help me find a flat phototransistor

I'm not sure why they all have these lenses on them. I've been searching through digikey for hours and can't find what I'm picturing in my head.

I'm looking for a phototransistor (or diode maybe) with a flat sensor. I want to be able to block out parts of the sensor, so that the sensor is in the shape of a triangle.

Any suggestions on where to look?

low affect said:

I'm not sure why they all have these lenses on them. I've been searching through digikey for hours and can't find what I'm picturing in my head.

I'm looking for a phototransistor (or diode maybe) with a flat sensor. I want to be able to block out parts of the sensor, so that the sensor is in the shape of a triangle.

Any suggestions on where to look?

Click to expand...

hi,
With a typical PD or PT, as its a 'single' sensor junction you will not get a triangle mask to work.
IMO what you want is sensor array, they have a number of sensor elments arranged in a XY grid.

What light 'colour' range are you working with.?

BTW: the lens is used to focus the incoming light onto the single sensor.

aww, so the the sensor is really tiny, the lens is there to make it seem a little bigger.

i can use any color light that i can get an LED to produce. I'd probably like to use something infrared.

i was thinking a triangle shaped sensor would be good for an optical guitar pickup. i think they usually use a regular photodiode, but i don't see how that would work.

here, i'll draw a picture:

the triangle is the sensor. the line is a string. the light source would be from out of the page.

see, if the string moves up, it will shadow more light from the sensor, if it moves down, it will shadow almost none.

now i need to make friends with someone at national semiconductor i guess.