IN Brief:
- IR:6 technology provides brightness gains of up to 35% and efficiency improvements reaching 42%.
- Emitters are available at 850nm, 920nm, and 940nm for different detector and visibility requirements.
- Greater optical efficiency can reduce emitter count, thermal load, battery demand, and illumination-system size.
ams OSRAM is extending its IR:6 thin-film technology across a broader range of infrared emitters for biometric identification, machine vision, medical systems, security equipment, eye tracking, and industrial sensing.
The platform covers devices operating at 850nm, 920nm, and 940nm, with brightness improvements of up to 35% and efficiency gains reaching 42% over the preceding infrared chip generation. Available formats include compact OSLON P1616 and OSLON Black products, together with smaller Chip LED and FIREFLY packages for space-constrained equipment.
Package dimensions, viewing angles, output levels, and wavelengths can be selected around the intended camera, photodiode, working distance, and optical geometry. The new 920nm option occupies a position between the established 850nm and 940nm bands, balancing silicon image-sensor response against the visible red glow associated with high-output infrared sources.
Within the thin-film structure, a reflective layer redirects light that would otherwise leave through the rear of the die. Changes to the internal reflector, surface roughening, and current-spreading structure improve light extraction while reducing forward-voltage losses, and a more central bond-pad arrangement distributes current across the emitting area.
Greater radiant output can extend sensing range or shorten camera exposure, while higher efficiency can preserve the existing optical performance with lower electrical input. The resulting design options include smaller power supplies, reduced junction temperature, fewer emitters, and longer operation from a battery.
Emitter gains alter the wider optical budget
An infrared illumination system remains dependent on camera sensitivity, lens transmission, working distance, field of view, target reflectivity, exposure time, frame rate, and ambient-light filtering. Raising the emitter output can improve the received signal, although excessive illumination may create reflections, detector saturation, thermal stress, or eye-safety restrictions.
Efficiency improvements provide room to redistribute that budget. A security camera can maintain range while lowering power, a battery-operated access system can shorten its illumination pulse, and a biometric device can reduce the number of emitters arranged around the sensor. Fewer sources can simplify the PCB, driver circuitry, optical window, and thermal path.
Continuous or high-duty-cycle applications gain differently from pulsed systems. Driver-monitoring cameras, people-counting equipment, machine-vision installations, and number-plate recognition systems may illuminate a scene for long periods, making small reductions in electrical power significant for enclosure temperature and component ageing.
Short-pulse systems impose greater peak-current demands, with driver rise time, bond-wire capability, junction temperature, and PCB inductance determining whether the emitter reaches its specified optical output. Average power may remain modest while local voltage overshoot or current imbalance produces inconsistent pulses and accelerated degradation.
Wavelength selection also affects coexistence with neighbouring optical equipment because proximity sensors, time-of-flight modules, cameras, and remote controls may operate within the same space. Optical filters and modulation schemes must prevent one source from raising another receiver’s noise floor or triggering false measurements.
The 920nm option provides another compromise between detector sensitivity and visible appearance, but it does not remove the need to characterise the complete transmitter and receiver chain. Silicon detectors generally respond more strongly at 850nm, whereas 940nm can provide less visible illumination and compatibility with established filter components.
Compound-semiconductor demand is extending upstream from packaged emitters into specialist wafer production, with IQE securing a $14 million wafer order for optical data-centre components. Infrared sensing and optical communications use different device structures, yet both rely on materials and epitaxial processes beyond the capability of conventional silicon logic manufacturing.
ams OSRAM manufactures the IR:6 chips in Regensburg and controls their progression into packaged emitters, supporting consistency across die, package, and optical bins. Equipment manufacturers must still account for tolerances in radiant flux, wavelength, beam profile, thermal resistance, and ageing throughout the finished product’s operating range.
The IR:6 platform improves the electrical-to-optical conversion available at the emitter, while system-level gains will depend on driver accuracy, thermal design, detector selection, mechanical alignment, and calibration across temperature and lifetime.
