Jan 25 2011
Silicon Laboratories has introduced its future generation ambient light and infrared (IR) light sensors called the Si114x portfolio for human interface (HI) solutions. The new Si114x is the latest member of the company’s QuickSense HI family, comprising the market’s ultra sensitive, power-saving and longest-range proximity sensors.
The Si114x sensors are packed in compact 2 mm x 2 mm housing and offer high-quality proximity sensing and touchless interfaces for eReaders, tablets, handsets, netbooks, toys, industrial controls, personal media players, office equipment, security systems and point-of-sale stations.
Architecture of the patent-pending Si114x addresses variables such as photo-diode sensitivity, ambient noise/light compensation and filtering and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) architecture to reduce noise and optimize performance. The sensor’s combined architectural maximizations produce very high system signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and thus makes it the longest-range, ultra-sensitive proximity sensor in the industry.
Because of its ultra-sensitivity, the developers can fix the Si114x at the back of semi-opaque product covers. It functions in direct sunlight and features an ambient light sensor that can sense light levels up to 128 klx. It provides proximity calibration within 25 ms, reducing the power consumption of infrared LEDs.
The Si114x proximity sensors comes with sensor choices with up to three IR LED drivers and thus the developers can produce one-dimensional HI systems with a sensitivity range of over 50 cm or multi-dimensional systems with gesture sensing range of up to 15 cm. The Si1142 with two IR LED drivers provide x- and z-axis motion sensing for touchless slider interfaces. The Si1143 with three IR LED drivers provide groundbreaking three-dimensional motion sensing for the multi-dimensional touchless control.
Source: http://www.silabs.com