Industry's highest performance ambient light sensor

Maxim introduced the fully integrated digital ambient light sensor (ALS) MAX9635 with a unique adaptive gain setting circuit. The device is designed using the company's proprietary BiCMOS technology and integrates two photodiodes, an ADC, and all the necessary digital functions in a tiny 2mm x 2mm package. This integrated solution offers the best performance in the industry while effectively saving valuable space resources in space-constrained applications. The MAX9635 consumes only one percent of the nearest competitor, significantly extending battery life. In addition, the device has the industry's highest dynamic range of 4,000,000 to 1 to ensure high-accuracy lumen measurement under all ambient light conditions.

The MAX9635 is ideal for tablet and notebook computers, smart phones, TVs, digital lighting management systems, and other light intensity monitoring systems.

Ambient light detection effectively prolongs battery life and improves display performance Ambient light sensors are increasingly used in various display and lighting systems to save power and improve the user experience. System designers use ambient light detection schemes to achieve automatic brightness adjustment of the display based on ambient light intensity. Since the power required by the backlight is a large part of the system power budget, dynamic brightness control can greatly reduce power consumption.

The accurate measurement of visible light uses electronic components to reproduce the optical response of the human eye very difficult. Traditional photosensors incorporate ambient light of various wavelengths into the measurement range. These designs are inevitably affected by ultraviolet rays and infrared rays that are invisible to the human eye, resulting in inaccurate readings of the ambient light measurement and affecting the brightness adjustment accuracy. This problem is particularly pronounced with light sources with different spectrums. For example, the infrared component of incandescent lamps is much higher than that of fluorescent lamps.

Maxim's BiCMOS technology integrates two photodiodes and a filter in the device to effectively suppress ultraviolet and infrared light, enabling the MAX9635 to replicate the human eye's optical response in a variety of environmental settings, accurately measuring Visible light. Advanced algorithms can calibrate spectral deviations between different light sources to achieve high-precision lumen response.

The industry's only adaptive gain adjustment technology to provide the widest lumen measurement range The ambient light sensor's dynamic range should be as wide as possible to support a wide spectrum of various lighting conditions, from direct sunlight to a completely black environment. Even in digital light sensors, the gain must be set to a specific value to achieve different operating modes under various lighting conditions. This additional configuration requirement increases design complexity and delays time to market.

The MAX9635 integrates a unique adaptive gain setting circuit that automatically selects the optimum gain range. This feature frees the designer from the extremely time consuming manual setup work. In addition, the adaptive gain setting circuit provides the industry's widest dynamic range (greater than 4,000,000 to 1), allowing the MAX9635 to measure light from 0.045 lumens to 188,000 lumens. In short, this innovative architecture enables the most accurate lumen measurement in a variety of ambient light conditions.

As an added benefit, the device also detects extremely faint light and is ideal for applications where the sensor IC is placed behind a black glass (the ambient light intensity is greatly reduced).