Decrypt OSRAM's core competitiveness of infrared LED

With the development of optical fiber network and the maturity of Internet technology, all kinds of creative and technology products have more room for development. In the CESAsia2016 exhibition, LEDinside observed more and more creative technology products and related products came out, among them need collocation infrared sensing technology. Including the popular VR head wearing device, or can measure the heartbeat and pulse of a variety of wearable devices, visible infrared sensing technology in human-computer interaction, which plays a very important role.

In the CES Asia2016 workshop, the vision for science and technology put forward various technology giants, the future direction of development, advanced technology for mobile devices (advance technology in mobile application) issues, OSRAM infrared photoelectric products marketing manager (Infrared Products, Product marketing manager, Christoph Goeltner) with LEDinside shared OSRAM photo the infrared sensing technology view.

Christoph Goeltner, Product Marketing Manager, Infrared Products OSRAM Opto Semiconductors. (LEDinside) (of)

Christoph said that at present we observed in the infrared sensing market, the main application is nothing more than the following: Bio sensor, position and motion tracking sensor, and iris, face recognition technology. 3D sensing, as well as several applications such as spectral sensors. The development speed of each technology is not the same. These applications will be implemented one by one in the foreseeable future.

Improved IR bio sensing devices (Bio Sensing) can accurately create more new applications

At this stage, most of the bio sensor with smart watches, to measure the heartbeat and pulse. But since the launch of the APPLE Watch APPLE, there seems to be no more exciting goods appear on the market. Christoph believes that the current measurement technology is not precise enough reason. In addition to improving the performance of optical sensing elements, it is also necessary to improve the algorithm, and even the system industry. To be able to create a new application.

Christoph further explains why it is important to measure the data accurately. For example, if the heart beat frequency can be measured accurately, it can generate a lot of information. For example, the use of heart rate can be derived from the measurement of alcohol in the blood. Or in the driving environment, through the accurate measurement of the heartbeat and pulse, you can determine whether the owner's mental condition is too tight, or poor physical condition, can be prevented in advance. Even the data can be provided to the insurance industry, the insurance industry for users to develop different premium rates, the resulting business opportunities will be very large.

Osram''s Oslon IR LED. (Photo courtesy of Osram) (Black)

IRLED can strengthen the man-machine interface and other applications

At this stage, quite a number of scientific and technological products need to use infrared sensing technology to interact with users. Including iris recognition, as well as face recognition technology into the phone or personal computer, to enhance the security of personal privacy information. The VR device, but also with a lot of infrared sensing technology, including location tracking (Position tracking), so that users can interact with the virtual layout. Or the use of eye tracking technology (Eye tracking), through the interpretation of the focus of the vision, and for the local surface to enhance resolution processing, but also help to improve the processing speed of the VR device. How to make the user experience more smooth, the key to the development of the technology.

Osram''s IR Video Camera. (Photo courtesy of Osram) (Dragon)

Integration of infrared laser, the application of 3D sensing technology in the 3D sensing /3D Sensing

3D sensing is not a new technology, but combined with the infrared laser, as well as the camera module, the data can be more accurate interpretation. You can imagine, in the future to buy a wardrobe IKEA, just use 3D Sensing to scan the size of the furniture, you can determine whether the wardrobe is able to plug into your bedroom space.

Osram''sIR small emitters.

New future applications of spectral sensors (Spectroscopy sensor)

Currently on the market of the main spectral sensors are used for detection purposes, where the resolution for molecular characterization, concentration measurement, material characterization, Astronomical Spectral measurement, many sophisticated experiments also require the assistance of collocation spectrometer sensor. In the future, through the promotion of infrared sensing technology, as well as the improvement of the algorithm, and even do not rule out the use of the spectrometer to detect the freshness of the food, or whether the food is toxic and other characteristics.

Christoph noted that although this technology still looks very far, but the market demand is very clear, he even predicted the future five years after each mobile phone needs to have such a function, so that every housewife can easily pick out the water more watermelon..

Rome is not a day, the industrial ecosystem (Ecosystem) with the accumulation of basic knowledge is the key

Despite the prospect of an infrared sensor market looks promising, but there are still a lot of technical bottlenecks and challenges. Don't be a variety of different applications for optical characteristics, power consumption, or eye safety requirements are not the same, but the strengths of OSRAM photoelectric sensor terminal know how, including IR from the light emitting element LED or Photodiode, and even the packaging technology, optical design