TCS230
PROGRAMMABLE
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COLOR LIGHT-TO-FREQUENCY CONVERTER
TAOS046Q − JULY 2008
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PACKAGE D
8-LEAD SOIC
(TOP VIEW)
D High-Resolution Conversion of Light
Intensity to Frequency
D Programmable Color and Full-Scale Output
Frequency
S0 1
S1 2
8 S3
D Communicates Directly With a Microcontroller
D Single-Supply Operation (2.7 V to 5.5 V)
D Power Down Feature
7 S2
OE 3
6 OUT
5 VDD
D Nonlinearity Error Typically 0.2% at 50 kHz
D Stable 200 ppm/°C Temperature Coefficient
GND 4
D Low-Profile Lead (Pb) Free and RoHS
Compliant Surface-Mount Package
Description
The TCS230 programmable color light-to-frequency converter combines configurable silicon photodiodes and
a current-to-frequency converter on a single monolithic CMOS integrated circuit. The output is a square wave
(50% duty cycle) with frequency directly proportional to light intensity (irradiance). The full-scale output
frequency can be scaled by one of three preset values via two control input pins. Digital inputs and digital output
allow direct interface to a microcontroller or other logic circuitry. Output enable (OE) places the output in the
high-impedance state for multiple-unit sharing of a microcontroller input line.
The light-to-frequency converter reads an 8 x 8 array of photodiodes. Sixteen photodiodes have blue filters, 16
photodiodes have green filters, 16 photodiodes have red filters, and 16 photodiodes are clear with no filters.
The four types (colors) of photodiodes are interdigitated to minimize the effect of non-uniformity of incident
irradiance. All 16 photodiodes of the same color are connected in parallel and which type of photodiode the
device uses during operation is pin-selectable. Photodiodes are 120 μm x 120 μm in size and are on 144-μm
centers.
Functional Block Diagram
Output
Current-to-Frequency
Photodiode
Light
Converter
Array
S2 S3
S0 S1
OE
Copyright E 2008, TAOS Inc.
The LUMENOLOGY r Company
Texas Advarnced Optoelectronic Solutions Inc.
1001 Klein Road S Suite 300 S Plano, TX 75074 S (972) 673-0759
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www.taosinc.com
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