Bosch unveils air quality sensor

To maintain good health, it is crucial to breathe clean air. On average, we spend about 90% of our time indoors, where the air quality is often significantly poorer than outdoors. Inferior indoor air quality can lead to a range of health issues, including respiratory diseases, allergies, heart disease, and cancer, among other conditions.

Bosch's BME690 represents the latest innovation in this field. This sensor is an advanced version of the earlier BME688 and BME680 models, maintaining compatibility and the same compact size of 3 x 3 x 0.93 mm^3, which facilitates easy integration as an enhanced replacement.

The BME690 excels in tracking indoor air quality, particularly effective at detecting high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emanating from cleaning products, cooking emissions, and other typical sources of VOCs. It is also adept at analysing exhaled breath (monitoring VOCs and hydrogen sulfide) and assessing food freshness to help reduce wastage through early spoilage detection.

The BME690 also supports straightforward plug-and-play operation but also includes advanced AI functionalities powered by Bosch Sensortec’s BME AI-Studio software tool. This feature allows customers to develop bespoke solutions and swiftly gain a competitive edge.

The BME690 has halved its power consumption compared to its predecessor, the BME688, making it ideal for mobile, battery-operated devices such as wearable technology and asset tracking.

Designed to be particularly durable in humid indoor settings, the sensor is suited for integration into white goods and kitchen extractor hoods. It adheres to the WELL Building Standard and RESET Air standard, ensuring alignment with high benchmarks of indoor air quality.

“A high standard of indoor air quality is vital for keeping us healthy and happy,” said Stefan Finkbeiner, CEO at Bosch Sensortec. “The BME690 acts as a digital nose, providing actionable data for use in our homes, factories and offices.”

The sensor now also boasts a significantly quicker response to changes in humidity, markedly enhancing the performance of connected smart home devices and HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) systems, thus improving the overall environmental control.