Vishay debuts automotive-grade proximity and ambient light sensor

By Heather Hamilton, contributing writer

The optoelectronics group of Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. has unveiled a fully integrated automotive-grade proximity and ambient light sensor that comes complete with four different slave address options. The new Vishay Semiconductors VCNL4030X01 features Filtron technology, combining photo detectors for proximity and ambient light, a signal conditioning IC, a 16-bit ADC, and a high-power IRED in a 4 × 2.36 × 0.75-mm surface-mount package.

The device can be implemented in several ways: as proximity sensing for touch-screen locking in smartphones and tablets to save power; presence detection for display activation in notebooks, consumer and industrial devices, and automobiles; and ambient light sensing for dimming control in keypads, displays, and rearview mirrors as well as collision avoidance in toys and robots. The packages come complete with all necessary circuitry for these applications to save board space while the four slave address options provide design flexibility in applications that require more than one sensor, said Vishay.

The AEC-Q101–qualified sensor also offers a programmable interrupt function that is used to set high and low thresholds, reducing total power consumption within any application. You can program the function to trigger both the ambient light and proximity sensor. It also supports an I²C bus communication interface for automotive, industrial, mobile device, and smart home applications.

Thanks to the Filtron technology, the device offers ambient light spectral sensitivity close to that of the human eye and excellent background light cancellation capabilities, according to Vishay. The VCNL4030X01 operates in applications with dark or high-transparency lens designs thanks to a built-in ambient light photodiode that offers detection from 0.004 lx to 4.2 klx. Other features include a high accuracy of ±10%, fluorescent light flicker immunity, and temperature compensation from –40°C to 105°C.

The VCNL4030X01’s proximity sensor also uses intelligent cancellation to eliminate crosstalk coupled with a smart persistence scheme to deliver a fast response time and accuracy when an object is detected. The device is highly sensitive, detecting objects at distances of up to 300 mm. The emitter wavelength peaks at 940 nm with no visible “red tail.”

The VCNL4030X01 offers a supply voltage range of 2.5 V to 3.6 V and an I²C bus voltage range from 1.8 V to 5 V. The device is available in a lead-free, eight-pin QFN package. It is RoHS-compliant, halogen-free, and certified Vishay Green .

Samples and production quantities are available now. Lead time is eight to 12 weeks for large orders. Pricing for U.S. delivery begins at $1.00/piece in quantities of 5,000.