivers/algorithms for measuring CO2 and VOC, including relative humidity and temperature compensation, which is convenient for user application development.

This performance allows the CCS801 to meet the needs of many mainstream indoor air monitoring applications on the market, such as buildings, homes and even wearables.

CCS801 application block diagram

Of course, as mentioned earlier, the idea of ​​relying on one device to “take all” in the IoT market is unrealistic. A trend in the indoor air monitoring market is to penetrate from the industrial and private markets to the consumer market; in the consumer electronics market, cost is a priority. To this end, ams launched a low-cost CCS811 to deal with, let the classic design "popular".

Compared with the CCS801, the CCS811 inherits many of its advantages, such as excellent sensing range and accuracy, special processes that support up to five years of life, and more. The biggest difference between the two is that the CCS811 is a digital VOC sensor with an integrated MCU that can directly manage the drive and measurement of the sensor and communicate with the outside via an I2C interface. Despite the integration of more features, the CCS811 maintains a fairly "slim" body, with a 2.7 x 4.0mm LGA package, which saves PCB area by 60% and saves BOM costs. At the same time, since the corresponding algorithms are also integrated internally, the development of the terminal products is also simplified, further reducing the overall cost. Presumably, consumer users will see the performance list of the CCS811 below, which will be very tempting.

Wide range of VOC sensing ranges

Built-in MCU to manage sensor drive mode and measure and display IAQ values ​​without external host MCU intervention

Includes RH+T compensation

Standard I2C digital interface for communication with external data

Integrate related algorithms to reduce development cycles

Small size in a small 2.7 x 4.0mm LGA package

High integration, reducing the number of system BOMs

Low power consumption for battery-powered portable applications

Suitable for high volume, high reliability applications with a life span of 5 years

CCS811 digital VOC sensor application block diagram

CCS811 evaluation development board

While covering the consumer market through CCS811, ams is also preparing for the high-end and high-reliability application market, which is IAQ Core. Like the CCS811, the IAQ Core is also an integrated MCU and related algorithm digital sensor, but it is unique in performance, it can be said to bring its own "high energy." These features will undoubtedly add points to the IAQ Core in high-performance applications.

High reliability: The IAQ Core is protected by a plastic cap and filter membrane. It is waterproof and dustproof and suitable for operation in complex environments.

High sensitivity: IAQ Core has high sensitivity, short response time and is more "sensitive" to VOC.

High stability: IAQ Core in the same test environment, the test results of different sensors are more consistent.

Long life: Since the IAQ Core uses a MEMS process, the product has a longer life span of up to 10 years.

IAQ Core performance characteristics

CCS811 and IAQ Core performance comparison

As an "old" agent who has been working with ams for seven years, Excelpoint is very optimistic and fully promotes ams IAQ Core, CCS811 and CCS801. Chen Jian, director of product marketing department of Shijian Company, pointed out: “People are more and more concerned about indoor air quality and ensure that they and their families can live in a safe environment. VOC sensors have superior energy-saving features and reduce energy for building new wind market. It consumes more than 60%. Whether it is the classic CCS801, CCS801, which is a low-cost popular application, or the high-performance IAQ Core, their common design concept is to refine the product line and become indoors from the actual application and user needs. Mr. Right in the air monitoring market."

Shijian System (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. is a subsidiary of Singapore Shijian Technology Co., Ltd. and enjoys a leading position in the Chinese industry. As a leading distributor of electronic components in the Asia Pacific region, Shijian Technology Co., Ltd. can provide quality products to Asian electronics manufacturers, including original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), original design manufacturers (ODMs) and electronic manufacturing service providers (EMS). Components, engineering design and supply chain management services.

Shijian works closely with suppliers and electronics manufacturers to position new technologies and trends and help customers incorporate these state-of-the-art technologies into their products. The Group has three R&D centers, and a dedicated R&D team is constantly creating new solutions to help customers increase cost efficiency and reduce time-to-market. Innovative solutions developed by Shijian can be used in industrial, wireless communications and consumer electronics.

Founded in Singapore in 1987, Shijian is a Singapore-listed company with over 600 employees in more than 25 cities in the Asia Pacific region. Shijian began to develop its business in China in 1993. The headquarters in China is located in Hong Kong and has 11 branches and offices, 2 R&D centers and 2 logistics centers in various cities in China.

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