Agilent Technologies introduced a new optical mouse sensor that is optimized for battery operation, offering computer users months of operation from AA batteries. The Agilent ADNS-2030 features Agilent's smoothest, fastest and highest precision navigation control, making it ideal for cordless mice for workstations, PCs and notebook computers.

"Agilent's precision cordless optical mouse sensor is a breakthrough for desktop computer and notebook users," said Jason Hartlove, manager of Agilent's Imaging and Navigation Business Unit. "Mouse manufacturers can now offer consumers performance equivalent to the best corded mice with the convenience of cordless operation."

Agilent pioneered position sensing for mouse technology and supplies these products to all major optical mouse manufacturers worldwide. Optical mouse sensor technology works by taking thousands of digital pictures per second with a resolution of up to 800 counts per inch (CPI) to determine the movement of the on-screen cursor. Optical mice eliminate the need for a mouse pad and offer more precise pointing and movement than mechanical mice. And because optical mice have no ball or cavity, no cleaning is necessary, making them more reliable and longer lasting.

The Agilent ADNS-2030 optical mouse sensor offers flexibility to the designer of optical mice, with frame rates from 500 to 2300 frames per second (a faster frame rate is desirable for mice used to play computer games), 400 or 800 count-per-inch resolution, and speeds up to 14 inches per second. It provides automatic power conservation during periods when the mouse is not moved, and controlled drive for the light-emitting diode (LED) light source. It operates on a single power supply (3.3 V typical, 3.6 V maximum) and features on-chip LED drive and power conservation mode during times of no movement.

The ADNS-2030 contains an image acquisition system (IAS), a digital signal processor (DSP), a two-channel quadrature output, and a two wire serial port. The ADNS-2030 is designed to be used with the Agilent HDNS-2100 lens and HDNS-2200 clip with HLMP-ED80 light emitting diode (LED). Together, these parts combine to form a complete, compact mouse sensor solution.

Agilent Technologies, Inc.,
Web: http://www.agilent.com
Tel: 800-235-0312

More information about Agilent's optical mouse sensors is available.

The ADNS-2030 is the latest optical navigational sensor from Agilent Technologies. It is targeted for low power consumption and specifically wireless devices. It is a descendant to the HDNS 2000, which is currently in the low-end of the retail and OEM space and is bundled with PCs.

The second generation optical sensor is the ADNS 2051 that has improved surface tracking performance. The ADNS-2030 has the same benefits of the improved tracking of the 2051 and also has low power consumption features. The 2030 operates at 3.3V instead of the 5V required by the 2051, which is standard for USB and PS2 interface products.

Agilent decided to support both the Quadrature and SPI outputs so the sensor interfaces directly to low power microcontrollers, which are responsible for the radio protocols for a cordless device. The quadrature output is an older version that mimics the output you get from a traditional encoder pair in a ball-type mouse. Agilent understands the market and didn't leave customers stranded who have these older designs. They kept the quadrature interface because many low-cost microcontrollers already have it built-in. That makes it easy for customers to just drop the 2030 into their existing designs, without developing a new serial port interface. SPI is a two-wire serial port interface that has the capability to program a part on the fly.

The frame rate on the 2030 is programmable, and that allows you to run the part at a lower frame rate, to conserve power. There are advanced power management and diagnostic features built into the product. It has a regulated current source for the LED, which improves the overall power efficiency of the system.

Agilent's 3.3V 2030 has all the same features that it provides for the 5V 2051, except that it uses less power. The 2030 probably has many months of life on one set of double A batteries in a typical use environment. And that is a direct result of the power saving designs that Agilent incorporated into the product. For example, the 2030 has power consumption during power-down mode of only 4 microAmps. That spec is important because the power-down mode is the state a mouse is in most of the time, and therefore it's where most of the power is consumed.

Power consumption is not a problem for the corded type mouse, for which Agilent provides the ADNS-2051, a 5V chip that meets the PS2 and USB requirements. It has a typical in-motion power consumption of 15mA, which translates to about 75mW power consumption in the moving mode. Alternatively, the new 2030 runs on batteries using 3.3V with 13mA and has an in-motion power consumption of about 43mW. This calculates to a 43% savings. That savings is even higher in the sleep mode. The 2051 uses about 850 microWatts in the sleep mode compared to about 13 microWatts for the 2030 in the sleep mode. Just how much power does the 2030 save compared to the 2051? Here's some simple power calculations:

When the mouse is moving:

• ADNS-2051 = 5V x 15mA = 75mW
• ADNS-2030 = 3.3V x 13mA = 42.9mW

Although the 2030 sensor chip can save power compared to the 2051, it is important to realize that the optical sensor is not the only source of power consumption in the wireless mouse - the RF link also consumes power. Depending on the manufacturers implementation, they may choose to have that RF link on the receiver, between the host and the mouse, wake up every 100 ms once the mouse has indicated that it has gone to sleep in order to further save power. Rather than there be constant communication between the mouse and the host, the manufacturer might want the host to poll the mouse every 100 ms or as often as every 10 ms to see if there is anything happening. It's a system level tradeoff of polling frequency versus power used/saved.

Agilent offers the optical sensor chip with a power-down pin, because it allows a signal to come from the mouse manufacturer's microcontroller and go directly to the 2030 sensor, which makes power management much easier to implement. The company learned from earlier versions such as their HDNS-2000, which didn't have a power-down pin. To completely set the power to off or power down the HDNS-2000, the manufacturer needed a separate GPIO that disconnected the power from the supply line.

If all this sounds good and you want to put a wireless mouse on your laptop, which is a couple years old, then you will need to purchase a separate receiver that plugs into your USB or PS2 port and enables it to communicate with the wireless optical sensor mouse. However, in the near future laptops will have a Bluetooth receiver built into them

As with all Agilent optical navigation components they sell a complete navigation solution. They provide an LED that is required for illumination, a lens that focuses the light from the LED onto the surface, and then images the surface back onto the sensor, and a clip that mates and aligns the LED, sensor and lens together to assure alignment.

The Agilent ADNS-2030 optical mouse sensor is available now in production volumes. It is priced at less than $5 in high-volume quantities. The ADNS-2030 is delivered in a 16-pin staggered DIP (dual inline package). The combination of the HDNS-2100 lens and HDNS-2200 clip with the HLMP-ED80 LED is priced at $0.56 in high-volume quantities.

Agilent ADNS-2030 Low Power Optical Mouse Sensor Data Sheet

Agilent ADNS-2030 Optical Mouse Sensor Product Brief