Optical radiation intensity sensor

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced.
These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
Therefore, the following detailed description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
In FIG.
4 an embodiment of an optical radiation intensity directional sensor 1 is shown.
The directional sensor comprises a housing 2 having an opening 3, which is covered by a lens element 4.
The lens element 4 is transparent or translucent.
In an embodiment the lens element function as a radiation filter being transparent to radiation within a well-defined frequency interval.
The lens element 4 is in the shown embodiment dome shaped.
The sensor 1 further includes an array of sensor elements 5 distributed within said housing.
A shading element 6 at least partly block light from impinging directly on one of two sensor elements within said array of sensor elements 5 separated by said shading element.
In the shown example the sensor elements 5 are positioned on opposite sides of the shading element 6 formed by a printed circuit board 7 carrying the sensor elements and other electronic components used in the sensor.
In the embodiment shown in FIG.
7 the shading element is formed by the printed circuit board 7 and two flanges 8,9 vertically extending from said printed circuit board 7.
This embodiment includes four sensor elements 5, wherein two are positioned on each side of the circuit board and being separated by the extending flanges 8,9 on each side of the circuit board.
Thereby four different regions, which are separated from being simultaneously exposed to directly impinging sunlight, are created