Tiny colour sensor provides ambient light sensing

Article By : Ams

The TCS3430 provides digital measurements of illuminance and chromaticity matching the industry standard for quantifying the average human's perception of light.

Ams has introduced the TCS3430, the first XYZ tristimulus True Colour sensor IC to be offered with a small footprint, which may be used for functions such as display management, automatic white colour balancing or colour management in consumer devices such as notebooks, smartphones and tablets.

The miniature TCS3430 provides digital measurements of illuminance (brightness) and chromaticity matching the CIE 1931 "Standard Observer" XYZ scale enabling True Colour functionalities, which is the industry standard for quantifying the average human's perception of light, according to the company.

The TCS3430 benefits from proprietary Ams technology for fabricating interferometric optical filters directly on the wafer, which can be made with the spectral characteristics of the XYZ spectral responsivity model of the human eye. In the TCS3430, the filters provide five channels: X, Y and Z channels and two infrared channels. The IR channels are used for advanced light source detection. The Y channel’s response to the green portion of the visible light spectrum provides a measure of illuminance, enabling the TCS3430 to operate as an ambient light sensor as well as a colour sensor.

The sensor IC helps improve camera and display performance, enabling mobile device users to adapt the display colour and brightness towards warm or cool white, based on the Correlated Colour Temperature (CCT) level of the environment. The TCS3430 also offers high quality display calibration to provide colour balancing and vivid images based on the source input as well as more realistic images and almost zero colour distortion from the camera, rivalling the colour balancing performance of professional-grade photography equipment.

The TCS3430 is supplied as a packaged IC measuring 2.41mm x 1.75mm x 1mm. The aperture of the sensor needs to be covered by an achromatic diffuser. The TCS3430’s high sensitivity and wide dynamic range mean that it can be mounted behind dark or transparent cover glass, according to the company. It operates from a 1.8V supply and provides an I2C interface to a host processor.

The TCS3430 is available for sampling. Unit pricing is $1.59 in an order quantity of 1,000 units.

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