// application note

AN0006 Interfacing TDK InvenSense MEMS sensors over I3C with the Binho Supernova

The current generation of TDK InvenSense MEMS sensors offers a MIPI I3C interface alongside I2C and SPI, including the high data rate double data rate mode that most sensors leave out. This application note shows how to bring one up from a Binho Supernova USB host adapter and the Binho mikroBUS Adapter Board, and how to exercise the I3C features the sensor implements, without writing any firmware. It covers enumeration and dynamic address assignment, identifying a part from the bus rather than a lookup table, register access, streaming decoded sensor data, in-band interrupts with no interrupt pin connected, and an HDR-DDR transfer checked against the single data rate read of the same register. The worked example uses the ICM-45686 six-axis IMU, and a reference Python utility that produced every output in this document is supplied.

Products: Binho Supernova
Protocols: I3C
Topics: MEMS Sensor Bring-up
Revision: Rev 1.0 · September 1, 2026

// outcomes

What you'll walk away with

By the end of this document a reader with the hardware in front of them will have enumerated a sensor onto an I3C bus, identified it from its own registers, read and written registers, streamed decoded measurements, received in-band interrupts at the sensor's configured output data rate with no interrupt pin connected, performed an HDR-DDR read and checked it against the single data rate read of the same register, and established what the target implements from observable effects.

The part worked through is the ICM-45686. It is exercised on hardware and every output in this document is a real capture.

// background

Background

The current generation of TDK InvenSense MEMS sensors offers a MIPI I3C interface alongside I2C and SPI, on the same two pins. I3C keeps that two-wire footprint and adds a substantial feature set on top of it.

Table: What I3C adds to a two-wire sensor interface

Feature	What it gives a design
Dynamic address assignment	The controller hands out addresses at run time, so static address collisions stop being a board-design constraint and identical parts can share a bus
Identification from the bus	Every target reports a 48-bit provisional identifier, a device class and its bus capabilities, so a controller can enumerate a bus it was not built for
Common command codes	A standard command set, broadcast and direct, for enumeration, identification, configuration, interrupt control and reset, the same on every compliant target
In-band interrupts	The sensor interrupts the host on the data line, carrying a byte that says why, so no interrupt pin has to be routed or allocated
High data rate modes	Double data rate transfers move two bits per clock edge pair, doubling the signalling rate without raising the clock
Group addressing	One write reaches several targets at once, addressed as a group
Higher signalling rates	Push-pull clocking, to 12.5 MHz in single data rate mode, against the open-drain limits of I2C
Lower power	Push-pull signalling avoids the static pull-up current I2C spends continuously, and activity states let a controller tell targets what bus latency to expect so they can idle harder
Hot-join	A target powered up after the bus is running can ask to be enumerated
Timing control	The controller can have targets timestamp their interrupts against a shared reference
Standard reset and recovery	A defined target reset and defined error detection and recovery, rather than per-vendor sequences
I2C compatibility	Legacy I2C devices can share the bus

A target implements the subset of that a sensor needs, and the subset differs between parts. The ICM-45686 implements more of it than most: its bus characteristics register declares advanced capabilities, which means high data rate transfers, and Section 8 puts that to the test.

This note works through the part from a Binho Supernova USB host adapter and the Binho mikroBUS Adapter Board: enumerating it, identifying it from the bus, reading and writing registers, streaming decoded measurements, getting interrupts over the data line with no interrupt pin connected, transferring in HDR-DDR, and establishing which of the features above the target actually implements.

Nothing here requires a microcontroller, firmware, or a driver port. Every step is a command from a host PC.

// applicable devices

Applicable devices

Device	Function	Board	Exercised on hardware
ICM-45686	6-axis IMU, accelerometer and gyroscope	6DOF IMU 27 Click	Yes

The method applies to any TDK InvenSense MEMS part with an I3C interface on a mikroBUS Click board. Adding one to the supplied utility is a single table entry, described in Section 12.

// what's covered

What's covered in the note

01 Introduction
02 Required equipment and software
03 First contact: enumerate the bus
04 Identify the part from the bus
05 Read and write registers
06 Stream sensor data
07 Interrupts over the bus, with no interrupt pin
08 HDR-DDR
09 Exercising the rest of the I3C feature set
10 Bus rates
11 Practical notes
12 The utility
13 Measured results
14 Troubleshooting

The full procedure, measured results, and reference code are in the PDF and the assets archive.

// materials

What you'll need

Binho Supernova USB host adapter for I3C, I2C, SPI & UART View product

Software Mission Control 3 or the Cosmic SDK (Python, C / C++ / C#). Get the software

Files The reference scripts and assets used in this note. Download the assets

// our edge

We don't just follow the I3C spec.

We don't watch from the sidelines. Plugfest after plugfest, our team is in the room where vendor I3C implementations come together — finding edge cases, debugging quirks, and validating real silicon against the spec.