Vishay’s New Compact Reflective Optical Sensor Lowers Costs for Smart Home, Industrial, and Office Applications

The Optoelectronics group of Vishay Intertechnology has introduced a new reflective optical sensor for smart home, industrial, and office applications. Being compact compared to previous-generation solutions, the Vishay Semiconductors VCNT2020 combines an infrared emitter, silicon phototransistor detector, and daylight blocking filter in a miniature 2.5 mm by 2.0 mm by 0.8 mm surface-mount package.

Key Features Include

• Compact construction in which the emitting light source and detector are arranged in the same plane, with excellent internal crosstalk suppression.
• The VCNT2020’s analog output signal is triggered by the detection of reflected infrared light from a nearby object.
• The sensor’s built-in daylight blocking filter greatly suppresses disturbing ambient light, thereby increasing the signal-to-noise ratio.
• The device’s compact QFN package features wettable flanks to enable optical inspection of the solder joints. This lowers costs by eliminating the need for expensive x-ray inspections.
• The VCNT2020 will be used for optical switching in office equipment and home appliances; optical encoding in disc and tape drives for DVD and / or camera applications; and paper presence detection in printers and copy machines.

Additionally, the sensor is known to offer a detection range of 0.2 mm to 2.5 mm, an emitter wavelength of 940 nm, and a typical output current of 1.6 mA, which represents a typical current transfer ratio (CTR) of 8 % under test conditions and is up to four times higher than that of similar devices available on the market. The device features a Moisture Sensitivity Level (MSL) of 4 for reflow soldering according to J-STD-020; it is RoHS-compliant, halogen-free, and Vishay Green.

Availability

Samples and production quantities of the new VCNT2020 are available now, with lead times of eight to 12 weeks for large orders.