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In recent years, smartphones, TWS earbuds, and AR/VR devices have driven growth in the consumer electronics market and expanded user entertainment options. With the rise of mixed virtual/physical environments such as the metaverse, the AR/VR sector has attracted widespread interest. ams OSRAM supplies upstream optical and sensing technologies for mobile and AR/VR applications to enable proximity sensing, gesture sensing, hand and face tracking, eye tracking, and environment monitoring.
Body tracking
ams OSRAM offers a portfolio of optical and sensing components intended to support body-tracking functions in AR/VR systems, including modules for projection engines, proximity sensing, gesture detection, eye tracking, and environment depth sensing.
Vegalas RGB laser module
The Vegalas laser emitter module targets AR/MR near-eye displays and reduces the optical engine volume to 0.7 cm3. ams OSRAM has collaborated with members of the LaSAR Alliance to provide designs for laser beam steering projection engines based on the Vegalas module, integrating STMicroelectronics MEMS mirror modules and Dispelix waveguide displays. The optical engine measures 10 mm x 11 mm x 6 mm (0.7 cm3), roughly 60% smaller than an LBS optical engine built from three discrete ams OSRAM TO38 laser emitters, which measured about 1.7 cm3.
Proximity sensor: TMD2636
Proximity sensors in AR/VR or mobile terminals enable on-wear detection and automatic device activation or deactivation without manual input. The fully integrated ams OSRAM proximity and ambient light sensor TMD2636 is about 30% smaller than previous-generation solutions and combines strong crosstalk suppression, high ambient-light immunity, and efficient algorithms to provide more accurate proximity detection for AR/VR headsets, TWS earbuds, and portable devices.
Gesture control sensor module
The ams OSRAM mobile gesture product family supports gesture detection, proximity detection, digital ambient light sensing (ALS), and color sensing (red, green, blue, and clear). It can also generate optical patterns for barcode verification and remote control. The gesture sensor modules are highly integrated and provide five functional modes to enable contactless interface control, improving end-user interaction for communication and consumer devices. Gesture detection uses four directional infrared emitting diodes to illuminate and measure reflected IR energy from an integrated LED, converting reflected IR measurements into information about physical motion.
Selected emitter components
SFH 4716AS
- OSLON Black series LED
- High optical power and reliability
- Emission wavelength: 850 nm
- Stacked die process to reduce footprint
SFH 4181S
- Compact OSLON P1616 package
- Emission wavelength: 940 nm
- Optical power up to 1150 mW and radiant intensity 680 mW/sr (@1 A)
- Turn-on time: 9 ns; turn-off time: 16 ns
Eye tracking
Eye-tracking systems illuminate the eye with infrared light, record reflections with infrared-sensitive camera sensors, and apply algorithms to determine gaze direction and eye movement. Accurate, safe, and low-latency eye tracking is a key capability for AR/VR. ams OSRAM provides a component set for eye tracking that includes infrared LEDs, infrared lasers, and small NIR-enhanced image sensors with WLO. The company continues to develop architectures for emitters, detectors, and related optics to serve a range of product categories as requirements evolve.
SFH 4053
- Package size: 0.5 x 1.0 x 0.45 mm3
- Emission wavelength: 850 nm
- Beam angle: +/- 70°
- High conversion efficiency
SFH 4060
- FIREFLY series side-emitting device
- Compact size: 1.0 x 0.325 x 0.55 mm3
- Emission wavelength: 850 nm
- Black epoxy package for concealment
Hand, face and environment tracking
See-through AR/VR video systems require sensing functions to ensure immersive mixed-reality experiences, accurate hand tracking, and applications such as virtual meeting avatars. For these use cases, ams OSRAM supplies small NIR-enhanced image sensors for hand and face tracking.
NanEyeC
- Chip-scale packaged miniature camera module, footprint approximately 1 mm2, weight about 1 g
- Resolution: 100 k pixels
- Provides digital video output
To address environment tracking, ams OSRAM has developed a 3D direct Time-of-Flight (dToF) system that combines high-power VCSELs, patterned optics, and high-sensitivity SPAD detectors to measure object depth accurately and enable precise scene reconstruction for more realistic virtual experiences.
As digitalization progresses and mixed virtual/physical applications expand, AR/VR technologies will continue to evolve. ams OSRAM is developing technologies to support these application areas.
