Drones

High-performance sensors for drones, UAVs, & RC hobby

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About

Drones, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and radio controlled (RC) vehicles are dependent on smart sensors for precise control and advanced capabilities. TDK’s high-performance sensors enable smooth movement, responsive control, and reliable automated behaviors even in temperature extremes and noisy environments.

TDK IMUs are integrated into many leading consumer drones, RC planes, and RC cars. Whether your drone or RC vehicle is used for professional image capture or fun, picking the right sensors is a key to delivering capabilities your customers will love.

Accurate sensing for professional & hobbyist drones

Imagine how smooth, reliable control can improve your products
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Most trusted IMUs for drones

Leverage TDK’s long track record of delivering for leading drone and RC companies 

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Lowest noise IMU with high temperature stability

Whether you need dual IMUs, extreme temperature resistance, or pinpoint accuracy, TDK has you covered 

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Highly accurate and responsive sensing

High ODR with short system latency to maximize performance 

Discover what’s possible and build with TDK digital microphones

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Photography & videography

Professional, consumer, social media, and filmmaking 

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Logistics

Package delivery, search & rescue, medical supplies, and disaster relief 

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Agriculture

Precision farming, crop monitoring, and weed removal

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Inspection

Buildings, real estate, insurance, infrastructure, construction projects and security 

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Scientific

Mapping, environmental surveys, geological analysis, and wildlife conservation 

TDK sensors power advanced drones and RC vehicles

What capabilities are most important for your products?

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Smooth movement and navigation

TDK SmartMotion® flight control and gimbal stabilization deliver ultra smooth movement and clear imaging

TDK SmartMotion® flight control and gimbal stabilization deliver ultra smooth movement and clear imaging

  • 6-axis, 9-axis, or even dual IMUs for the most advanced stabilization available for drones
  • Enable amazing photography and videography quality through extreme image stability
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Fine grain control

Leverage TMR for delicate and instantaneous sensing of inputs and outputs

  • Handheld controllers with the fastest, most precise sticks, buttons, and dials to give users confidence
  • Precise control of motors, gimbals, and servos through sensing of movements at the micrometer level 
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Obstacle avoidance

TDK SmartSonic™ ultrasonic time-of-flight technology detects objects within 7M+ in real-time

  • Sense the distance to objects and the terrain type, such as water or grass
  • Ensure smooth flights without collisions 
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Voice and sound capture

TDK SmartSound™ enable clear audio capture in noisy environments

  • Record sound over the noise of propellers, motors, and the surrounding environment
  • Enable smooth voice control through clear audio data capture
  • Noise canceling and beam forming for sound recordings

Product Spotlight

Explore popular sensors for drones, UAVs, and RC

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ICM-40609-D

Designed for Drones

The ICM-40609-D is a 6-axis MEMS MotionTracking™ device that combines a 3-axis gyroscope and a 3-axis accelerometer designed for the drone market. The ICM-40609-D is form factor compatible with our legacy drone devices – making the transition to the latest offering incredibly simple.

The ICM-40609-D takes advantage of a state-of-the-art architecture design that enhances the IMU’s performance and accuracy over temperature, making it the ideal drone solution to control the stability of the platform during long flight times that may experience high temperature shifts.

The ICM-40609-D has a max ODR of 32 KHz, making it the best sampling rate available in a consumer device. The ability to capture data at such a high ODR allows for customers to easily find any anomalies or errors that need to be addressed during flight. The accel Full Scale Range has also been increased to 32g, allowing for substantial linear movement to be easily tracked.

Microchip with TDK logo and "ICM-42688-P" etched onto its surface

ICM-42688-P

High-Precision 6-Axis MEMS MotionTracking® Device

6-Axis High performance IMU supporting highly accurate external clock input, that helps to reduce system level sensitivity error, improve orientation measurement from gyroscope data, reduce ODR sensitivity to temperature and device to device variation. 

Microchip with TDK logo and "ICU-10201" etched onto its surface

ICU-10201

High-Performance Ultrasonic Time‑of‑Flight Sensor

The ICU-10201 is a high-performance ultrasonic Time-of-Flight sensor that is ideal for measuring the range of objects between 10cm and 1.2m, and offers a customizable field-of-view of up to 180º. It has a sample rate of 250 samples per second at 0.3 meters, and 130 samples per second at 1 meter. It comes in a 3.5 × 3.5 × 1.26 mm LGA package, and includes an integrated DSP for signal processing.

T5818

T5818

Bottom Port PDM Digital Output Multi-Mode Microphone

Note: The T5818 is marked as EOL and is not recommended for new designs.

The T5818 is a Pulse Density Modulation (PDM) microphone with a dynamic range of 107dB at 590µA, the widest dynamic range in the industry at the lowest power, which allows for excellent acoustic performance in environments that shift from very quiet to very loud, such as far field voice pickup barge-in for Smart Speaker applications.

This microphone features 66dBA SNR, 135dB SPL AOP, at 590 µA in High Quality Mode (HQM), and decreases power consumption to 215 µA in Low Power Mode (LPM). It is essential for capturing high quality audio inputs, which plays a vital role for AI engines and cloud-based applications that require a PDM microphone interface. Current analog output wide dynamic range microphones require expensive ADCs to take advantage of full acoustic capabilities. The T5818 provides this ADC conversion while maintaining excellent dynamic range with the benefits of a PDM low latency bit stream, making it suitable for a wide range of applications, from mobile phones to ANC headsets.

MPN: MMICT5818-00-12

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