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An LED linear brightness control for reticle illumination applications

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1980 J. Phys. E: Sci. Instrum. 13 155

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Apparatus and techniques
J. Phys. E: Sci. Instrum., Vol. 13, 1980. Printed in Great Britain
A n LED linear brightness control
for reticle illumination
ap p Iicat io n s
B Griffiths, R V Freeth and Z C Tan
Physics Department, University of Auckland, Auckland,
New Zealand
Received 13 September 1978
Abstract A simple nearly linear brightness control for a
light-emitting diode has been constructed to vary the
illumination of the field stop boundary and reticle of an
astronomical photometer. Noise, wear and instability
problems associated with simple logarithmic carbon film
potentiometer controls are largely overcome by using this
novel circuit. A description of the circuit is given and is
followed by a comparison of experimental results with
theoretical predictions. A means of improving the linearity
at higher currents is suggested for more critical
applications.
1 Introduction
A relatively simple brightness control was required to vary
the illumination of the field stop boundary and cross-line
reticle of an astronomical photometer. The brightness? of
the illumination source should be smoothly variable over
a very wide range to accommodate wide variations in apparent
brightness of stellar fields. In addition the brightness variation
should have a linear dependence upon control knob rotation
QI and QZ respectively. The voltage from the wiper of the
linear potentiometer RV1 is buffered by OA3 and applied
to the base of Q3. Qi, Qz and 4 3 are part of a matched
monolithic transistor array, The LED drive current is taken
from the collector of Q3. The close thermal coupling and
matching of 41-3 ensures that the output current has a
nearly exponential dependence upon the potentiometer
setting without problems arising from thermal runaway.
Up to three LEDS may be series-connected and driven from
the collector of Q3. The diode Dz serves as a collector clamping
diode and ensures that Q3 does not saturate when its collector
load is removed. The clamp voltage at the anode of Dz
(approximately 3 VBE above the emitter potentials of Q1-3)
is provided by Q 5 in conjunction with Q4. The operating
biases on the bases of 41-3 are set within the linear operating
range of OA1-3 by D1.
3 Theory
The difference in the base-emitter voltages VBEZand VBEm
of two transistors Qz and Qm respectively is given by
for Zcz%Zs~, where ZCz is the collector current of Qz, ZSz the
collector reverse saturation current of Qz, k the Boltzmann
constant, I the absolute temperature and q the electron
charge. Referring to the core of the control circuit shown
in figure 2, we have
VBE3- VBEl=a(VBE2- vBE1)
t Icl

to facilitate the rapid selection of a suitable level.

A high-efficiency GaAs-on-GaP light-emitting diode (HP
5082-4658) was chosen as the illumination source to minimise
thermally induced disturbances within the photometer.
The use of a red LED minimises the effect of the illumination
on the dark adaptation of the observer.
RV1

2 Control circuitry
A simplified diagram of the controller is shown in figure 1.
Operational amplifiers OAl and OA2 establish constant Figure 2 Core of the control circuit.
collector currents Zcl (= V/R1) and ZCz (= V/Rz)in transistors
where a: is the control potentiometer ratio. Hence from
equation (1)
? T h e term ‘brightness’ as used in this paper refers to the
sensation of brightness and should not be confused with
luminance.

t
-7
6.2

, -
Figure 1 Control circuit diagram. OA1-3? hLM324;
F-E‘
wiw Qi-5, CA3086; Di, 2, 1N914.

0022-3735/80/020155+03 $01.00 0 1980 The Institute of Physics 155

Apparatus and techniques
which can be rewritten as

,X

Thus the output current is given by

,
X
X'
XX'

4
X
Since transistors Q1-3 are part of a monolithic matched X
X'
transistor array the saturation currents Isl-s3 will be equal.
X'
Thus
102 X
c
,'
x'
If this collector current is used to drive an LED,whose output X

power Po is given by X'

Po = KIILEDY (3)
where K1 and y are constant for a particular LED, then from 10 ' 102 1o3 lo& io5
equations (2) and (3) ILE3 (PA)

Figure 4 LED output power versus LED current.

(4)

where Kz= KIIClr.The brightness of the LED is proportional

to the natural logarithm of its output power and hence attributed to internal heating of the LED which reduces the
proportional to output power for a given current.
A plot of the LED output power as a function of CL is shown
in figure 5. The power deviates markedly from the form
predicted by equation (4) for (Y > 0.6. This effect is due largely
to the combined deviations from equations (2) and (3)
Thus the brightness is a linear function of the potentiometer discussed above.
setting 01 since I C ~ -are
C ~constant currents.

