Systems and methods for measuring a time of flight in a lidar system
US10914824B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 21, 2017 |
| Grant date | Feb 9, 2021 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 13, 2039 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01S17/14
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A lidar system can be used to measure a distance to one or more objects in a target region, such as by transmitting light towards the target and then receiving light reflected or scattered from the target. Received light can be stored as charge on storage elements such as capacitors, where received light can be stored on different storage elements depending on a time of arrival of the received light. A reduction in the number of storage elements can be achieved by providing one or more groups of storage elements, where each group of storage elements can correspond to a digit of a time of flight, where the time of flight can be round trip travel time of a light beam travelling from the lidar system to the target region and then back to the lidar system. Each group of storage elements can be arranged in a binary tree of a decimal tree configuration. Additionally, a time of activation of each of the storage elements can be increased with an increasing time of flight, such as to compensate for a decreased strength of the received light as the time of flight increases.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.