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US 11,536,847 B2Granted
High dynamic range receiver for a LIDAR sensor
AssigneeContinental Autonomous Mobility US, LLC
InventorsMihail Milkov, Kyle LaFevre, Osman Musa, Patrick B Gilliland, Roger Frederick DuPont
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A receiver circuit for a sensor includes a photosensitive input circuit and a logarithmic-signal circuit including a PN junction coupled to a pulse voltage node. The pulse voltage node may be coupled to the P-type terminal of the PN junction and an output of the photosensitive input circuit. In some examples, the receiver circuit also may include a linear-signal circuit and/or a square-root-signal circuit.
Claims18
A light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor, comprising:
- an optical pulsed transmitter;
- and
- an optical receiver, wherein the receiver includes:
- a plurality of pixels, wherein each pixel includes a receiver circuit, wherein each receiver circuit includes:
- a photosensitive input circuit having at least two terminals, wherein a first terminal is coupled to a detector voltage supply and a second terminal is coupled to a pulse voltage node;
- a logarithmic-signal circuit including at least one PN junction, wherein the P-type terminal is coupled to the pulse voltage node and the N-type terminal is coupled to a constant potential;
- and
- an impedance-reducing circuit electrically coupled to the photosensitive input circuit and to the logarithmic-signal circuit, the impedance-reducing circuit including at least a common-gate transistor coupled to the pulse voltage node;
- wherein the impedance-reducing circuit includes a bias transistor wherein the bias transistor provides DC bias current to the common-gate transistor.
6 more elements
A light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor, comprising:
- an optical pulsed transmitter;
- and
- an optical receiver, wherein the receiver includes:
- a plurality of pixels, wherein each pixel includes a receiver circuit, wherein each receiver circuit includes:
- a photosensitive input circuit having at least two terminals, wherein a first terminal is coupled to a detector voltage supply and a second terminal is coupled to a pulse voltage node;
- a logarithmic-signal circuit including at least one PN junction, wherein the P-type terminal is coupled to the pulse voltage node and the N-type terminal is coupled to a constant potential;
- a linear-signal circuit, including a resistor coupled between the pulse voltage node and the constant potential, and
- a square-root-signal circuit including a transistor including a first terminal coupled to the pulse voltage node and a second terminal coupled to the constant potential.
5 more elements
A light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor, comprising:
- an optical pulsed transmitter;
- and
- an optical receiver, wherein the receiver includes:
- a plurality of pixels, wherein each pixel includes a receiver circuit, wherein each receiver circuit includes:
- a photosensitive input circuit having at least two terminals, wherein one terminal is coupled to a detector voltage supply and the other terminal is coupled to a pulse voltage node;
- a logarithmic-signal circuit including a PN junction, wherein the P-type terminal is coupled to the pulse voltage node and the N-type terminal is coupled to a constant potential;
- a linear-signal circuit including a resistor coupled between the pulse voltage node and the constant potential,
- a square-root-signal circuit including a transistor including a first terminal coupled to the pulse voltage node and a second terminal coupled to the constant potential;
- and
- an impedance-reducing circuit coupled to the photosensitive input circuit, the linear-signal circuit, the square-root-signal circuit, and the logarithmic-signal circuit, wherein the impedance-reducing circuit includes a common-gate transistor coupled to the pulse voltage node, and a bias transistor providing DC bias current to the common-gate transistor.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.