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[December 2008]
Innovate and CoorsTek Announce Advanced Oxygen & Nox Sensor Manufacturing Agreement
Innovate! Technology (Irvine, CA, USA) and CoorsTek have announced an agreement to produce next-generation wideband oxygen and NOx sensors. The agreement combines Innovate’s DirectDigital™ sensor technology with CoorsTek’s global high-volume manufacturing capacity.
“We’re enthusiastic about partnering with CoorsTek for this next critical stage in the commercialisation of DirectDigital™ sensing technology,” stated Patrick Thompson, Innovate’s President. “CoorsTek’s significant expertise and manufacturing scale in technical ceramics is a perfect fit for our signal-processing and ASIC capabilities.”
Under the agreement, CoorsTek will produce the high temperature co-fired ceramic (HTCC) elements that are at the heart of the sensors, while Innovate will produce the application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that provide the sensor control and signal conditioning functions. Final packaging and test will be performed by external contract manufacturers certified to ISO/TS16949:2002 standards.
Initial production will be used to serve the performance aftermarket, in which Innovate is a leader under its ‘Innovate Motorsports’ brand, offering air/fuel ratio meters, gauges and data loggers.
“This agreement provides us with a clear path to expand our emissions-sensing product portfolio,” explained Doug Coors, VP of CoorsTek. “Using Innovate’s considerable aftermarket demand as an entry platform, we look forward to serving the growing global OEM markets for smart engine controls, enabling cleaner and more efficient combustion systems for the future.”
Advantages of the Innovate/CoorsTek sensors are expected to include superior sensor response times, enabling individual-cylinder measurements with a single sensor; self diagnostics; and self-calibration capabilities which compensate for sensor aging and/or changes in barometric pressure. Other advantages include sealed designs which require no reference air and thus can function in off-road or road or in other environments that include dirt, grease or other contaminants. Finally, due to certain advances in materials and fabrication, the sensor is anticipated to be offered below the cost of existing emissions sensors.
“Automakers worldwide are looking to expand adoption of smart exhaust sensors,” said Patrick Thompson. “With Direct Digital™ and our partnership with CoorsTek, we believe that Innovate can deliver performance and intelligence at a low cost, dramatically changing the sensor/emissions market. Also, emerging markets like China and India want to leapfrog directly to the smartest electronics available, so we think there are plenty of opportunities.”
www.innovate-tech.com
www.coorstek.com
ENDS