Vishay has introduced a surface mount proximity sensor that can pick up objects 200mm away.
Called VCNL30204, the 4.85x2.35x0.83mm devices includes lenses, an IR emitter, PIN photodiode, a 16bit ADC and a signal processing IC.
"The 16bit effective resolution ensures cross talk immunity, eliminating the need for a mechanical barrier between the emitter and detector," said the firm. "While other products only achieve object detection up to 100 mm, the sensor's programmable LED drive current from 10 to 200mA, in 10mA steps, allows distances up to 200 mm, and to more than a meter when the integrated emitter driver is used to drive external emitters."
Modulation increased ambient light immunity, and communication is over an I2C bus.
An interrupt function allows the sensor to work independently until a programmable threshold is crossed when it can wakes up a host microcontroller via a hardware pin.
"This helps customers reduce their software effort and lower power consumption by eliminating polling communication traffic between the sensor and microcontroller," said Vishay.
Applications are foreseen touchscreen locking in phones, PDAs, GPS units, and digital cameras; as well as as an optical switch for computing devices, industrial devices and displays.
Standby current is 1.5 μA from 2.5 to 3.6V. I2C bus voltage can vary across 1.7 to 5V and operating temperature is -25 to +85°C.