IIO proximity and time-of-flight distance sensors
A collection of drivers for short-range proximity and distance sensors, including infrared time-of-flight rangefinders (ST VL53L0X/VL53L1X), capacitive proximity chips (Semtech SX series), and ambient-light/proximity combos (Vishay VCNL family). They are widely used in phones, tablets, laptops, robotics, and industrial automation to detect nearby objects or measure short distances.
recommendation
It should stay because the directory hosts more than twenty actively maintained drivers for proximity and ranging chips that are still shipping in 2025, including ST's VL53L0X time-of-flight sensor (in volume production) and Vishay's VCNL3020. Upstream activity is clearly healthy: early-2026 patch traffic shows ongoing fixes for the rfd77402 driver and the addition of a brand-new vl53l1x driver, so the subsystem is growing rather than winding down.
repository signals
sources
- spinics.net
March 14, 2026 review traffic for `iio: proximity: rfd77402` shows active upstream maintenance, not removal.
- spinics.net
A January 2026 v7 patch series adds interrupt support and cleanups for `rfd77402`, indicating substantive ongoing development in this directory.
- spinics.net
A March 13, 2026 patch series adds a new `vl53l1x` proximity driver and explicitly says it needs a separate driver instead of extending `vl53l0x-i2c.c`, implying growth rather than consolidation/removal.
- kernel.org
Kernel.org DT binding index for `iio/proximity` contains current bindings for multiple devices in this directory, including files updated into 2025-2026.
- st.com
ST marks VL53L0X as Active and in volume production, with ordering available, so at least some covered hardware is still sold new beyond 2025.
- vishay.com
Vishay's VCNL3020 product page remains live with sample/buy options, supporting ongoing availability of hardware served by this directory.
- cateee.net
LKDDb shows `CONFIG_RFD77402` present through current 6.19-rc/HEAD kernels, confirming the driver remains enabled upstream.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Real driver directory: 21 C drivers plus shared `sx_common` helper, confirmed locally via shell `rg`/`sed` on `Kconfig`. Local `git log` shows substantive 2025-2026 activity across multiple files, and web search found no removal/deprecation thread; instead, spinics/lore-indexed results show active fixes and feature work (`rfd77402`) plus new-driver expansion (`vl53l1x`). Availability evidence came from web search to official vendor pages (ST VL53L0X active/volume production; Vishay VCNL3020 sample/buy-now). Because the directory covers many still-relevant embedded/mobile/industrial sensors and has current upstream attention, `keep` is the defensible recommendation.