company blog about Supply ON Sensor Evaluation Board:Ultrasonic Sensor,Ambient Light Sensor,Photodetector

Supply ON Sensor Evaluation Board:Ultrasonic Sensor,Ambient Light Sensor,Photodetector

Shenzhen Mingjiada Electronics Co., Ltd., as a leading global distributor of electronic components, adheres to the development philosophy of ‘quality first, reasonable pricing, prompt delivery, customer-centric service, and customer loyalty,’ continuously improving product quality and service standards to provide cost-effective chip supply services for clients in industries such as industrial control, automotive electronics, and consumer electronics.

Main products include: integrated circuits (ICs), 5G chips, new energy ICs, IoT chips, Bluetooth chips, automotive chips, AI ICs, Ethernet ICs, memory chips, sensors, IGBT modules, and a wide range of other products.

Supply chain advantages:

Authenticity Guaranteed: All products are sourced through authorised channels, ensuring 100% genuine authenticity, with complete original batch numbers and compliance documentation provided.

Global inventory network: The company maintains over 2 million inventory models, ensuring ample stock reserves. Through the coordinated operation of its Shenzhen central warehouse and Hong Kong bonded warehouse, it can achieve 48-hour express delivery, with some urgent orders even supported for domestic shipment within 24 hours.

Price competitiveness: Through large-scale procurement and optimised supply chain management, we offer customers the most competitive market prices, reducing overall project costs.

I. Ambient Light Sensor Evaluation Board: Precise Perception of the Visible World

The core function of an Ambient Light Sensor (ALS) is to mimic human vision, accurately measuring ambient light intensity to enable automatic screen dimming, intelligent lighting control, and similar applications. The primary purpose of the evaluation board is to assist developers in verifying sensor performance across different spectral ranges, illuminance levels, and covering materials.

1. Core Evaluation Dimensions and Application Scenarios

Evaluating modern ambient light sensors extends far beyond merely reading a brightness value. Taking Texas Instruments' (TI) OPT4003DNPQ1EVM as an example, it focuses on assessing a dual-channel (visible light and infrared) automotive-grade sensor. Key evaluation points include:

Spectral Response Matching: Verifying whether the sensor effectively suppresses infrared light, ensuring its response curve approximates the human eye's ‘photopic curve’ to prevent misjudgements in infrared-rich environments (such as sunlight).

Wide dynamic range and linearity: Testing whether the sensor maintains accurate linearity across its output range from dim to intense light (e.g., 0.01 lux to 100,000 lux), which is crucial for achieving smooth automatic brightness adjustment.

Multi-channel data fusion: For dual-channel sensors like the OPT4003-Q1, the evaluation board's GUI software visually displays independent data from visible and infrared channels. This aids developers in debugging fusion algorithms to distinguish natural light from artificial sources.

Such evaluation boards find extensive applications. For instance, within vehicle cockpits, they automatically adjust instrument panel and central display brightness based on ambient light; in smart homes, they enable light-sensing control for thermostats and security cameras; and in high-end consumer electronics, they even monitor storage environments for light-sensitive items (such as pharmaceuticals and artworks).

II. Photodetector Evaluation Boards: Capturing the Faintest Light Signals

Photodetectors, particularly avalanche photodiodes (APDs) and silicon photomultiplier tubes (SiPMs), serve as the ‘eagle eyes’ for detecting minute light signals. They find extensive use in LiDAR, fibre optic communications, and high-precision ranging. The core task of their evaluation boards is to enable engineers to precisely quantify the device's extreme performance amidst complex noise.

1. Core Evaluation Dimensions and Application Scenarios

Evaluating photodetectors demands extreme precision, requiring evaluation boards to provide low-noise, highly stable testing environments:

Noise Equivalent Power (NEP): This gold standard metric for detector sensitivity indicates the minimum optical power required to achieve a signal-to-noise ratio of 1. A lower NEP value indicates superior capability to detect faint light. For instance, Phlux's evaluation board for its Aura APD incorporates a dedicated ultra-low-noise preamplifier, achieving an exceptional NEP performance of <30 fW/√Hz to meet the stringent demands of defence-grade laser ranging.

Gain and Responsivity: Evaluation boards must precisely apply and adjust the high reverse bias required for APDs, while measuring their efficiency in converting optical signals to electrical signals at specific wavelengths (e.g., 1550nm). Phlux's evaluation boards streamline the measurement process for APD responsivity.

Dynamic Characteristics: For high-speed applications like LiDAR, the pulse response time (rise/fall time) of detectors is critical. Evaluation boards typically feature high-speed interfaces (e.g., SMA connectors) for direct oscilloscope observation of dynamic waveforms.

Such evaluation boards serve as catalysts for cutting-edge technology deployment. In autonomous driving, they assess APD performance for LiDAR systems; in quantum communication, they test single-photon detection capabilities; and in industrial sensing, they enable high-precision haze measurement or component analysis.

III. Ultrasonic Sensor Evaluation Board: Precise Time-of-Flight Measurement

Ultrasonic sensing measures distance, liquid level, or flow by calculating the ‘time-of-flight’ (ToF) of sound waves. The core function of its evaluation board is to process nanosecond-level time differences and convert them into stable, reliable distance information.

1. Core Evaluation Dimensions and Application Scenarios

The ultrasonic evaluation solution integrates an analogue front end (AFE), driver circuitry, and a digital processing unit. The evaluation focuses on the integrity of the entire signal chain:

Drive and Receive Chain Performance: The evaluation board must generate sufficiently intense high-voltage pulses to drive ultrasonic transducers (e.g., using H-bridge drivers), while its receive chain requires exceptional sensitivity and dynamic range to capture faint echoes reflected from objects. TI's BOOSTXL-TUSS4470 evaluation module is renowned for its flexible receive path filter selection and high-sensitivity logarithmic amplifier.

Time-of-Flight (ToF) Measurement Accuracy and Interference Resistance: The critical challenge lies in precisely identifying the origin of echoes amidst environmental noise and multipath reflections. For instance, TI's TDC1000-TDC7200EVM directly integrates a high-precision Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) chip, specifically engineered for picosecond-level time interval measurement, thereby achieving millimetre-level ranging accuracy.

System Integration and Algorithm Validation: Most evaluation boards (such as the TDC1000-TDC7200EVM) incorporate on-board microcontrollers (e.g., MSP430) and provide graphical user interfaces (GUIs). This allows developers to adjust drive parameters and filter settings in real time while directly observing measurement results, enabling rapid validation of liquid level, flow rate, or obstacle avoidance algorithms.

Their applications are extensive, spanning automotive (parking assistance, blind spot monitoring), industrial (tank level monitoring, pipeline flow metering, UAV altitude hold) and consumer electronics (obstacle avoidance in robotic vacuum cleaners).