IR Remote Control Basics

Sean Donnelly, Applications Engineer (US), ams AG - December 06, 2015

IR Remote Control Basics

A multitude of IR remote control communication schemes have been incorporated in commercial

equipment for the last forty years. Even though the schemes use different timing, data organization
and length, they can be dismantled into discrete pieces which form the building blocks of the final IR
pattern. The example below briefly describes how a button press is encoded into an IR pattern and
transmitted to a piece of consumer equipment.

Depressing a button on a modern Consumer IR, CIR, remote control causes a 940nm LED to blink.
As the LED toggles a pulse stream of infrared light is generated. The pulse stream is a pattern which
contains data to be received by consumer equipment. Typical remote control protocols derive a
pattern of IR pulses based on Pulse Width Modulation, such as Philips RC-5/6, or Manchester
Encoding, such as Sony SIRC. Regardless of the encoding method, patterns can be deconstructed
into a small number of fundamental pulse widths. Virtually all CIR patterns have fewer than 16
fundamental pulse widths.

Pulse widths with no IR emission are called Spaces and pulse widths with IR emission are called
Marks. During a Mark, the IR LED typically is not solidly illuminated. To improve signal to noise
ratio, the LED is modulated by a carrier frequency. Typical carrier periods are in the range of 10µs
to 66µs. The duration of a Mark or Space can be measured in time, however, it can more easily be
quantified as the number of carrier periods that fit within the pulse width. Figure 1 depicts the
aforementioned nomenclature.
 Figure 1: Basic building blocks of a CIR pattern

Figure 2: 12-bit SIRC Pulse Stream

The remote control must be in the direct line of sight when the IR is blast to the receiver. The pulse
stream shown in Figure 2, has four parts: Lead-in, Command, Address, and Lead-out (not shown).
The Lead-in has five bit-times in total, four with LED modulation and one without. The receiver uses
the lead-in to adjust the gain of the photodiode AFE. With the gain adjusted, the carrier frequency is
removed using a notch filter. The command and address data is sent LSB first within the digital
pulse train and is then interpreted by equipment such as a Television or Cable Box. Some equipment
may require more than one pulse stream repetition separated by a lead-out to verify successful
reception and/or proper equipment selection.

Equipment that is selected, based on the 5-bit address, will then decode the remaining 7-bit data to
initiate a particular action. For example, as shown in Figure 2, an address of 0x01 may select a
television, and a command of 0x14 may power on/off the equipment. After each 12-bit burst there
typically is a “Lead-out” delay which is used to separate subsequent bursts.

Figure 3: “Run-Once” Patterns (No repeated sub-pattern)

Protocols such as in Figure 3, retransmit a button’s IR pattern a number of times or continuously

until the button is released. As depicted in Figure 4, other protocols retransmit a subsection of the
IR pattern continuously until the button is released. This type of operation is useful to differentiate
“press and release” type buttons such as POWER, from “press and hold” type buttons such as
VOLUME+.

Figure 4: “Run-Once” sub-pattern followed by a “Repeated” sub-pattern

Where do all these protocols come from? Over the years, manufacturers of audio and video
equipment, A/V, and recently Air Conditioning, A/C, equipment have developed different IR
protocols. In addition to the protocol, there are many unique combinations of address values which
allows a multitude of different A/V equipment to be serviced with the same protocol. Protocols such
as Sony SIRC, Phillips RC-5 & 6, and NEC’s IR transmission protocol are among the most prevalent
specifications currently in use in A/V products. In recent years, many manufactures of ductless, or
split system, A/C equipment have developed new protocols expanding IR remote technology.
Contrary to an A/V command, a single A/C button press typically results in a lengthy and
complicated IR pulse train which includes other operating parameters, a checksum, and may even
be encrypted.

Many custom IR transmission standards are currently employed across the world, but the underlying
method of concatenating a few fundamental IR sequences is ubiquitous. Currently, the use of IR for
remote control is unrivaled. However, just as IR replaced ultrasonic technology, another technology,
RF, may become a real contender as cost, design complexity, and power consumptions are reduced.
Nevertheless, adoption of IR into future consumer equipment as well as continued use in existing
products guarantees that this technology will continue to be relevant, prevalent, and popular.

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