Light sensors
Accurately detect and measure light and color intensity with our fully integrated sensors
Our optical light sensors with integrated photo sensor and passive filters offer excellent spectral matching, low power and configurable conversion times. These products support a wide dynamic range with semi-logarithmic output and an auto-ranging feature to ensure exceptional performance in all lighting conditions. Applications of these products range across industrial, automotive and personal electronic markets.
Why choose our light sensors?
Spectral matching
Accurately measure visible, broad, IR, XYZ and RGB spectrums to ensure the best user experience.
Versatile packaging
Our multitude of package options, including the industry's thinnest package, allows placement in size restrictive and automotive applications.
High dynamic range
Our optical sensing ranges from 312uLux to 167kLux enabling use in a variety of lighting conditions including dim, bright, and behind covered material.
Advantages of incorporating a light sensor
Transform the way users interact with your product
With an emphasis on automatic display brightness, LED brightness, and color adjustment applications, our latest light sensors are designed to precisely measure visible, IR, XYZ and RGB light. TI light sensors provide a quick conversion time down to 600µs, enabling quick adjustments to accommodate sudden changes in lighting conditions, providing a seamless user experience. Our devices have ultra-sensitive resolution which is essential for finer control of display brightness with the ability to hide the light sensor discreetly behind dark cover glass.
Localized Light Sensors for Automotive Applications (Rev. A)
How to Select a Light Sensor for Your Application (Rev. C)
How intelligent sensors expand our detection of light
High-resolution video
Our solutions for ambient light and color sensing provide enhanced recording quality and precise camera exposure with high sensitivity and high-resolution color measurement. TI light sensors are equipped with excellent spectral matching, including visible, absolute color matching and relative color matching. Our sensors are capable of rejecting 99.99% of near-infrared light, preventing unwanted toggle between day and night detection, along with distorted imaging.
The Value of a High-Speed, High-Resolution Light Sensor
How to Select a Light Sensor for Your Application (Rev. C)
Optimize energy consumption
Our latest light sensors are designed from the ground up, with a low-power architecture to help bring you accurate light sensing into battery-operated applications that require lower power consumption in automotive, industrial and consumer electronics applications.
OPT3006: Ambient Light Sensor in Wearable Applications
How to Select a Light Sensor for Your Application (Rev. C)
Technical resources
TI Precision labs - Light sensors
How intelligent sensors expand our detection of light
The Value of a High-Speed, High-Resolution Light Sensor
Discover featured applications
Ultra-low-power and compact solutions for tamper detection
Our light sensor solutions for tamper detection help detect case openings, broken seals, or any other external elements affecting measurement precision by detecting a change in light.
Benefits:
- Extremely low power for battery-operated applications.
- Wide-bandwidth sensing channel enables sensing of a variety of light types, including ultraviolet and near-infrared light.
- Automatic full-scale light-range selection logic ensures the best possible resolution for all lighting conditions.
Featured resources
- TIDA-01069 – Advanced Motion Detector Using PIR Sensors Reference Design For False Trigger Avoidance
- OPT3002 – Light-to-digital sensor
- OPT3002EVM – OPT3002 light-to-digital sensor evaluation module
- Tamper detection: light sensor use case – Video
- Understanding tamper detection sensors – Technical article
Day and night detection, enabled by fast sensors, enables faster reaction to environmental changes
Applications that require the detection of a light threshold use day and night detection to determine if it is daytime, with a high lux value, or nighttime, when there is a minimum amount of light.
Benefits:
- Strong infrared rejection helps maintain high accuracy when industrial design calls for mounting the sensor under dark glass, especially with active 850nm or 940nm near-infrared illumination.
- Extremely low power enables use in battery-operated applications.
- Automatic full-scale light-range selection logic ensures the best possible resolution for all lighting conditions.
Featured resources
- TIDA-010254 – Battery-powered mmWave radar sensor with sub-1-GHz and Bluetooth® 5.2 reference design
- OPT3005 – Ambient light sensor (ALS) for video surveillance cameras
- OPT4003-Q1 – Automotive high-speed high-precision digital light sensor
- OPT4041 – High-speed dual-channel high-precision digital ambient light sensor
- How to Select a Light Sensor for Your Application (Rev. C) – Application brief
- Day vs night detection: Light sensor use case – Video
Extremely sensitive light sensors help achieve finer control on display brightness
Our light sensors provide an enhanced user experience by measuring ambient lux, allowing an adjustable display brightness based on sensor readings from a microcontroller.
Benefits:
- Extremely low power for battery-operated applications.
- Reduces eye strain to enhance the user experience.
- Suitable for automotive, industrial and PE applications.
Featured resources
- TIDA-010042 – 400-W GaN-based MPPT charge controller and power optimizer reference design
- TIDA-010224 – Low-power wireless camera reference design for extended battery life
- OPT3004 – Digital ambient light sensor (ALS) with increased angular IR rejection
- OPT4001 – High-speed high-precision digital ambient light sensor (ALS)
- OPT4001-Q1 – Automotive high-speed high-precision digital ambient light sensor (ALS)
- How to Select a Light Sensor for Your Application (Rev. C) – Application brief
High-resolution and high-speed color sensors to improve color accuracy
Light sensors for color adjustment measure the color temperature and adjust the colors of a display accordingly. Applications of color sensors include ambient light color sensing, relative color matching, absolute color matching and ambient light lux sensing.
Benefits:
- White-point adjustment ensures that content on a display is viewed as it would be on a white sheet of paper.
- Ability to distinguish light sources such as sunlight, compact fluorescent and fluorescent.
- Adjusting the color of ambient lighting to adjust the color in a display helps ensure color accuracy.
Featured resources
- How to Select a Light Sensor for Your Application (Rev. C) – Application brief
- Choosing a color sensor for your application – Video
Design & development resources
Light source calibration module
OPT3006 Field of View (FoV) Simulator
Linux driver for OPT3001 and OPT3006
The Linux driver supports the OPT30001 Digital Ambient Light Sensor (ALS) with High Precision Human Eye Response. The Linux driver supports communication through the I2C bus and registers to the IIO (Industrial Input/Output) class of the Linux kernel.
Linux Mainline StatusAvailable in Linux Main (...)