OPTEK Develops Family of Surface Mount Infrared Emitters and Matching Sensors

Nov. 17, 2006
Providing design engineers with a number of surface mount devices for a broad range of applications, TT electronics OPTEK Technology has developed a family of infrared emitters and matching sensors.  Designated the OP280 and OP580 Series respectively, the OP280 Series infrared emitter family consists of three standard and 2 specialty devices, while the OP580 Series encompasses three silicon photo sensors.According to Dave Birtalan, vice president of OPTEK Technology’s Components Business Unit, the OP280 family of infrared emitters was developed to aid engineers in reaching specific design goals.  “We offer both standard and specialty devices, and each emitter in the five-product series has a unique characteristic, so design engineers can choose the most applicable device for their design,” said Birtalan.  “The matching sensor products, which include phototransistors and photodarlingtons, are a good pair for the emitters due to their wide optical sensitivity range and temperature stability.”The emitters and sensors are ideal for a variety of applications, including paper sensing in office equipment, industrial automation control, optical encoder equipment and bar code readers.The OP280 Series of infrared emitters consists of three standard devices, including the OP180 940nm infrared emitter, the OP280 880nm infrared emitter, and the OP280K 890nm high power infrared emitter; as well as the OP280PS 850nm point source infrared emitter and OP280V 850nm vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) specialty devices.The OP580 family of matching sensors consists of the OP580 silicon phototransistor, the OP580PR silicon photodarlington, and the OP580RB silicon phototransistor with an integrated base-emitter resistor, which can be integrated into applications where low-level light rejection or improved contrast ratio is needed for sensing difficult materials. Both the emitters and sensors are housed in industry standard PLCC-2 surface mount packaging.Pricing for the OP280 and OP580 Series infrared emitters and sensors ranges from $0.22 to $2.85 in quantities of 1,000.  Lead time, if stock is not available, is from 6 to 8 weeks.