The A5366 is a low-current BiCMOS circuit providing all of the required features for a photoelectric type smoke detector. This device can be used with an infrared photoelectric chamber to sense scattered light from smoke particles. A networking capability allows as many as 50 units to be interconnected so that if any unit senses smoke all units will sound an alarm. Special features are incorporated in the design to facilitate calibration and testing of the finished detector. The device is recognized by Underwriters Laboratories for use in smoke alarms that comply with Standard UL217, or UL268, per file #S2113.
A variable-gain photoamplifier can be directly interfaced to an infrared emitter-detector pair. The amplifier gain levels are determined by two external capacitors and are internally selected depending on the operating mode. Low gain is selected during standby and timer modes. During a local alarm, this low gain is increased (internally) by approximately 10% to reduce false triggering. High gain is used during pushbutton test and to periodically monitor the chamber sensitivity during standby.
The internal oscillator and timing circuitry keep standby power to a minimum by sensing for smoke for only 100 µs every 10 s. A special three-stage–speedup sensing scheme is incorporated to minimize the time to an audible alarm and also to reduce false triggering. Chamber sensitivity is periodically monitored and two consecutive cycles of degraded sensitivity are required for a warning signal (chirp) to occur.