Sensor-Integrated Smart Lighting Manager for the IoT

ams AG today introduced its AS721x Autonomous Daylighting Manager, the industry's first integrated chip-scale Internet of Things (IoT)-connected smart lighting manager. This new class of sensor-integrated smart lighting manager solutions delivers cost-effective, IoT-connected integrated control capabilities to luminaire, light engine and replacement lamp manufacturers.

Photopic sensors built with nano-optic filters integrated into the AS721x series are designed to help lighting manufacturers address the growing challenges of energy-saving lighting mandates, including daylighting controls. These challenges are more cost-effectively met by bringing the controls and high-granularity sensing into the luminaires themselves.

“The AS721x family is an industry-first platform technology which combines nano-optic sensor-integration with an IoT-connected sensor solution,” said Sajol Ghoshal, responsible for Emerging Sensor Strategies at ams. “The convergence of integrated lighting controls, sensor fusion and wireless connectivity enables the creation of the Internet of Awareness for IoT-connected lighting systems, positioning them as natural sensor hubs within built spaces.”

The AS721x family is ams’ first platform technology of integrated sensor solutions that provide system-level sensing and control capabilities, greatly reducing system costs and shortening time-to-market. The AS721x Autonomous Daylighting Manager senses the ambient daylight and enables the delivery of constant lux levels in the space by managing subtle adjustments as the amount of outside light varies. Integrating a sensor-based manager into each luminaire optimizes the overall responsiveness and efficiency of the lighting system, maximizing energy savings. The approach also delivers accurate lumen maintenance over time and temperature variations, and allows fully connected luminaire systems to respond to building- or space-level command and control strategies.

“ams’ ground-breaking sensor-integrated manager series addresses head-on the lighting industry’s desire for technically feasible integrated controls that are also cost- and space-effective. It’s a solution that will truly revolutionize the lighting industry, and deliver the kind of network-connected system approach that exemplifies the power of the Internet of Things,” said Brian Bedrosian, Senior Director, Product Marketing of Broadcom, which is providing Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Smart connectivity for the IoT-connected AS721x series.

Competitive offerings in the space are essentially “build your own” devices requiring discrete components, including sensors, processors, memory, and I/O chips, that require design, integration and time-consuming programming of control and communications algorithms. In contrast, the AS721x family delivers a fully integrated solution, providing users with a high level of integration at far lower cost and complexity than using discrete components.

Pricing for the AS721x Autonomous Daylighting Manager family is less than $3 in quantities of 5,000 pieces. Selected high-volume customers are testing sampled devices now, with production devices available in Q3 2015.