Enhance your smartphone camera with accurate color measurement
The smallest among products providing 11 measurement channels
Use the Pantone Color Matching System as a color reference

ams announced today the launch of an ultra-small spectral sensor chip that brings laboratory-grade multi-channel color analysis performance to portable and mobile devices.
In end products such as mobile phones or smartphone accessories, the AS7341 from ams delivers more precise spectral measurements in a wider range of lighting conditions than competing devices.

The AS7341's small size allows it to be easily integrated into mobile phones and other portable devices.

“The AS7341 marks a milestone in the category of spectral sensors in a small package suitable for mounting in smartphones and other consumer devices,” said Kevin Jensen, senior marketing manager in the Optical Sensors business line at ams. “Not only is the AS7341 the smallest device to offer 11 measurement channels for such applications, it also provides higher light sensitivity than any other multi-channel spectral sensor aimed at the consumer market.”

The AS7341 also offers benefits that can improve the performance of mobile phone cameras. This is because the accurate spectral measurement performance enables automatic white balancing, more reliable light source identification, and integrated flicker detection. This technology reproduces colors more accurately and minimizes distortion from ambient light sources, resulting in clearer, sharper, and more realistic photos.

The AS7341 allows users to match the colors of objects such as fabrics with the colors supported by their mobile devices by using color references such as the PANTONE Color System.

The ability of the AS7341 to improve color measurement performance is demonstrated by Variable’s Spectro 1 portable colorimeter. By using the AS7341 in the Spectro 1, Variable has been able to provide professional-grade monochrome color measurement performance at a consumer price point.

This portable colorimeter provides highly color reproducible spectral curves in 10 nm increments across the visible light band from 400 nm to 700 nm. This level of performance was previously only available in professional spectrophotometers costing up to ten times more than the portable Spectro 1.

“No other spectral sensor IC has offered this kind of multi-channel performance in as compact a package as the AS7341 from ams,” said George Yu, CEO of Variable. “Thanks to the multi-channel spectral measurement capability of the AS7341, Spectro 1 never experienced incorrect color readings due to mismatched metameric pairs.”

The AS7341 is housed in a tiny LGA package measuring 3.1 mm x 2.0 mm x 1.0 mm.

It provides extremely accurate and precise characterization of the spectral content of a light source or reflector directly measured via 11 measurement channels, 8 of which are equally divided into 8 parts, each responsible for 1 part of the visible light spectrum.

In addition, it has one near-infrared channel, one clear channel, and one dedicated channel for detecting typical ambient light flicker in the frequency range of 50 Hz to 1 kHz.

In addition to camera image optimization, the AS7341 spectral sensor supports a wide range of applications, including color measurement of general materials or liquids, and skin tone measurement.

The AS7341 was showcased at CES 2019 and is available for sample orders now. Production volumes will begin in February. Pricing starts at $2 per unit in 10,000-piece quantities.