Smartphones are a common form of technology for personal communications. Many would say they would be lost without their mobile devices at the ready throughout their day. Combined with notebook PCs and tablets, more than 1 billion devices ship worldwide each year. Most of these devices were designed with the consumer in mind. They may survive a drop on the ground, but few are designed to survive the rigors of professionals who encounter dust, water, and other environmental conditions unlike consumer use cases. These “designed for business” rugged devices are specially-designed for the workplace. A subset of all job sites and roles require even more protection from the surroundings; the hazardous locations where the potential for a spark and explosion exist.
This research analysis examines the applications of intrinsically safe devices for the HazLoc market; in other words, mobile device designs that exceed the most stringent environmental requirements and use techniques to limit the energy, electrical, and thermal design to a level below that which is required to ignite a hazardous atmospheric mixture.