An in-vacuum light sensor system, including a light sensor assembly comprising a photocathode configured for converting an impinging photon to a photoelectron, a semiconductor diode configured for multiplying the photoelectron impinging thereon, and a housing including vacuum-compatible materials configured for being placed in a vacuum chamber. The housing is configured for housing the photocathode and the semiconductor diode and for propagation of the photoelectron from the photocathode to the semiconductor diode. An electrical biasing subassembly is configured for electrically biasing at least the photocathode and the semiconductor diode, and the vacuum chamber is configured for positioning the light sensor apparatus therein.

A photoelectric sensor includes: a placement table configured to allow a workpiece to be placed thereon; a light projecting device including a light emitting element configured to emit light and a converging element configured to converge the light emitted from the light emitting element toward a detection area; and a light receiving device configured to receive the light passing through the detection area from the converging element at a position located on a same plane as the placement table in a direction along an optical axis of the light. The optical axis of the light projected from the light projecting device is set such that the light is incident in a direction perpendicular to an incident surface of the light receiving device and focused on the incident surface of the light receiving device.

A sensor circuit comprising a sensor input includes a delta-sigma analogue to digital converter. The delta-sigma analogue to digital converter includes a switched capacitor, a common mode voltage source, a reference voltage source, and a switch network. The switch network, in a first clock phase, connects the switched capacitor to charge it to either a sum or difference voltage, and in a second clock phase connects the switched capacitor to transfer charge into a summing junction. A controller controls the switch network responsive to a comparator output to selectively connect the switched capacitor to one of the common mode voltage and the reference voltage in the first clock phase. Implementations of the sensor circuit transfer charge every clock cycle and have low noise and high sensitivity.

According to one aspect, an ambient-light sensor includes a photodiode configured to generate an electrical signal according to an ambient light, a capacitive-feedback transimpedance amplifier connected at its input to the photodiode for receiving a signal generated by the photodiode and for generating as an output an amplified signal from the signal generated by the photodiode, and an auto-zero switch at the input of the capacitive-feedback transimpedance amplifier. The ambient-light sensor further includes a control circuit including a bootstrap circuit configured to receive an initial positive- or zero-voltage logic control signal, and then generate, from this initial logic control signal, an adapted logic control signal having a first positive voltage level and a second negative voltage control level for controlling the auto-zero switch.

Devices and methods for detecting a disinfecting state are described. An example of a sensor device is disclosed to include: a housing; a radiation sensitive material disposed on one or more portions of an external surface of the housing; a sensor configured to measure intensity information associated with ultraviolet (UV) radiation of a first frequency band; a controller configured to record the intensity information, temporal information associated with measuring the intensity information, or both; and a transceiver device configured to transmit and receive radio frequency (RF) signals.

Devices and methods for detecting a disinfecting state are described. An example of a sensor device is disclosed to include: a housing; a radiation sensitive material disposed on one or more portions of an external surface of the housing; a sensor configured to measure intensity information associated with ultraviolet (UV) radiation of a first frequency band; a controller configured to record the intensity information, temporal information associated with measuring the intensity information, or both; and a transceiver device configured to transmit and receive radio frequency (RF) signals.

There is provided a circuit to improve the sensing efficiency of pixels that uses the induction effect of a capacitor to duplicate a voltage deviation caused by additional electrons and uses a circuit to cancel out the voltage deviation during reading pixel data thereby improving the sensing efficiency.

A light sensor circuit, which comprising a photodiode and a voltage follower. By setting the voltage follower to reduce the influence from the junction capacitance of the photodiode, a required time of a repeat integration module will not be influenced by the photodiode to efficiently keep the performance and the accuracy of the analog to digital converting device when the light sensor circuit is used to the analog to digital converting device in repeat operation.

A pixel cell comprises a plurality of pixels, each pixel comprising a photodiode, a readout circuit comprising a first readout component and a second readout component, wherein a first group of the pixels is configured to detect electromagnetic radiation in a first wavelength range, a second group of the pixels is configured to detect electromagnetic radiation in a second wavelength range, the first readout component is connected with the first group of pixels, the second readout component is connected with the second group of pixels, the first wavelength range is different from the second wavelength range, and the second readout component comprises a plurality of storage capacitors, wherein each pixel of the second group of pixels is assigned to at least one of the storage capacitors, or the second readout component comprises a memory element. Furthermore, a method for operating a pixel cell is provided.

A system for measuring a radiant exposure of electromagnetic radiation includes an accumulation detection module having a detector and configured to continuously monitor an electromagnetic radiation received by the detector; and an adaptive circuit configured to periodically interrogate the accumulation detection module; adjust a frequency of interrogation of the accumulation detection module based on an intensity of the electromagnetic radiation received by the detector; and autonomously transmit information related to an amount of the electromagnetic radiation received by the detector to a remote device.