Single-chip high-resolution colour sensor measures four channels

Texas Instruments OPT4048 Tristimulus XYZ Colour Sensor, available now from Mouser, is a single-chip high-resolution colour sensor that measures four channels, each with distinct engineered spectral responses. Three channels closely match the CIE tristimulus spectra, with the fourth channel enclosing a wide-band spectral response. With measurements from these channels, important characteristics of the lighting environment can be extracted, like (i) light intensity (lux), (ii) colour in CIE XY, LUV coordinates, and (iii) correlated colour temperature. The device is available in a small SOT-5X3 package.

The device has a selectable addressing scheme to allow up to four devices on a shared I2C bus. The spectral response of the channels has been specially tuned to closely mimic the CIE tristimulus spectra to get the most accurate colour detection. It strongly rejects wavelengths away from the respective peaks, particularly the NIR (850nm and 940nm) region. The filters employ an advanced filter technology that offers excellent filter performance even at higher angles of light incidence. With high-accuracy colour sensing capability, this device allows several applications needing precise sensing of ambient colour temperature and light colour.

The digital operation is flexible for system integration. Measurements can be either continuous or triggered in one shot with register writes or hardware pins. The device features a threshold detection logic, which allows the processor to sleep while the sensor watches for the appropriate wake-up event to report through the interrupt pin. Digital output, representing the light level, is reported over an SMBus and I2C compatible, two-wire serial interface. The low power consumption and low power-supply voltage capability of the device help enhance the battery life of battery-powered systems.