Digital SMD IR Detectors

ezPyro™ SMD – integrated digital pyroelectric sensor system

• the world’s first surface mount pyroelectric sensor

• the world’s smallest digital SMD pyroelectric sensor

New in the ezPyro family

ezPyro SMD+ – extends the application and wavelength range above 5 µm

ezPyro SMD Dual – adds a second channel for reference or dual wavelength sensing

Compared with other pyroelectric and thermopile sensors, this family has high sensitivity, faster response, fast switch-on, lower power consumption, more configurability and easier integration which makes the ezPyro™ SMD a unique solution for gas, flame, motion and gesture detection. The unique thin film pyroelectric sensors inside ezPyro™ sensors offer high SNR and a large dynamic range.

A configurable fully integrated system for infrared detection

Packing a great deal into a tiny package, ezPyro™ combines one or more pyroelectric sensor elements with a digital ASIC. Wavelength-specific sensing is achieved using factory configured optical filters. Configurable signal amplification, filtering and digitisation (ADC), as well as power management are all integrated in this smallest sensor of its kind.

The ezPyro™ SMD sensors are available in a number of configurations, including single element sensors and 2×2 arrays. A number of application specific filter options are available. For instance there are specific filters for the detection of gases such as carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO₂), Methane (CH₄) and other hydrocarbons or nitric oxide (NO), or for detection of flames.

Fast design cycle with standard I²C serial interface and development tools

The industry standard I²C bus digital interface allows plug-and-play connectivity to most microcontrollers. Hardware-based communication is less software-intensive and reduces utilisation of microcontroller resources.

The fast development cycle of the ezPyro™ sensor family is supported by evaluation kits for flame, gas, motion and gesture detection. Other applications can be trialled using the ezPyro™ SMD prototyping system with up to 4 sensor breakout boards installed. Sensor evaluation without software development is enabled by Pyreos PC software.

ezPyro™ API is a firmware level driver providing access all functions of the integrated sensor system. No need to code command and register references before getting infrared signals out of your embedded development system!

Low volume custom filters

For special applications you can test your own custom filters on the ezPyro™ ePY12121 with 2.2 µm long pass filter or ePY12111 with 5.0 µm long pass filter.  Call us or contact us for a quote for a low volume custom filter.

Synchronised readout of multiple infrared sensors

Operating up to the FM+ I²C standard with clock speeds up to 1 MHz allows 4 or more sensors configured on the same bus. Each available channel can be individually configured using several variable filters. Another unique feature is that the sampling of multiple ezPyro™ sensors can easily be synchronized by distributing the clock signal of one ezPyro™ device to one or more others (“daisy-chaining”).

Pyroelectric sensor with unique power management

ezPyro™ is well suited to applications with low power budgets. Current consumption is well below 100 µA when fully activated and less than 1 µA in the lowest power mode. The low power modes come with fast wake up times and the innovative and configurable wake-up by signal (motion, gesture) feature.

Infrared emitter is the main power consumption sink in an NDIR system. Fast response of ezPyro™ SMD pyroelectric sensors enables energy saving in NDIR gas measurement applications, as the sensor responds optimally to IR source pulses as short as 25 ms. This is >10x shorter than a typical infrared bulb with thermopile gas measurement configuration.

ezPyro™ SMD detectors enable fast switch-on of a measurement system

Analysis systems comprising an infrared source and a detector, whether for gas or liquid measurement, need to go through a phase of temperature stabilisation. During this time the thermal infrared detector is exposed to a change in its temperature and incident IR light – a challenging situation for a device sensitive to very small changes in thermal energy. The Pyreos surface mountable pyroelectric sensors allow measurements to be taken within seconds, not minutes, on system power up.