Motion sensing sits inside everything from wearables and wireless earbuds to drones, smart home appliances and industrial equipment. As these products become more widespread and longer-lasting, design teams must consider not only performance, power and reliability but also the materials inside each component. For STMicroelectronics, this is part of a broader responsible design approach, with sustainability considerations integrated from the start and not only in response to changing regulations. STMicroelectronics is addressing this need with new motion MEMS sensors designed free of lead and BPA, helping customers make more informed material choices while maintaining the sensing performance their applications require.
Why material restrictions now shape sensor selection
Material regulation is one of the factors shaping electronic design. RoHS restricts lead and other substances in electronic equipment, while REACH governs the use of chemicals across the European Union. These frameworks continue to evolve, and revisions can affect components that are already designed into a product.
For design teams, component selection involves more than meeting performance requirements. Sensors are often designed into products for many years, making material compliance an important consideration alongside functionality, reliability and product support. Selecting components designed with material compliance in mind can help simplify qualification, documentation and product stewardship over time.
Lead- and BPA-free motion sensing, designed for performance
STMicroelectronics has developed motion MEMS products designed fully free of lead and BPA, the most recent are LSM6DSK320X and ISM6HGK256X, reflecting its ongoing efforts to integrate sustainability considerations into product design. The change happens at the component level, where the materials and process chemistry have been reworked so these substances are no longer part of the device.
Removing lead and BPA supports material-compliance and eco-design objectives. It also forms part of ST’s broader Sustainable Technology approach, demonstrating how sustainability can be addressed at the component level without compromising performance.
Designed to support sustainability
A sustainable component is only useful if it performs. The principle behind this portfolio is sustainable by design, high performance by default: the shift in material selection does not change the low-power operation, accuracy and robustness that motion applications depend on.
The LSM6DSK320X shows what that means in practice. It is an inertial measurement unit that combines low-g and high-g accelerometers with a gyroscope. It is built on a symmetric architecture for strong vibration immunity and embeds AI features for on-sensor motion tracking. Those characteristics suit demanding cases such as activity and monitoring in wearables, vibration-tolerant operation in drones, and true wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds. The ISM6HGK256X is the industrial version offering 10-year longevity, and a wider temperature range.
Sustainable products, made by increasingly sustainable processes
The environmental footprint of a MEMS sensor depends on both the materials used and the manufacturing processes adopted. A MEMS sensor travels a long path, from sand and silicon ingots to polished wafers, patterned dies and the finished package. Etching is one of the most resource-intensive steps along that path. It uses reactive process gases to define the three-dimensional silicon structures that make a MEMS sensor work, and those gases contribute to the carbon footprint. Improving how MEMS sensors are manufactured can help use energy and materials more efficiently, reduce waste, and lower manufacturing impact while preserving the performance and quality customers expect.
These initiatives support ST’s products labelled Sustainable Technology, flagship responsible products that demonstrate sustainable benefits for people and the environment according to the results of a global process managed at various steps of the product life cycle.
ST continues to work on process-related emissions across its fabrication sites and to evaluate new materials and chemistries. As motion sensing spreads further into IoT and industrial systems, sustainable MEMS sensors can play a growing part in helping those systems meet their own environmental targets. Sustainability works best when it is designed from the start, across both materials and manufacturing. ST’s lead- and BPA-free motion sensors give design teams a way to combine responsible material choices with the performance their applications need.
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