ST introduces industrial-grade single-zone direct ToF sensors with a wider operating temperature range

     ST has introduced the VL53L4ED, a single-zone time-of-flight (ToF) sensor with an extended operating temperature range of -40°C to 105°C. VL53L4ED is suitable for industrial equipment, intelligent factory equipment, robot guidance system, outdoor lighting control, security monitoring system and other harsh environment applications, can improve the proximity detection accuracy and measurement distance under high ambient light conditions.the sensor system is compatible with each other. Available in a 4.4mm x 2.4mm x 1mm high LGA package.

     The VL53L4ED is a new addition to ST's VL53L4 family of direct time-of-flight sensor sensors, integrating a laser emitter and a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detector array in an easy-to-use, all-in-one module that provides reliable measurement data even under extreme temperature conditions. The next generation of lasers provides excellent ranging performance and proximity detection accuracy in environments with high ambient light. In addition, the sensor has a built-in processor that enables power-saving autonomous operation mode, reducing the resource requirements on the main controller system.

     ST's new ToF sensor can locate objects up to 1150 mm with high accuracy over the entire field Angle and the entire temperature range. Special Settings allow the sensor to accurately measure objects up to 800 mm under conditions of intense ambient light. The VL53L4ED sensor maintains good linearity down to 1 mm and supports ranging frequencies up to 100Hz.

     Developers can take advantage of the X-CUBE-TOF1 extension package for the STM32Cube ecosystem to accelerate the development of VL53L4 series sensing projects. Ready-to-use software also includes the STSW-IMG034 driver, which uses interrupt commands to turn a VL53L4ED or VL53L4CD into an ultra-low power proximity detector for user detection, system activation, and non-contact control. In addition, there are examples of liquid level detection code in the STSW-IMG039 package. The development hardware includes the NUCLEO-F401RE microcontroller development board's expansion board, X-NUCLEO-53L4A3, which simplifies the running of code samples and application development, and the SATEL-VL53L4ED adapter board for prototyping.