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TSL2560, TSL2561
LIGHT-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER
TAOS059K
APRIL 2007
22
Copyright 2007, TAOS Inc.
The
LUMENOLOGY
Company
www.taosinc.com
APPLICATION INFORMATION: SOFTWARE
Calculating Lux
The TSL256x is intended for use in ambient light detection applications such as display backlight control, where
adjustments are made to display brightness or contrast based on the brightness of the ambient light, as
perceived by the human eye. Conventional silicon detectors respond strongly to infrared light, which the human
eye does not see. This can lead to significant error when the infrared content of the ambient light is high, such
as with incandescent lighting, due to the difference between the silicon detector response and the brightness
perceived by the human eye.
This problem is overcome in the TSL256x through the use of two photodiodes. One of the photodiodes
(channel 0) is sensitive to both visible and infrared light, while the second photodiode (channel 1) is sensitive
primarily to infrared light. An integrating ADC converts the photodiode currents to digital outputs. Channel 1
digital output is used to compensate for the effect of the infrared component of light on the channel 0 digital
output. The ADC digital outputs from the two channels are used in a formula to obtain a value that approximates
the human eye response in the commonly used Illuminance unit of Lux:
Chipscale Package
For 0 < CH1/CH0
For 0.52 < CH1/CH0
For 0.65 < CH1/CH0
For 0.80 < CH1/CH0
For CH1/CH0 > 1.30
0.52
0.65
0.80
1.30
Lux = 0.0315
Lux = 0.0229
Lux = 0.0157
Lux = 0.00338
Lux = 0
CH0
0.0593
CH0
0.0291
CH0
0.0180
CH0
0.00260
CH0
CH1
CH1
CH1
((CH1/CH0)
1.4
)
TMB Package
For 0 < CH1/CH0
For 0.50 < CH1/CH0
For 0.61 < CH1/CH0
For 0.80 < CH1/CH0
For CH1/CH0 > 1.30
0.50
0.61
0.80
1.30
Lux = 0.0304
Lux = 0.0224
Lux = 0.0128
Lux = 0.00146
Lux = 0
CH0
0.062
CH0
0.031
CH0
0.0153
CH0
0.00112
CH0
CH1
CH1
((CH1/CH0)
1.4
)
CH1
The formulas shown above were obtained by optical testing with fluorescent and incandescent light sources,
and apply only to open-air applications. Optical apertures (e.g. light pipes) will affect the incident light on the
device.
Simplified Lux Calculation
Below is the argument and return value including source code (shown on following page) for calculating lux.
The source code is intended for embedded and/or microcontroller applications. Two individual code sets are
provided, one for the chipscale package and one for the TMB package. All floating point arithmetic operations
have been eliminated since embedded controllers and microcontrollers generally do not support these types
of operations. Since floating point has been removed, scaling must be performed prior to calculating illuminance
if the integration time is not 402 ms and/or if the gain is not 16
pages. This sequence scales first to mitigate rounding errors induced by decimal math.
as denoted in the source code on the following
extern unsigned int CalculateLux(unsigned int iGain, unsigned int tInt, unsigned int
ch0, unsigned int ch1, int iType)