Heimann Sensor News

Visit us at the Boston Electronics Booth 612 from 21 April– 25 April 2024

Visit us at the Boston Electronics Booth 3501 from 30 January – 01 February 2024

The entire Heimann Sensor Team wishes you a joyeus Christmas season and wants to thank you for your partnership with this funny infrared array movie.

Heimann Sensor is happy to participate in the 24th China International Optoelectronic Exhibition which takes place 6-8 September 2023 in Shenzhen Bao'an International and Exhibition Center. We would be glad to get in contact with you at our Heimann Sensor Booth No 8C93 - in cooperation with Shenzhen Longxiang Technology Co, Ltd.

Heimann Sensor now offers a brandnew thermopile array HTPA32x32d with the lens 1.7 which enables a ultrawide field of view of up to 120x120 degrees.

The research project FLEMING, funded with 3.3 million Euro by the German Federal BMWK Ministry (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz) has now come to a successful completion. The project developed flexible monitoring and automated control systems for the energy and mobility transition the society will face in the next couple of years. The project, which began in 2019, investigated how improved sensor technology in combination with AI can help to improve the reliability and resilience of power distribution grids. As such, it provides an important puzzle piece to further extend the needed infrastructure for future mobility. There is a need for a good prediction and monitoring of the actual temperatures within the switching components of the distribution grid. This requirement is mainly caused by the rapid increase of the numbers of electric cars, which are predominantly recharged in the after-work hours. The temperature monitoring can easily be realized by using low-cost infrared cameras, covering a large area within the switching gear. Infrared cameras are able to provide many more measuring points than any contact measurement method. Additionally, the collected information can be used to discover faulty areas within the switchgear and therefore help to predict failures. Heimann Sensor participated in this project and developed long-term stable thermopile arrays with lifetimes exceeding those of the components used in the power distribution grid. Heimann Sensor improved the lifetime of these sensors by a factor of five, using a new sealing technique. The achieved lifetimes are between approximate 30 to 50 years. The prototypes developed in this project have an adapted field of view, which fits best to the interior of the switching gear. They provide 32x32 single measurement spots (pixels) which all provide radiometric data. Additionally, Heimann sensor developed methods to detect and compensate for possible contamination and dirt. The thermopile array consumes merely <20mW at 10 FPS, with an idle mode provided for even lower power consumption. Communication with the sensor is via a sophisticated I²C interface. The sensor itself comes directly with calibration data stored on the internal EEPROM of the device. This makes integration in embedded systems or edge computing solutions fast and straightforward.

Meet us in Hall 1, booth 1-519!

Watch our New Animal Videos taken with different Infrared Array Lenses

The possible uses of Heimann Sensor's infrared sensors, arrays and gas sensors are diverse: from medical applications such as fever measurement and capnography (measurement of the carbon dioxide content in a patient's exhaled air) to private areas such as ambient assisted living and temperature regulation of electrical appliances in the kitchen and bathroom to industrial applications in process control, the automotive industry or in the smartphone sector. Due to the large increase in energy and raw material prices this year, entrepreneurs and private individuals have an even greater interest in saving electricity and heating costs. Heimann Sensor's infrared arrays, used in home automation systems, heating devices and air conditioning systems, enable a tageted use of cooling and heating capacitythanks to infrared presence detection, and thus make an excellent contribution to reducing costs. New arrays with a higher number of pixels (60x40, 84x60, 120x84) expand the possible uses for public spaces and for greater distances or room heights.

Meet us at the Sensor Conference on 28.09.2022.

After two years of a forced break caused by Corona, we are very happy that we will again be exhibiting at one of the leading trade fairs concerning sensors, measuring and testing technology. The Sensor + Test trade show will take place 10 th – 12 th May in the Nuremberg Exhibition Centre (Germany) and we will be happy to welcome you at our Heimann Sensor Stand 504 in Hall 1.

