A New Generation of Sensors to Achieve "non-contact" Advanced Gesture Control

Silicon laboratories recently announced the launch of a new generation of infrared (IR) and ambient light sensors for man-machine interface (HI) applications. Silicon Labs QuickSense â„¢ Si114x series, the latest member of hi product portfolio, is the proximity sensor with the highest sensitivity, energy efficiency and the longest sensing distance in the industry. Use a very small 2mm & tips; 2mm package, si114x sensor can be used in mobile phones, e-readers, netbooks, tablets, personal media players, toys, office equipment, industrial control, security systems, sales terminals and many other devices to realize advanced proximity sensing and non-contact interfaces.

The detection distance and sensitivity of proximity sensor are determined by the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the system; The higher the SNR, the farther the distance. A variety of variable factors affect the SNR of the system, including ambient noise / light compensation, photodiode sensitivity, filtering and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) architecture. Although the competitor's solution may overcome one or two of these factors, the si114x architecture in the patent application overcomes all these variables to minimize noise and maximize performance. The joint architecture optimization of si114x series products has obtained a very high system SNR, so that si114x proximity sensor has the longest sensing distance, the highest sensitivity and the fastest data acquisition speed in the industry.

With its industry-leading sensitivity, si114x series products enable developers to flexibly place infrared sensors behind translucent product covers. The complete IR sensing architecture can also work in sunlight. It includes an ambient light sensor capable of sensing illumination up to 128 kilolux. In addition, the advanced architecture of si114x series products can complete proximity sensing measurement within 25 µ s, reducing the on time of extremely power consuming infrared LED, thus realizing the lowest system power consumption in the industry - 20 times lower than other solutions.

Si114x series products include up to three optional infrared LED lamp drivers. Developers can freely realize a one-dimensional hi system with detection distance of more than 50cm or a multi-dimensional system with gesture sensing ability with detection distance of up to 15cm. Si1142 and si1143 devices have two and three infrared LED drivers respectively, which can realize advanced motion and gesture sensing. Through two integrated LED drivers, si1142 supports Z-axis and X-axis motion sensing for non-contact slider interface. Si1143 supports three LED drivers and can realize innovative three-dimensional motion sensing in multi-dimensional non-contact control.

Combined with the intelligent control provided by silicon labs capacitive touch sensing microcontrollers (such as F700, F800 or f99x MCU), si114x sensor can be used for a variety of motion and gesture detection and target object distance calibration applications. The sensing mode of si114x device provides useful information to MCU to determine the type of background light, such as sunlight, fluorescent light or incandescent light. This information is very useful in many applications, such as improving IR proximity sensing, optimizing infrared sensing power consumption, enhancing the background brightness adjustment function of display devices, and controlling other devices in the system.

"The new si114x series is the most advanced single-chip proximity sensing solution, providing unparalleled sensitivity, sensing distance and efficiency in a very small package," said Mark Thompson, vice president and general manager of silicon labs embedded mixed signal product line, "As the only semiconductor supplier that can provide both proximity sensors and touch sensitive MCU, we provide developers with a single source solution to simplify the design of a new generation of man-machine interface."

Quicksense studio and development board support

Like all other quicksense product members, quicksense studio supports si114x series products. Quicksense studio is an intuitive and easy-to-use software design environment that helps developers write, debug and analyze proximity, ambient light and capacitive touch sensing applications. Quicksense studio simplifies the monitoring of infrared proximity and ambient light sensors through API function libraries The graphical running environment provides the ability to generate C language code for proximity and motion detection, gesture detection and background light recognition.

Price and supply

Si114x proximity sensor is now available in a tiny, transparent 2 & tips; 2 & tips; 0.75mm 10 pin QFN package. The price range of 10000 chips ranges from $1.22 for single led to $1.98 for multi led. In addition, the unit price of irslider2ek Evaluation Kit is $49.99 and the unit price of si1140dk development kit is $59.99.