News The world's first position sensing phototransistor - with enhanced light sensitivity! A well-known problem area within non-contact measurement has been in applications where the measurable light is of very low intensity - such as measuring against dark, light- absorbing objects. As solution to this problem - thanks to a long-running development programme - SiTek can today present the world's first position sensing phototransistor, designated as ES-PSD (Enhanced light Sensitivity-PSD). This new component has a light sensitivity that is at least five times higher than SiTek's standard PSD. This makes it very useful in situations where one is operating with weak light signals. An example is in trian-gulation against dark surfaces such as rubber. The new ES component is based on the same operating principle for position determination as SiTek's earlier detectors i.e. with photocurrent division in resistive layers. The difference is that this current is now generated and amplified in a photo transistor instead of a photo diode. The advantage of the new component is that it permits measurements with much lower light intensities than a standard PSD as well as the fact that it can be controlled with a base current. This control may be utilised for switching the PSD 'on-off' or -with an external feedback - to regulate the component's amplification in order e.g. to maintain the photocurrent constant, and in this way avoid light intensity variations which could affect the position signal. Please contact us for further information info@sitek.se. « home