Built on Vishay's SurfLight surface emitter chip technology, the Vishay Semiconductors devices provide up to five times greater radiant intensity than standard IR emitters, reducing component counts, improving performance, and lowering solution costs in a wide range of infrared illumination, data transmission, and gesture recognition applications.

The devices released today include one leaded 5 mm IR emitter with a parabolic lens and eight SMD devices in 0805, PLCC-2, top-looking, and side-looking packages. Unlike standard IR emitters that emit light in all directions, Vishay's SurfLight devices emit nearly all the light and power out of the top of the chip. With most of the light concentrated on the surface, higher intensity is achieved — up to an exceptionally high 600 mW/sr for the leaded emitter and from 10 mW/sr to 120 mW/sr for the SMD devices.

The SurfLight emitters combine their high brightness with narrow angles of half intensity of ± 3° for the leaded device and ± 9° to ± 60° for SMD devices. With their 940 nm wavelength and narrow spectral bandwidth, the emitters guarantee invisible infrared radiation for CMOS cameras in CCTV and night vision systems, gaming, smoke detectors, light curtains, proximity sensors, and IR touch panels. For automotive applications, the SMD VSMY1940X01 and VSMY3940X01 are AEC-Q101-qualified.

The IR emitters offer fast rise and fall times of 10 ns, low forward voltages down to 1.32 V at 20 mA, and radiant power to 55 mW. Top-looking devices are package matched with Vishay's VEMD2000X01 and VEMD2503X01 series detectors, while side-looking devices are matched with the VEMD2xx3SLX01 and VEMT2xx3SLX01.

The IR emitters are suitable for high pulse current operation, offer a floor life up to four weeks, and feature moisture sensitivity levels of 2a and 3 in accordance with J-STD-020. Supporting lead (Pb)-free reflow soldering, the devices are RoHS-compliant, halogen-free, and Vishay GREEN.