Reaping The Benefits Of Custom Optical Sensors | Sensors Magazine
Finding an off-the-shelf solution for a specific optical sensor application becomes extremely challenging and requires a certain level of optical, electrical and mechanical engineering expertise to ensure the solution functions consistently and reliably. Designing compatible light emitters, sensor sensitivity, optical power, and electrical characteristics, while balancing stack-up tolerances and overall cost is difficult, even for the simplest development projects.
Each application is unique, and integrating commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) sensor components oftentimes does not produce the desired outcome given the countless parameters being considered. COTS solutions may provide too wide or too little detection sensitivity, and could lead to a false reading or inconsistent results. Designing the optimum sensor solution with the appropriate sensitivity range, opto-electrical performance and footprint becomes critical to ensure precise, consistent and reliable performance always.