At the time we made our first Application Sets that allow quick evaluation of array sensors and ease development efforts, the sets needed a power supply unit connected to a wall socket. This made it diffictul to use our sensor in various testing environments like outdoors or in places with no available sockets. The subsequent generation was already able to supply power over USB with Ethernet communication. Hence, just a notebook was needed and more flexibility guaranteed. Nevertheless, connecting two cables could result in messy setups. That is why we launched a new USB Application Set with power AND communcation provided with just one USB cable. For the next step of development, our aim was to create a set without cables to make the SDK a versatile tool for development and sensor evaluation. This became possible through the emerge of new ESP32-DEVKITC-32D boards with WiFi connectivity which are available - seperately - on a budget (<10 USD: https://www.digikey.de/en/products/detail/espressif-systems/ESP32-DEVKITC-32D/9356990). Hand in hand with our new Application Shield and corresponding source code, it is possible to connect ALL array sensors WIRELESS to our ArraySoft v2 GUI and show realtime thermal images. From 8x8, 16x16, 32x32, 60x40, 80x64, 84x60 and 120x84 to all future generations this will be possible with just one add-on board. If you are interested in this new Application Shield , just send a message to sales@heimannsensor.com .

The well-known economic platform Wirtschaftsforum.de asked our CEO Dr. Jörg Schieferdecker for an interview. Find the resulting article online or click here.

Learn about thermal thermopile infrared array sensors at the IBS Event 2021.

We are looking for a sales partner in Brazil and you might be the person and company we are searching for! If you are interested in promoting and selling Heimann Sensor products for the Brazilian market and provide the best customer experience to help customers make successful products, then we would love to get in contact with you and your company. Let's grow together in the rising Indian market and explore the many opportunities together!

With the measurement spot calculator it is easy to determine the area that is seen with a certain thermopile infrared array sensor. Just select pixel count, lens and measurement distance and see if the sensor can be used for your application. This tool will enable you to make educated decisions which sensor will be a good option in terms of field of view and spatial resolution.

We are proud to announce to our German speaking customers, that we are on the cover of the current issue of "Sensormagazin". If you like to learn more about it, please visit: http://www.sensormagazin.de/dateien/titelbild.html

Visit us on this year's Sensor+Test fair, which will take place online this year. From 4th to 6th May, you can easily get in contact with one of our technical experts and ask anything about thermopile sensors, infrared arrays and thermopile modules as well as pyroelectric and vacuum sensors. Click her e to directly access the exhibitor's list and search for "Heimann" to visit our virtual exhibition stand.

We are looking for new sales partners in India and you might be the person and company we are searching for! If you are interested in promoting and selling Heimann Sensor products for the Indian market and provide the best customer experience to help customers make successful products, then we would love to get in contact with you and your company. Let's grow together in the rising Indian market and explore the many oppurtunities together!

Heimann Sensor is the world technology leader in infrared thermopile arrays for person detection and thermal imaging. Thermopile arrays can be used without any shutter or external cooling, which means they are low power, low maintenance and low cost products. Heimann Sensor offers the full range of thermopile arrays starting from small to medium to large sized arrays. Our smallest 8x8 arrays fit inside a TO-46 housing and can be used for example for non-contact body temperature measurements from distances of 30cm to 1m. Our medium sized arrays with 16x16 and 32x32 thermoelectric elements fit well inside a TO-39 housing and are best for low resolution thermal imaging applications like person detection and counting for intelligent HVAC, burglar alarms or hot spot detection in household applications like stove top monitoring. Our largest sensor so far was the 80x64 array inside a TO-8 housing, available with all kinds of different optics with an ultra-wide field of view of 120x90 degree and a narrow field of view of 12x9 degree for far distances. This sensor has a 6 pin SPI interface for fast data transmission which allows framerates of 30 Hz and more. Our latest development is an even higher resolution thermopile array with 120x84 elements. The beauty of this new array is the reduced pixel pitch, which is now 60 µm instead of 90 µm. This results in similar focal plane dimensions for both the 80x64 and 120x84 array. Thanks to same TO-8 housing and 6 pin SPI interface this facilitates a drop-in solution to replace the 80x64 with the 120x84 array. If you are already using the 80x64 array, you can just replace it with the 120x84 array to have better resolution while everything else remains unchanged. First prototypes are already available and the results are very promising as you can see on the following images:

Heimann Sensor is proud to present the new SMD type dual channel thermopile sensor designed for NDIR gas analysis. We are the market leader in thermopile arrays and sensors. With our patented thermopile technology, we produce very fast thermopiles and fully monolithic thermopile arrays with high signal and high specific detectivity. Now, we are able to integrate two thermopile chips including integrated circuits for signal conditioning and temperature reference into a small 5x5mm² SMD ceramic package. Two optical filters, one for each channel, complete the dual channel SMD thermopile sensor.

