Sensor hub chip, a trending component in latest smart phone design

Sensor hubs, dedicated processing elements used for low-power sensor processing tasks, is booming, according to the latest market research by IHS. IHS reports the overall market for all types of sensor hubs exceeded 1.0 billion units in 2015, rising to nearly 2.0 billion in 2018. Samsung, Apple and Motorola have started the trend of using this device in their smart phones. “The sensor hub market is incredibly dynamic, changing rapidly over the last two years, due in large part to Apple’s iPhones,” said Marwan Boustany, senior analyst for IHS Technology. “When Apple shifted from a discrete microcontroller to an integrated application-processor-based solution for the iPhone 6S line in 2015, it signaled to other manufacturers that this approach had reached maturity.” IHS says sensor hubs for high-end smartphones are changing rapidly from discrete microcontrollers (MCUs) used in the iPhone 6, Samsung Galaxy S6, and other high-end smartphones, to sensor hubs that are integrated into the application processor (AP), as in the iPhone 6S and Huawei Mate S. “AP-sensor hubs will increasingly dominate the midrange to high-end smartphone segments in the next few years,” Boustany said. “Samsung is also testing alternative approaches to sensor hubs using a Global-Navigation-Satellite-System-integrated sensor hub from Broadcom in its Note 4 and S6 smartphones. We also expect to se...