Proximity Sensor Travels a New Path

Aug. 9, 2022

STMicroelectronics' engineer Tom Bocchino explains how the company's TMOS sensor can detect human presence and proximity.

William G. Wong

Related To: Electronic Design

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STMicroelectronics' TMOS sensors handle presence sensing using a 5- to 20-µm passive IR sensor. This provides more accurate results as well as information about the distance rather than just a basic threshold typically provided by other technologies.

In this video, ST's Tom Bocchino shows off the STHS34PF80 (Fig. 1), including discussion of this low-power TMOS sensor's operation.

1. The STHS34PF80 proximity sensor uses time-of-flight technology to detect objects within 4 m without the need for a cover lens.

The module can detect object up to 4 m away without a lens, and up to 6 m for assumable human body sizes. The SMD-mountable device is capable of distinguishing between stationary and moving objects. It has an 80-degree field of view and is calibrated in the factory.

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William G. Wong | Senior Content Director - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF

I am Editor of Electronic Design focusing on embedded, software, and systems. As Senior Content Director, I also manage Microwaves & RF and I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, programmers, developers and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

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I earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Computer Science from Rutgers University. I still do a bit of programming using everything from C and C++ to Rust and Ada/SPARK. I do a bit of PHP programming for Drupal websites. I have posted a few Drupal modules.

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