Behind the multi-application of billion-light infrared light sensing technology, aim at the smart application market

Under the trend of the Internet of Things, sensors are an indispensable component for the realization of smart networking devices. Among them, light sensing is the most widely used sensing technology in the current world, such as smart mobile devices, wearable devices, Security equipment is a popular application and is inseparable from people's lives.

Taiwan's leading LED manufacturer Everlight Electronics has been in the industry for more than 30 years. With professional optical technology and packaging experience, we are constantly pursuing innovation and breakthrough. Due to the optimistic development potential of the light sensing market, this year's biennial global electronics industry event "electronica 2016" in Europe, highlights the infrared (Infrared, IR) light sensing full range of products. In an exclusive interview, Dr. ChrisTIan Merfort, an expert in the development of Everlight's Infrared Business Unit, expressed his views on the multiple applications of light sensing technology and market trends.

Everlight Infrared Business Development Specialist Dr. ChrisTIan Merfort

Ambient light sensor saves energy and has a wide range of applications

Ambient Light Sensor (ALS) is one of the light sensors. The energy is used to measure the amount of light around the environment, and the light intensity is perceived by the response characteristics of the human eye, and then the brightness is automatically adjusted. According to Dr. Merfort, the ALS product launched by Everlight uses a 550 nm band that is close to the spectral sensitivity of the human eye. The analog ALS structure includes a photodiode and a current amplifier IC to suppress noise interference and accuracy. The output clear signal; the digital ALS supports the I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) digital communication interface, which also has the feature of reducing noise.

ALS is now widely used in smart mobile devices to adjust the brightness of the display screen backlight with ambient light, greatly reducing the fatigue and discomfort of the human eye. “ALS plays an important role in people's lives. There are two main reasons. One is to save energy.” Dr. Merfort believes that ALS can save energy and save unnecessary waste. “Another reason is that it is richer.” Functionality," he said. Applications that are related to ambient light sensing and need to automatically adjust the brightness are all in the ALS application category, and are also suitable for the development of extended applications such as the Internet of Things and smart cities.

For example, the street light can automatically detect the sunlight by using ALS, and the brightness is automatically adjusted as the sky is light and dark. The automatic opening and closing of the car headlight is also the same application. Other popular applications include solar systems, which apply ALS to solar farms, allowing solar panels to rotate precisely with the sun's orientation toward an efficient energy harvesting angle, thus avoiding solar panels from rotating angles. Inaccurate and reduce the amount of solar energy that can be collected.

Multi-functional integration solutions expand applications, medical and security are important markets

In order to meet the market demand for diversified applications such as the Internet of Things and wearable devices, the multi-functional integrated application of optical sensing components is also more important. Dr. Merfort said that health care applications are a big market for light sensors. For example, smart watches are used with light sensors to detect the user's heart rate. For red LEDs and IR LEDs, The blood oxygen concentration in the blood can be measured by permeating light reflection signals in the skin tissue.

Another important application is security surveillance. The surveillance camera uses ALS to sense the ambient light in the environment. Once the sky is dark or the light is insufficient after the night, the IR LED can be used to supplement the light source and assist detection. As for the Color Light Sensor (CLS), it is a high-end ALS product. It adopts a 16-bit high-resolution specification, which not only detects the light intensity, but also detects the individual intensity of red, blue and green light. Applied to the airport security system, the lighting conditions of the surrounding environment can be fed back to the image processing system through the CLS, and the color of the target detection object is enhanced to obtain important color information required for tracking the object. Dr. Merfort pointed out that CLS is also used in production lines. Once the color of the products is detected in the production process, the production line will be suspended immediately to ensure that all products meet the same color standard.

Yiguang exhibited a full range of infrared products

In addition, Everlight's Ambient Light and Proximity Module (APM), combined with ALS, Proximity Module (PM) and IR LED, is commonly used in smart mobile devices. . In addition to sensing the brightness of the environment and adjusting the backlight of the screen, APM can also be used as a smart switch to sense the distance of the object. When the user's face is close to the device, the display screen and touch function will be automatically turned off. It will automatically turn on, which also saves power to the device and prevents accidental touch during the call.

Infrared products are multi-faceted, and the growth potential is highly optimistic

With the "light" as the industry, Everlight has been focusing on multi-angle management and active research and development, and has a complete product portfolio to meet the diverse needs of the market. At present, the total production capacity of Yiguang is 6,800 kk, and the infrared products account for about 25%, and the shipment volume is the first in the world. As far as ALS products are concerned, Dr. Merfort believes that there is still a lot of room for growth at this stage. I believe that it will grow slowly and steadily, so it is quite optimistic about the future development potential of ALS.

Dr. Merfort believes that the ALS market will continue to grow slowly and steadily

For the future development of the infrared series products market, Dr. Merfort pointed out three major application markets. First, the EU is actively promoting the smart grid construction policy with smart metering as the core, requiring EU member states to completely replace existing meters with smart meters, thus driving Photo Couplers. , IR LED and other needs. He revealed that this year, Yiguang received many customer inquiries and has already begun to send samples. Therefore, optimistic about smart meters will become the key application development market next year.

The second is medical applications. Dr. Merfort proposes a disposable cancer self-detection device that can quickly detect blood to obtain a marker index. The third is automation applications, especially in recent years, the rapid development of robots, optical components are indispensable key components, so the market prospects are also very promising.

In an era of rapid technological advancement, no matter how the industry changes, it cannot change the determination of Yiguang to work hard in the field and maintain its technological leadership. Yiguang has focused on the industry, not only preparing for the current situation, but also actively developing for the next stage of development, and continuing to make progress with strong team and technical strength and fearless challenges. (Author: Angela Yang; Source: taken at electronica 2016 billion light booth)