Bosch has introduced a four-in-one mems sensor that measures air pressure, humidity and temperature, aa well as detecting volatile organic compounds, volatile sulfur compounds (indicating bacteria), carbon monoxide and hydrogen, amongst other gasses.

Bosch BME690 air quality sensor
Called BME690, the “sensor can be used for breath analysis and to reduce food waste through early spoilage detection”, said distributor Mouser, which is stocking the part. “BME690 is an advanced version of BME688 and BME680, optimised for use with high levels of condensation – a simple drop-in upgrade, maintaining pin compatibility and with the same 3 x 3 x 0.93mm dimensions.”

The gas analysing detector is backed by an AI algorithm. Its outputs can include ‘index for air quality’ (IAQ), biogenic volatile organic compounds (bVOCs) or CO2-equivalence in ppm.

“The air quality sensor is aligned with Well and Reset standards for indoor air quality,” said Mouser. “AI features powered by Bosch Sensortec’s BME AI-Studio software tool enable developers to train the sensor on their specific application.”

Hardware support comes from the ‘BME690 shuttle board’ which has to be used with Bosch’s ‘Application board 3.x’.

The sensor is intended to be used with a specific API and software called BSEC (Bosch software environmental cluster) which includes the indoor air quality algorithm and other algorithms to compensate for humidity and sensor drift.

“In standard configuration,” said Bosch, “the presence of VSCs [volatile sulphur compounds] is being detected as indicator for bacteria growth, for example. “The gas scanner can be customised with respect to sensitivity, selectivity, data rate and power consumption as well.”

Power consumption is generally a few mA or sub-mA, and applications are foreseen in wearables, smart home appliances and card devices.