The miniature TCS3430 provides digital measurements of illuminance and chromaticity matching the CIE 1931 Standard Observer XYZ scale – which is the industry standard for quantifying the average human’s perception of light.
It may be used for functions such as display management, automatic white colour balancing or colour management.
According to the company, OEMs will be able to achieve dramatic improvements in camera and display performance, enabling users of mobile devices to enjoy: adapting the display colour and brightness towards warm or cool white, based on the correlated colour temperature level of the environment; high quality display calibration; and almost zero colour distortion from the camera.
In the TCS3430, the filters provide five channels: X, Y and Z channels and two infrared channels. The IR channels are used for advanced light source detection.
The Y channel’s response to the green portion of the visible light spectrum is said to provide a measure of illuminance, enabling the TCS3430 to operate as an ambient light sensor as well as a colour sensor.
Measuring 2.41 x 1.75 x 1.00mm, the TCS3430 can be mounted behind dark or transparent cover glass. The aperture of the sensor needs to be covered by an achromatic diffuser.
The device operates from a 1.8V supply, and provides an I2C interface to a host processor.