In the current worldwide COVID-19 crisis, HEIMANN Sensor has become one of the key players in fighting the spread of the quickly developing pandemic by manufacturing sensors and sensor modules that are used in fever thermometers or temperature screening systems. Not only hospitals, medical practices and pharmacies increasingly use non-contact, infrared thermometers for indicating potential Corona patients. Even in more and more companies and public areas around the world, handheld portable thermometers become the tool of choice for detecting elevated body temperature. Temperature screening systems, which are permanently installed at entrances of airports, companies, public buildings, schools or other institutions, can automatically detect elevated body temperatures from greater distances. In all these tools, HEIMANN Sensor products like the HMS M21 for contactless thermometers or HTPA32x32 and HTPA 80x64 for elevated body temperature screening systems provide the centerpiece. On top, HEIMANN Sensor is one of the very few producers of special, fast reacting CO2 gas sensors, which are installed in capnography devices, incubators and respiratory equipment. As a small percentage of coronavirus patients develop severe health issues including acute respiratory illnesses, their survival depends on the continuous monitoring of their lung function in intensive care stations. Hence, HEIMANN’s production of gas sensors has become crucial in the worldwide health care. Consequently, the demand for HEIMANN Sensor products has increased exponentially during the past few weeks. While it was already challenging to meet the growing demand in the beginning of 2020, the near shut-down of the economy in Malaysia mid-March, where two of the main assembly lines of HEIMANN Sensor are located, were dramatic. After proofing systemic importance to the Malaysian government, HEIMANN Sensor was granted special permission for reopening part of the assembly line. Still, HEIMANN Sensor keeps fighting for the complete reutilisation and expansion of its capacities in its main assembly lines. HEIMANN Sensor and its employees have long ago recognized that their input and supply of sensor and sensor modules in the current worldwide Corona crisis has outreached economic benefits, but play a significant role in the global containment of COVID-19 and the lifesaving of patients.

In the past months we have taken multiple actions to increase our production output and overall capacity, while still maintaining a high product quality. The challenges we faced in this time were manifold. They included material shortages due to Corona induced closure of suppliers starting in China and then affecting many countries all over the world. We faced quality issues in raw materials, that immediately impacted our production output and long lead times of new production machines that did not allow us to ramp up production as fast as required by our customers. With the ongoing spread of the virus in more and more countries, Malaysia faced an increasing numbers of Corona cases which which led to a closing down of all companies not classified as systemically relevant by the Malaysian government . Unfortunately, we were included in this lockdown initiated by the Malaysian Movement Control Order (MCO). We were able to obtain an exemption permission after two weeks to resume production under strict conditions. The regulations included reduced manpower, access control, sanitary precautions and social distancing, which could only be achieved by rearranging our production lines. With the remaining staff, we continued production on a low level to keep up the supply of thermopile sensors. On June 1, we were allowed to start hiring new staff, which was the first major progress to increased sensor production. Since July 1, our Operations Manager, who lives in Singapore, is allowed to enter the country again. After a quarantine of two weeks, he was allowed to enter our production building on July 15th for the first time in four months of lockdown. Meanwhile, the situation in many countries seemed to have settled a little. After we have been able to overcome the biggest challenges our target is to double the weekly sensor production compared to 2019 by the end of this year.

Many companies in Germany had to announce short-time work during Corona, dismiss employees and some are on the verge of insolvency. Since we are lucky to produce infrared sensors, which are urgently needed during the pandemic for contactless clinical thermometers and respirators, Heimann Sensor was able to increase its production strongly in the past months and offer new chances to many people. These now include 10 Syrian employees who fled from the war in 2015 and came to Germany. Wael Kiji, who has been working with us since 2015 together with his wife, helped us to find 8 more committed employees in a short time, who also came with him to Germany in 2015. T  hank you very much for your daily commitment, which helps to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic!