STMicroelectronics announces ambient light and color sensing solutions

STMicroelectronics announced its integrated light and color-sensing IC intended for a range of optical feedback and sensing applications, including mobile phones, notebook PCs, and LCD TVs. The new VM6101 offers both color and ambient light sensing, with an embedded system interface that needs no external components. The VM6101 is for automatic LCD backlight control (cold cathode fluorescent lamp, CCFL, or white LED).

The battery life of portable display products such as DVD players, camcorders, and digital cameras, as well as mobile phones and laptop PCs, is dependent on the power used by the LCD and on its brightness setting. These sensors, with a standard IC/SMBus (system management bus) interface, are integrated into any system to enable the LCD to be adjusted automatically to match ambient lighting conditions. In addition, the VM6101 can be used to provide color balancing adjustment for projection systems and RGB backlighting.

Jean-Yves Gomez, general manager of imaging division, ST, said, "Ambient light sensing can benefit numerous applications. Backlight control for LCDs, whether in mobile phones and other portable consumer devices, or in flat-panel TVs can dramatically enhance the consumer experience, while reducing power consumption and preserving battery life. Current discrete solutions are expensive and cumbersome to integrate. With this new device, ST is offering a level of integration and versatility never seen before in the light sensing market."

Part-to-part matching methods in manufacture ensure repeatable light measurements, while pixel-to-pixel matching in the VM6101 is better than plus or minus 1% (over the full illumination range, at constant temperature). The sensor's spectral response is matched to that of the human eye through novel frequency-response shaping techniques that reject the IR spectrum, and a very wide dynamic range from 30mLux to 30KLux is achieved by using a light-to-frequency pixel architecture. The device features very low power consumption of 1mA in active mode, and just 1µA in standby mode.

The VM6101 is based on ST's proprietary CMOS sensor technology.

STMicroelectronics