Laser control
AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC
InventorsMark Champion, Algird M. Gudaitis
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The description relates to laser control. One example can include a laser that has a laser emitter configured to generate a laser beam for intervals of time (e.g., pixel times). The laser can have a compensation and control component configured to receive a predicted laser emitter temperature of the laser emitter, obtain a desired optical power for an interval, and compute a compensated electrical current for the interval utilizing multiple light to current look up tables. Individual light to current look up tables can relate to specific laser emitter temperatures.
Claims18
A system, comprising:
- a laser that comprises a laser emitter configured to generate a laser beam;
- a sensor configured to sense a temperature of a case of the laser;
- a laser emitter temperature prediction model that can model thermal impedance of the laser from the laser emitter to the case to predict a laser emitter temperature from the sensed temperature of the case of the laser;
- and,
- a compensation and control component configured to receive a desired optical power and to compute a compensated electrical current to drive the laser based upon the predicted laser emitter temperature, the compensated electrical current computed for the predicted laser emitter temperature to cause the laser emitter to generate the laser beam having an actual optical power that matches the desired optical power.
A system, comprising:
- a laser comprising a laser emitter configured to generate a laser beam for intervals of time;
- and,
- a compensation and control component configured to:
- receive a predicted laser emitter temperature of the laser emitter,
- receive a desired optical power for an interval, and,
- compute a compensated electrical current for the interval utilizing multiple light to current look up tables, wherein individual light to current look up tables relate to specific laser emitter temperatures.
A computer-implemented method, comprising:
- predicting a temperature of a laser emitter from a sum of time-dependent heat transfers through materials and interfaces of a laser containing the laser emitter;
- obtaining a desired optical power for a pixel time that the laser emitter is driven;
- computing a compensated electrical current to drive the laser emitter for the pixel time by interpolating between light and current values for known laser emitter temperatures;
- and,
- causing the laser emitter to be driven with the compensated electrical current such that an actual optical output of the laser emitter matches the desired optical output for the pixel time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.