Adaptive transmission power control for a LIDAR

US10775507B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Apple Inc. · US

Inventors

• Shingo Mandai · Mountain View, US
• Cristiano L. Niclass · San Jose, US
• Richard E. Bills · San Jose, US
• Moshe Laifenfeld · Haifa, IL
• Mina Rezk · Haymarket, US
• Alexander Shpunt · Nes Ziona, IL
• Ron Sokolovsky · Sunnyvale, US
• Tal Kaitz · Kiryat Ono, IL
• Ronen Akerman · Holon, IL
• Jason D. Mudge · Los Altos, US
• Andrew J. Sutton · Sunnyvale, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Aug 10, 2017
• Grant date: Sep 15, 2020
• Expiry date: Dec 23, 2038

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G02F1/292
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

An electro-optical device includes a laser, which is configured to emit toward a scene pulses of optical radiation. An array of detectors are configured to receive the optical radiation that is reflected from points in the scene and to output signals indicative of respective times of arrival of the received radiation. A controller is coupled to drive the laser to emit a sequence of pulses of the optical radiation toward each of a plurality of points in the scene and to find respective times of flight for the points responsively to the output signals, while controlling a power of the pulses emitted by the laser by counting a number of the detectors outputting the signals in response to each pulse, and reducing the power of a subsequent pulse in the sequence when the number is greater than a predefined threshold.