Renesas Electronics has introduced a compact, digital ambient illuminance sensor PH5551A2NA1.
The device will offer energy efficiency and enhanced performance features such as auto-adjustment of display brightness for better viewing.
It can sense the ambient light brightness and transmit the received signal to a microcontroller (MCU). It will help designers develop space efficient and automatic brightness adjustment devices, enabling its use in mobile terminals and handsets, factory automation (FA) tools, digital consumer products, and lighting solutions for exteriors and interiors.
The device has been designed using the company’s clear mold package design and production technology. Its package measures 1.56×2.55×0.55mm. The gap of 0.5mm between pins and SON package delivers greater mounting density on printed wiring boards.
An internal circuit uses signals from a number of light receptors with varying wavelength sensitivity characteristics and performs computations to provide ±20% reduced sensitivity variation caused by light sources including LEDs, fluorescent lamps and bulbs. This helps monitor the brightness of light as seen by human beings in any type of environment.
Assigning of identification numbers or two I2C bus slave addresses in applications yielding digital signal output enables to connect multiple illuminance sensors to a single MCU.
An interrupt function is incorporated in the device that enables a signal to be transmitted to an output device for e.g. a MCU in case the brightness is more than a specific threshold value. Hence continuous communication between the sensor and the MCU is not required and the processing load on the MCU is considerably reduced.
Source: http://am.renesas.com