Super small and highly versatile Osram infrared LED added to the range

The Oslon Compact infrared light-emitting diode (IRED) from Osram Opto Semiconductors now closes the gap between high-power and low-power IREDs. Despite its very small package it offers impressive output. It can therefore be used, for example, for security, digital image processing, 3D measurement, pattern recognition and gesture detection.

The new infrared Oslon Compact SFH 4710 has been designed especially for industrial applications. As a mid-power LED with a typical output of 270 milliwatts (mW) from an operating current of 500 milliamps (mA), it is a welcome addition to the product portfolio of Osram Opto Semiconductors, occupying the output range between Power TopLED and Oslon Black.

The new IRED accommodates a small powerful chip with an edge length of 750 micrometers (µm) and half the footprint of standard chips in the Oslon Black. With package dimensions of 1.6 mm x 1.2 mm x 0.8 mm the Oslon Compact is not much larger than the chip itself and is therefore one of the smallest in its output class. "Even so, our new Oslon Compact has excellent heat dissipation properties and can operate at high currents", said Dr. Jörg Heerlein, responsible at Osram Opto Semiconductors for product marketing for infrared components in the industrial sector. “The high output, which is achieved thanks to state-of-the-art thin-film chip technology, combined with the small package, opens up numerous new applications, particularly where there is very little available space but performance demands are high. And if required, components can be packed very close together to increase the optical output with a high degree of flexibility.”

Applications with or without external optics

The infrared light emitting diode has an emission angle of +/-65° and does not need internal optics or reflectors. Its light can however be successfully injected into narrow-angle external optics.
With external optics it is ideal for illumination in security applications and for machine vision tasks such as pattern recognition and 3D measurement because the wavelength of 850 nanometers (nm) is barely perceptible to the human eye but can be very easily detected by camera systems.
Without external optics the IRED perfectly covers the near-field range of a few meters and is therefore suitable for example for eye tracking and gesture detection.

Technical data for IR Oslon Compact SFH 4710: