Integrated CMOS optical microsystem for illuminating source identification

An integrated silicon colour sensor system has been designed and fabricated in CMOS. The application is measurement of ambient light conditions e.g. for display control in portable instruments, or for testing the intensity or colour temperature of light sources. The system has bit-stream outputs. Signals proportional to the intensity and the spectral average of the impinging light are available at the output. No extra masks for colour filtering are needed It is demonstrated that daylight can be distinguished from other light sources, such as incandescent lamps and fluorescent lamps.