Light source position microsensor

There exist industrial applications where an accurate estimation of a light source position is needed. That is the case for a heliostat, a device that projects sunlight upon a focus hundreds of meters distant. In this paper a novel sensor design to generate an alignment sensor signal is presented. A detailed study of its response is included, showing that there exist several design parameters to achieve a desired accuracy. This sensor has been implemented using bipolar technology and chip to board bonding, and experimental results obtained in the laboratory are given.