Name that Ware, June 2018

The Ware for June 2018 is shown below.

This month we’ll start with the very zoomed in and slightly torn down view of the ware, and if nobody’s nailed it I’ll release some more contextual images throughout the month.

Special thanks to Nava for giving me this ware!

Update June 19, 2018: Looks like people are stumped by this one, so providing a little more context to see if anyone gets it…

11 Responses to “Name that Ware, June 2018”

  1. INCO says:

    It is definitely re-using the die from the TAOS (now part of ams) TLS250-series light-to-voltage optical sensors, but since it uses multiple of them I am guessing it’s one of their color-sensors with the filters removed.
    Maybe a TCS34725 since it is easily available via Adafruit? :)

  2. Simon says:

    It is definitely an AMS (TAOS) optical sensor. Slightly strange to be using five dies but it is reusing TAOS a design so they must save some costs there. I think it might be a TMG4903 3D Gesture, Color, ALS, and proximity sensor module or at least from that family. Makes sense with north, south, east and west proximity and gesture sensors arranged as they are in the figure. The central die might be the IR sensor. Looks like a very interesting IC.

  3. Kurt says:

    That center item is almost certainly an LED die.

  4. Olav Queseth says:

    The four dies around the diode indicates that this is something (presumably a reflection) you compare that can move in X-Y directions either for sensing the movement or for compensating for it. Given that the “window” is black it is probably IR sensitive.

    Looking at the last picture this is something that mounts in something round.

    There can be a number of applications that come to mind. CD players use one of these although the size is probably a bit to large for this (I guess at around 10mm in diameter). There are also optical links that use the feedback for alignmant. Also interferometry comes to mind, especially since Nava, who supplied the ware, is working with that.

    I would guess the sensor from an HP interferometer. No idea about the exact number though.

    Cheers

  5. .:alamar:. says:

    That gold-wire bonded die in the center is def. a VCSL
    https://www.gideonlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/die-image-1.jpg

    So since this is a laser plus four detectors around it i cant things of a “slow” application like gesture tracking. Maybe keeping something sort of plane accuratey parallel to another object. Or it’s some kind of 3D encoder which measures position + distance of an object.

  6. marcan says:

    I think this is a (fairly large) MEMS mirror with X-Y deflection. You can see the the X and Y hinges in the third photo (the outer ring pivots along the X axis, while the inner mirror pivots along the Y axis). The middle die is either an LED or a VCSEL, and is used for differential optical feedback with the four sensor dies around it providing +X+Y -X-Y -X+Y and +X-Y quadrant signals.

    What we aren’t seeing is the motor part. Which leads me to believe it might be outside the part photographed – perhaps something interacting with the four silver dots (magnets?) from above, or perhaps patterned onto the mirror and hinges in a way we can’t immediately see, or on the underside. Given the non-symmetrical shape I also doubt this is completely general purpose, but it doesn’t look asymmetrical enough to be from a raster laser projector (those have a much faster X axis than Y axis). I’m going to go out on a limb and say this is for LIDAR applications.

    Or it’s just a really bizarre 2-axis gyro.