Patent · US Active

Time-of-flight sensor and method of measuring distance using the same

US12386044B2 · kind B2 · utility

0Cited by
3References
20Claims
0Family size

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Key dates

Filing dateApr 29, 2021
Grant dateAug 12, 2025
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 13, 2044

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01S17/894
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A method measures the distance between a time-of-flight (ToF) sensor and an object based on cross time shift. The ToF sensor includes at least one depth pixel and a light source to direct transmission light to an object. The depth pixel may have a multi-tap structure and may generate sampled data based on reception light and demodulation signals having different phases. The reception light corresponds to the transmission light reflected from the object. The method includes generating time shifts between the transmission light and demodulation signals, performing sampling operations to generate the sampled data corresponding to the time shifts, determining a cross time shift based on sampled data of a first reference tap substantially equaling sampled data of a second reference tap, and determining the distance between the ToF sensor and the object based on the cross time shift.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.