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Jul 13, 2020

Alps Alpine Develops and Commences Mass Production of HSFPAR007A Force Sensor
Alps Alpine Develops and Commences Mass Production of HSFPAR007A Force Sensor

Alps Alpine Develops and Commences Mass Production of HSFPAR007A Force Sensor Photo

 

Alps Alpine Develops and Commences Mass Production of HSFPAR007A Force Sensor Enlarged Photo

Munich, Germany, July 13, 2020 – Alps Alpine Co., Ltd., (Tokyo: 6770; President & CEO: Toshihiro Kuriyama) has added a new model to its HSFPAR Series of force sensors. Mass production of the HSFPAR007A Force Sensor, Alps Alpine’s smallest, began in June 2020.

Smartphones, in-vehicle controls, reservation and ticketing machines in public facilities…devices using touch input are increasingly commonplace. It was against that backdrop last year when a foldable smartphone appeared, captivating the market with the new added value of merging a tablet PC and smartphone. A number of manufacturers followed suit, developing their own models. Conventional smartphones underwent their own advancements in technology for full-screen displays, including punch-hole1 and notch-less2 designs. Evolution of larger displays and touch input is expected to continue.

Bigger displays lead, for example, to the emergence of many new drawing applications for smartphones and the use of stylus pens, allowing more detailed and diverse input, continues to rise, complementing the conventional input method of directly touching the display with fingers.

In March 2019, Alps Alpine developed and commenced mass production of the HSFPAR004A Force Sensor, which fits into the tip of a stylus pen for tablet PCs to enable accurate reproduction of drawing thickness corresponding to the pressure applied. Achieving high sensitivity, high resolution and high linearity, as well as outstanding impact resistance, the HSFPAR004A Force Sensor has been well received by many customers.

Now Alps Alpine has developed the HSFPAR007A Force Sensor, with a footprint of only 40% of the HSFPAR004A while retaining the basic performance capabilities of the earlier product. Mass production got underway in June 2020. The new product is small enough to fit in the slimmer stylus pens used for smartphones, both enhancing flexibility in design by device manufacturers and helping to improve user-friendliness of smartphone drawing applications, for example.

The HSFPAR007A Force Sensor detects stress as light as zero stroke (0.01N), enabling applications in robot arms and other parts of industrial equipment handling precision devices. The product has a wide range of potential uses as a sensor for detecting force along the Z axis. For example, it can be embedded beneath a touch panel or capacitive sensor to detect force applied to the operating surface and even ascertain whether an input operation was intentional or a mistake.


*1 A display with a punched-out hole, such as for a front camera
*2 A display the frame narrowed down right to the edge in all four directions

Comparison with Earlier Product

Alps Alpine Develops and Commences Mass Production of HSFPAR007A Force Sensor

Usage Example

Alps Alpine Develops and Commences Mass Production of HSFPAR007A Force Sensor

Drawing Examples Corresponding to Pen Pressure and Sensor Linearity

Alps Alpine Develops and Commences Mass Production of HSFPAR007A Force Sensor

Features

Alps Alpine’s smallest force sensor achieving high resolution, high linearity and outstanding impact resistance

  1. Footprint 40% of earlier product, realized through ongoing size reduction efforts
  2. High sensitivity and high linearity (2% FS)
  3. Long operating life of 1 million cycles
  4. Detects stress as light as zero stroke (0.01N)
  5. Outstanding impact resistance achieved with a load-distributing design
  6. Structure unaffected by external magnetic or electric fields

Principal Applications

Stylus pens and other input devices

Pressure application adjustment for gripping by robot arms

Various industrial equipment


Specifications

Model HSFPAR007A
Dimensions (W×D×H) 1.50 × 0.85 × 0.68mm
Force range 8N
Supply voltage 1.5 – 3.6V
Sensitivity 2.5 mV/V/N
Linearity 2% FS (FS = full scale)
Operating life 1 million cycles (@ 8N)
Max. load rating 55N

Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.

  On January 1, 2019, Alps Electric Co., Ltd. and Alpine Electronics, Inc. integrated their businesses and started out afresh as Alps Alpine Co., Ltd with 42,289 employees. Alps Alpine will steadily bring about synergies by drawing on the two companies' advantages in core devices, system design and software development.
The new company will endeavour to create its own unique value for not only the automotive market, but also mobile devices and consumer electronics, as well as new sectors such as energy, healthcare and industry. For more information please visit www.alpsalpine.com


Alps Alpine Europe GmbH

  Alps Alpine Europe GmbH, a subsidiary of Alps Alpine Co., Ltd., was established in 1979. Since 2013 the European Head Office has been located in Munich and as such co-ordinates the Sales, Marketing and Product Engineering activities of our offices in Dusseldorf, Paris, Milton Keynes, Coventry, Gothenburg, Frolunda and Milan, as well as the production activities of our manufacturing site in Dortmund. Alps Electric Europe GmbH changed its name on 01.04.2020 to Alps Alpine Europe GmbH.