4 Comparison of experimental results with theory

Figure 3 shows the actual dependence of the output current
Ic3 upon 01. The early effect (Q3 is operated at higher VCB
i

ci

t Figure 5 LED output power dependence on control

02 OL 06 O B potentiometer setting.
ci

Figure 3 Output current of the control circuit plotted

against control potentiometer setting a. Full line,
theoretical ; broken line, experimental.
than Q1 and Qz), transistor area mismatches and offset in
OA3 predominantly produce an offset from the theoretical
curve based on equation ( 2 ) but do not produce significant
deviations from its linear form. Second-order mismatching
effects and variations in internal temperatures caused by
the changing power dissipation in 4 3 account for the linearity
deviations which are evident for output currents greater
than 2mA.
LED output power dependence upon LED current is shown
for the H P 5082-4658 source in figure 4. At drive currents
below 4 mA there is good agreement with the form predicted
by equation (3). The deviation at higher currents can be
5 Discussion
Despite the deviations of source brightness from a strictly
linear function of 01, the smooth variation in LED output
power over a range exceeding four decades with nearly
exponential dependence upon potentiometer rotation for
three decades greatly facilitates the use of this illumination
system. The performance could be improved by operating
the exponential current generator at lower currents and
by using a feedback technique to stabilise the LED output
at a suitable level as shown in figure 6. However, the increased
complexity was not considered warranted for our application.
6 Summary
An LED illumination control circuit has been constructed.
It has a linear brightness dependence upon control potentio-
meter setting for LED drive currents ranging from 7 pA

156
Apparatus and techniques

J. Phys. E : Sci. Instrum., Vol. 13, 1980. Printed in Great Britain

+ "8

t
Measu rement of frequency
response of a piezoelectric
Current- transducer using an acousto-
I imi t ing
resistor optic modulator .
E
current
xponentiaq p-
1
C Man and P Ckrez
generator
Laboratoire de 1'Horloge Atomique, Equipe de Recherche
-L -t- du CNRS, Bfitiment 221, Universite Paris-Sud,
91405 Orsay, France
Figure 6 Feedback circuit to improve linearity. The
characteristics of the illumination LEDS are matched to Receiced 29 January 1979, in final form 30 July 1979
those of the reference LED.
Abstract The frequency behaviour of piezoelectric
transducers (PZTS)is analysed using a phase-modulation
to 1 mA using H P 5082-4658 high-efficiency red LEDS. Despite technique involving an acousto-optic modulator. The results
deviations from linearity for drive currents over 1 mA the give useful information on critical elements of laser
brightness varies smoothly enough to facilitate the use stabilisation loops.
of the circuit in the field stop and reticle illumination system
of an astronomical photometer. 1 Introduction
Piezoelectric transducers (PZTS)are widely employed in laser
Acknowledgments frequency control. In all cases, a PZT mirror assembly mounted
The circuit forms part of an extensive astronomical data at one end of a laser cavity is used to produce length variations
acquisition system currently under construction in the and therefore frequency variations. For moddation purposes,
Electrophysics Research Laboratories at the University of the PZT is driven by a small sine wave signal at a low frequency
Auckland and the authors wish to acknowledge the support f, typically a few kilohertz. The frequency control of a laser is
for the project received from the Physics Department, the accomplished by applying some error signal to the transducer
University Grants Committee, the University of Auckland through a feedback amplifier. The presence of sharp resonances
Research Committee, the Kingdon-Tomlinson Trust and the in the response of the PZT assembly may cause some trouble in
Auckland Observatory. the set-up. Let us take two examples.
(i) Improvements in the frequency stability of He-Ne lasers
are well known using saturated absorption in molecular
vapours (Wallard 1972, Ckrez et a1 1974). To achieve this,
the laser is frequency-modulated at a low frequency 4 2 r r
around the centre of the saturated peak by means of a PZT.
The error signal is derived by phase-sensitive detection of the
output power at 3w/2n and applied to a second PZT for
frequency control. Spurious frequency shift occurs when the
frequency modulation of the laser exhibits some residual
second and third harmonic distortions. These distortions may
arise, for example, if the modulation voltage at frequency f
exhibits some residual second and third components (Van der
Hoeven et a1 1976, Cerez and Brillet 1977). Great care must
be taken to ensure that no PZT resonances are present at 2f and
3f. The ideal situation occurs when there are antiresonances
of the material at these frequencies.
(ii) In cw dye lasers for ultrahigh-resolution spectroscopy,
single-frequency output with narrow spectral width (40 kHz
RMs for example) is required. To reduce the high-frequency
laser jitter (5-50 kHz) which broadens the laser line (typically
about 1 MHz), the laser frequency is locked to an external
high-finesse Fabry-Perot cavity through a fast servo-loop
having unity gain at as high a frequency as possible. The
error signal may act either on an intracavity KD"P phase
modulator (Barger et a1 1975) or on a fast lightweight PZT
mirror assembly (Hall and Lee 1976). Any resonance of the
PZT assembly in the bandpass of the servo-loop is trouble-
some for its stability and its efficiency. The fast transducer
must be designed to suppress the piezoresonance frequen-
cies as far as possible and to damp their amplitude to a
negligible level.
Inthis note, the frequency response of a PZT mirror assembly

0022-3735/80/020157+03 $01.00 0 1980 The Institute of Physics