ROHM’s New Brightness Color Sensor Optimized for Smartphones

The BH1745NUC leverages original infrared removal technology and computing methods to achieve the industry’s highest* infrared cutoff characteristics, reducing the effects of infrared rays by over 10x compared with conventional products. This enables compatibility with dark (low permeability) optical windows – unlike conventional color sensors that cannot provide accurate detection due to the effects of infrared interference when dark windows are used.

In recent years a greater number of smartphones, tablets, and other display-equipped devices have begun to integrate color sensors in order to analyze the RGB components of ambient light for display image adjustment or perform backlight dimming based on the surrounding brightness levels.

Conventional color sensors require a transparent optical window in order to accurately detect visible (i.e. RGB) light. However, the design trend in many smartphones and portable devices is to adopt dark optical windows which, although more stylish, make it difficult to precisely detect colors, since less visible light gets through and the light that does permeate gets mixed in with IR rays.

In response, ROHM takes advantage of optical sensor expertise cultivated over many years, including original infrared removal technology and proprietary computing methods, to develop a color sensor that provides unmatched performance – even with dark optical windows.