Vishay Telefunken

Application Overview
Compatibility to an Existing
Application
The normal application of the Vishay Telefunken IR
receiver modules is the operation in a system which is
already fixed by the customer (data formt and
decoding software). Usually the TSOP receiver
module will work correctly at the first go.
In case the receiver module does not operate as good
as expected the following items should be checked:
In Table 3 there are mentioned the most popular IR
remote control data formats and the suitable IR
receiver types.
If a data format is not mentioned in Table 3 then Carrier
frequency, Burst length and Gap length in the data
signal (see Table 2) should be checked.
If there is uncertainty regarding the selection of the
type we recommend the TSOP17 series.
0.9
Output Pulse Width tpo [ms]
If the receiver does still not give a sufficient result we
recommend to check the following:
• Possible disturbance sources
(light, EMI, spikes on supply) as described above,
• Optical window in front of the sensitive area,
light guide coupling,
• Output pulse timing of the decoding software.
Output Pulse Width Tolerances
The decoding software must accept the output pulses
of the IR receiver. In Figure 21 is an actual example of
the output pulse width depending on the optical input
power. This diagram gives also an indication for the
output pulse width jitter (difference between min. pulse
width and max. pulse width at a given irradinace).
tpo – min
tpo – average

0.8
tpo – max

0.7

0.6

0.5
Testsignal: 22 cycles/burst, f=38kHz
TSOP1238
0.4

0.3
0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 10000
Irradiance [mW/ m2]
Figure 21. Statistcal Evaluation of 1000 Output Pulses at each Irradiance

Table 8. Tolerances of the Output Pulse Width (tpo) in correlation to the input burst length (tpi):
Tolerance band for the
Type Number Condition
output pulse width
TSOP11xx, TSOP12xx, TSOP13xx,
weak irradiances
TSOP17xx, TSOP18xx, TSOP28xx, tpi – 6/fo < tpo < tpi +6/fo
(< 2mW/m@)
TSOP21xx, TSOP22xx, TSOP48xx
TSOP11xx, TSOP12xx, TSOP13xx,
for medium and strong signals
TSOP17xx, TSOP18xx, TSOP28xx, tpi –1/fo < tpo < tpi +6/fo
(> 2mW/m@)
TSOP21xx, TSOP22xx, TSOP48xx
TSOP18xxSS3V, TFMM5xx0 For all irradiances > 0.5mW/m@ tpi – 6/fo < tpo < tpi +6/fo

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Vishay Telefunken
The tolerance of the output pulse width is given in
Table 8 for all TSOP IR receiver modules. These
tolerances include the entire range of temperature,
supply voltage, irradiance and jitter.
Example of Application Circuit for Remote Control
If a new system is set up and a encoder and decoder
for the IR signal is required then we recommend the
circuit in Figure 22 using the RC5 Code and ICs from
Philips. If there is already a microcontroler in the
If there would be a compatibility problem because of
the output pulse level or the output pulse switching
time then an external pull up resistor (10kΩ − see
Figure 18) should solve the problem.
application circuit then it may be more economical to
put the decoding software in the existing
microcontroler.

+3V . . 220µF
. +5V

100Ω
2.2Ω Data

TSAL6400
.
10µF
Address

Toggle

TSOP1836
Keys
SAA3010
. . . SAA3049

429kHz 4MHz

Figure 22. Typical Application Circuit for Vishay Telefunken IR Receivers

Application in Sensors
Although the main application of the TSOP modules is
remote control it has also good properties for
optoelectronic sensors or light barrier systems. A light
barrier distance of 10 m or a reflective sensor for 1 m
detection distance are feasible. Some special features
are: high sensitivity, low interference to ambient
disturbance sources, compact outline, low supply
current consumption. However there are some
restrictions for the optical signal because the AGC
must not be triggered by this continuously received
signal. Unlike to a remote control application, it may
happen in a sensor that the irradiance of the signal is
increasing slowly from below 0.2mW/m@ (to weak to be
received). This may happen when e.g. an obstacle is
removed slowly out of a light barrier. In such a case
there are different limitations for the IR signal than in
a remote control.

Table 9. IR Signal Limitation in Sensor Applications

TSOP11xx TSOP12xx TSOP TSOP TSOP18 TSOP TFMM
TSOP21xx TSOP15xx 13xx 17xx TSOP28 18xx 5xx0
TSOP22xx SS3V
TSOP48xx
Minimum Burst Length 6 10 6 10 6 6 12
(number of cycles in a burst)
Minimum Burst Repetition Time 2.5 ms 6 ms 7.5 ms 2.8 ms 15ms 26 ms 1.3 ms
using the shortest burst

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If the sensor application does not allow any
unexpected output pulses then we recommend an
additional suppression of this kind of false signal.
Usually the internal AGC takes care to suppress such
unwanted pulses. However, there is a risk of false
pulses when the illumination is increasing fastly.
A low rate of noise pulses (< 15 pulses/minute) is
possible even in constant illumination. To overcome
this problem, the signal bursts should be longer than
500 µs. As the noise pulses are usually shorter than
400 µs a hardware or software filter can suppress
easily the false pulses.
Application in Battery Powered
Systems
There are two main limitations using the IR receiver
modules in a battery powered system: The supply
voltage range and the supply current.
The type TSOP18xxSS3V is specially designed for a
wide range of supply voltage. It can be operated from
3V to 6V. In a limited temperature range (+5°C to
+55°C) it will also operate correctly till 2.7V.
All other IR receiver modules from Vishay Telefunken
need a supply voltage range of 4.5 V to 5.5 V.
The supply current of approximately 1 mA is too much
for continuous operation at a normal battery. If the
power supply can not be turned off because a stand by
receiving function for IR signals is required then the
supply voltage can be turned on repetitively for a short
duration (e.g. 1ms on, 200ms off). If the IR receiver
can see a signal in this time window then the supply
voltage is turned on for a longer period of time to
receive the full data command.
With switching the power to the ”on” state the AGC is
setting the internal gain of the IR receiver modules to
a fixed initial value which is approximately twice the
normal threshold irradiance in dark ambient (half
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Vishay Telefunken
sensitivity). As the AGC is changing the gain only
slowly to a higher or lower sensitivity there is a fixed
sensitivity in such a stand by operation. This ”stand by
sensitivity” is less than in normal operation and dark
ambient, but it is a higher sensitivity than in normal
operation and high illuminated ambient. Hence under
strong disturbance there may be also unwanted pulses
because the sensitivity is not adapted. These
unwanted pulses may cause a false wake up but they
should not cause a false action (no valid data).
In order to save battery power also on the emitter side
our recommendation is to reduce the carrier duty cycle
(see chapter about Band Pass Filter) and the envelope
duty cycle (selection or modification of IR data format).
Applications with Bi directional
Transmission:
A two way communication in half duplex mode is
possible with the Vishay Telefunken IR receiver
modules. The selectivity to use two IR channels (e.g.
one at 30kHz and one at 56kHz) at the same time in
the same space is not sufficient for full duplex mode.
In a bi directional IR transmission the receiver will see
the signal of both sides: the one which is sent from the
opposite side as well as the signal which is sent to the
other side. For an IR receiver in such an application
usually the tranmitted signal is is much stronger than
the received signal. In order to have the full sensitivity
we recommend a gap time of 15 ms between
transmitting and receiving. In this gap time the
Automatic Threshold Control (ATC) of the IR receiver
has recovered.
The data signal limitations (Table 2, Table 6) which are
related to the AGC are the same as for the normal one
way transmission. However the signals of both sides
should be evaluated.
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