Infrared LED

An IR LED, also known as IR transmitter, is a special purpose LED that transmits infrared
rays in the range of 760 nm wavelength. Such LEDs are usually made of gallium arsenide or
aluminium gallium arsenide. They, along with IR receivers, are commonly used as sensors.
The appearance is same as a common LED. Since the human eye cannot see the infrared
radiations, it is not possible for a person to identify whether the IR LED is working or not,
unlike a common LED. To overcome this problem, the camera on a cellphone can be used.
The camera can show us the IR rays being emanated from the IR LED in a circuit.

Pin Diagram:

Infrared (IR) sensor

This project and its circuit are one of the most basic and popular sensor modules. In
electronics, this sensor is analogous to humans visionary senses which can be used to detect
an obstacle which is one of its common applications. In robotics, a group of such modules are
used so that a robot can follow a line pattern.
This circuit is made using the following:
1. LM358 IC 2.
IR Transmitter and Receiver Pair
3. Resistors of the range of Kilo ohms
4. Variable Resistors
5. LED
The transmitter part of the sensor project is an Infrared (IR) Led which transmits continuous
IR rays to be received by an IR receiver. The output of the receiver varies depending upon its
reception of IR rays. Since this variation cannot be analyzed as such, therefore this output can
be fed to a comparator. Here operational amplifier (op-amp) of LM 339 is used as
comparator.
When the IR receiver does not receive signal the potential at the inverting input goes higher
than that that at non-inverting input of the comparator (LM 339). Thus the output of the
comparator goes low and the LED does not glow .When the IR receiver receives signal the
potential at the inverting input goes low. Thus the output of the comparator (LM 339) goes

high and the LED starts glowing. Resistor R1 (100 ), R2 (10k ) and R3 (330 ) are used to
ensure that minimum 10 mA current passes through the IR LED, photodiode and normal
LED, respectively. Resistor VR2 (preset=5k ) is used to adjust the output. Resistor VR1
(preset=10k ) is used to set the sensitivity of the circuit. Read more about IR sensor here.