Time-of-interference light detection and ranging apparatus
US11294040B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 10, 2021 |
| Grant date | Apr 5, 2022 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 10, 2041 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01S7/4863
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A TOI Lidar System generates an image of an object based on the distance of various point measurements to the object. The TOI Lidar System detects the envelope of an electrical signal created from an interference light signal. The interference light signal is produced from the back-reflected light resulting from a sampling arm light emission to the object combined with a reference light emission. The reference light emission is created by splitting a pulse-modulated coherent light source's emission signal and passing the reference light emission through a reference arm. The optical interference signal is transferred to a balanced photodetector to convert to an electrical signal converted to digital data. The digital data is evaluated to determine the rising edges or falling edges of a digitized electrical interference signal to determine a time delay between the reference light emission and back-reflected light used to calculate the distance.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.