Curious markings on a Bosch Sensortec BMP280 sensor: “117 YP”
A sensor breakout board which I recently purchased features a CCS811 sensor (designed to detect and quantify ambient indoor levels of VOCs) and, to supply the data needed to correct its readings, two additional sensors: a SI7021 (relative humidity and temperature) and a BMP280 (barometric pressure). Being curious by nature, I had a closer look at the board and, noticing the laser-etched (?) product markings (117
and, beneath that and to the left of the vent hole, YP
) on the BMP280 sensor, trundled off to Google to download the datasheet and see, if possible, what they signified.
According to the Marking section of the BMP280 datasheet, 117
is the lot number and the Y
and P
in YP
are, respectively, the product number and sub-con
(subcontractor?) ID. So far, so good. For mass-production BMP280s, however, the product number ought to be K
, not Y
. Engineering samples
have two-digit alphanumeric codes in place of the product number and sub-con ID but, instead of a lot number, would have two alphanumeric digits followed by an asterisk or an uppercase or lowercase letter E
.
117 YPBMP280 sensor.
Wondering whether a different Bosch Sensortec barometric pressure sensor might have been used instead of the BMP280, I looked at the datasheets for the BMP085 and BMP180. Nope. Grasping at straws, I even glanced at datasheets for other Bosch Sensortec sensors and came up empty. There are plenty of mentions of the BMP280 sensor online but, understandably, the markings on the sensors are rarely described. Googling a bit did turn up a few instances, on third-party web sites, where the marks were described or shown clearly in photos and I’ve seen these lot numbers, product number, and sub-con ID combinations: 203 YP
, M7H YP
, and 018 UP
.
I’ve reached out to Bosch Sensortec via their site’s contact form and I’ll post an update here if I receive a response.
Update: Fueled by my unsated curiosity, I posted about this in the AskElectronics subreddit and Googled up the address of a PR person at Bosch Sensortec and emailed them directly, requesting that they forward my message to someone who could enlighten me.