“Prior to Intersil’s time-of-flight technology breakthrough, there was no practical way to measure distance up to two meters in a small form factor,” said Andrew Cowell, Senior Vice President of Mobile Power Products at Intersil. “The IC provides customers a cost-effective, small footprint solution that also gives them the flexibility to use multiple devices to increase the field of view to a full 360 degrees for enhanced object detection capabilities.”

“The ISL29501 ToF device offers one-of-a-kind functionality, including ultra-small size, low-power consumption and superior performance suitable for connected devices that make up the Internet of Things (IoT), as well as consumer mobile devices and the emerging commercial drone and aerobat market.” commented by Andrew Cowell.

“The IC works well under low-light, strong light and even no light, along with features that is easily programmable, flexible and customized into system.” added Andrew Cowell.

The IC overcomes the shortcomings of traditional amplitude-based proximity sensors and other ToF solutions that perform poorly in lighting conditions above 2,000 lux, or cannot provide distance information unless the object is perpendicular to the sensor.

Nevertheless, alternative solutions are too expensive, bulky or power hungry for use in small form factor, battery-powered applications. Based on Intersil’s patented technology, the ISL29501 sensor provides a small solution footprint and precision long-range accuracy up to two meters in both dark and bright ambient light conditions.

Unlike competitive solutions, the ISL29501 allows customers to select the emitter and photodiode of their choice and configure a low power ToF sensing system customized for their application. To make system design easy for customers, Intersil offers a reference design featuring the ISL29501, emitter and photodiode, along with graphical user interface (GUI) software and user’s guide.