Bosch BMI160 6-Axis IMU Sensor, 16-bit Accelerometer & Gyroscope, I2C/SPI Interface, 1.2V-3.6V, -40°C to 85°C

The BMI160 has a dual supply architecture. The core sensor (VDD) operates from 1.71V to 3.6V, while the digital I/O pins (VDDIO) can be powered from 1.2V to 3.6V. This allows flexible interfacing with both 3.3V and lower-voltage logic microcontrollers like the ESP32 or nRF52 series.

The BMI160 supports both I2C and SPI digital communication protocols. You can select the interface via a dedicated pin (SPI/I2C select). The I2C address is 0x68 (or 0x69 with SDO pulled high). For SPI, use standard 4-wire mode with maximum clock frequency of 10 MHz.

The 1024-byte FIFO buffer stores accelerometer and gyroscope data, allowing the host microcontroller to read data in bursts. This significantly reduces power consumption by letting the MCU sleep between readings and minimizes communication overhead, which is critical for battery-powered always-on applications.

Yes. The sensor features a configurable on-chip interrupt engine that can autonomously detect events like tap, double-tap, orientation change, and any-motion/no-motion. When a configured event occurs, an interrupt pin is triggered, waking the host processor only when needed, which optimizes overall system power efficiency.