Intersil Enters Light Sensor Market With Single Chip, Low Power Device.

MILPITAS, Calif. -- The EL7900 is a Light-to-Current Optical Sensor, Combining a Photodiode and a Current Amplifier on a Single Chip

Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ:ISIL), a world leader in the design and manufacture of high performance analog solutions, today announced the release of the EL7900, an optical sensor that converts light to current. The device operates in a wide range of lighting conditions from 1 lux to 10,000 lux. This information can be used to determine the amount of ambient light present, which allows automatic backlight or brightness control for backlit keyboards and LCD monitors. This allows devices such as cell phones, laptops or any handheld device to decrease overall system power consumption by dynamically controlling the current sent to the display or backlight.

The EL7900 is easy to use. Traditional light sensing applications have used photodiodes in combination with complicated signal conditioning circuits. The EL7900 provides a simple current output that can be converted into a voltage with a single external resistor. This opens up many new possibilities in motion sensing, intrusion detection and other various medical or industrial sensing applications.

A typical display will consume the same amount of power until a user changes the system settings, which is usually brightness control. In very bright areas like an outdoor setting, users tend to increase the brightness of the display. This increases the power consumption of the system. When the conditions change, like walking into building or operating a laptop on a flight, most users don't change the settings and the system power consumption remains high. By using the EL7900 ambient light sensor, a system can now detect changing conditions and automatically adjust the settings to keep the display at optimal brightness and reduce overall power usage. The EL7900 also consumes little power itself, so there is no overhead by integrating it into the system.

There are several key factors for ambient light sensors. First, the output current must be linear to the light intensity and spectral wavelength sensitivity should be very close to the human eye. The EL7900 excels in both these areas. The device output current is directly proportional to the light intensity on the integrated photodiode and the peak response of 540nm is extremely close to the peak sensitivity of the human eye. The EL7900 is designed to sense ambient light from 380nm to 770nm.

"As handheld designers are pushed to extend battery life of their device, innovative methods for saving power are being devised," said Oleg Steciw, Intersil's product line manager for ambient light sensors. "Our new EL7900 provides better brightness management, as well as, an improved solution to discrete photo resistor and/or photodiode use, where linearity is worse, and an additional amplifier is usually needed."

Adding to the family of ambient light sensors, Intersil is also introducing the ISL29000. This is an extremely low power ambient light sensor suitable for the most demanding portable applications. Although it consumes less current, the ISL29000 provides the same linear response and wavelength sensitivity of the EL7900.

The EL7900 and ISL29000 also perform over a wide operating temperature; -40 degrees C to +85 degrees C. This allows for integration into a number of demanding applications where extreme ranges of temperatures are normal. The EL7900 is another example of Intersil's approach to providing solutions to real world analog problems and is a great addition to a growing family of display products.

EL7900 and ISL29000 Technical Summary

Features

--Integrated photodiode and amplifier

--2.5V to 5.5V supply range

--Excellent linearity

--Low power consumption

--Ultra-compact package

Pricing and Availability

EL7900 is available now in a 5-ld ODFN lead-free finish (RoHS compliant). The suggested resale price in 1000 unit quantities is $0.70.

Learn more about Intersil's complete family of display solutions that satisfy a broad range of applications, including computing, communications, mobile phones and handheld devices at: http://www.intersil.com/display

About Intersil

Intersil Corporation, a NASDAQ 100 Index company, is a leader in the design and manufacture of high performance analog semiconductors. The company's products address three of the industry's fastest growing markets: flat panel displays, optical storage (CD and DVD recordable) and power management. Intersil products include power management devices for battery management, hot-swap and hot-plug controllers, linear regulators, supervisory ICs, switching DC / DC regulators and power MOSFET drivers; optical storage laser diode drivers; DSL line drivers; video and high performance operational amplifiers; data converters; interface ICs; analog switches and multiplexers; crosspoint switches; voice-over-IP devices; and ICs for military, space and rad-hard applications. For more information about Intersil or to find out how to become a member of our winning team, visit the company's web site and career page at http://www.intersil.com.

This release may include "forward looking statements" that are subject to risks and uncertainties. For information identifying economic, political, climatic, currency, regulatory, technological, competitive and some other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward looking statements, see Intersil's Safe Harbor Forward Looking Statement disclaimer found at http://www.intersil.com/legal.asp, as well as Intersil's SEC filings as updated from time to time, found at http://www.sec.gov.

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