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US 11,686,826 B2Granted
Measuring time-of-flight using a plurality of detector subsystems and histogram storage
AssigneeAms AG
InventorsKerry Glover, Manfred Lueger, Robert Kappel, Christian Mautner, Mario Manninger, Georg Roehrer
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Abstract
A semiconductor body includes a driver for driving a light source, at least two detectors each including an avalanche diode, a time-to-digital converter arrangement coupled to outputs of the at least two detectors, a memory that is coupled to the time-to-digital converter arrangement and is configured to store at least one histogram, and an evaluation unit coupled to the driver and to the memory.
Claims15
A semiconductor body for optical time-of-flight, comprising:
- a driver for driving a light source;
- at least two detectors each comprising at least one avalanche diode;
- a time-to-digital converter arrangement coupled to outputs of the at least two detectors;
- a memory that is coupled to the time-to-digital converter arrangement and is configured to store at least one histogram;
- and
- an evaluation unit coupled to the driver and to the memory,
- wherein the at least two detectors are implemented as a first to a fourth detector which are arranged in a square or a stripe and wherein the first to the fourth detector, the time-to-digital converter arrangement and the memory are configured to generate and store histograms of four different regions of an image, and wherein the semiconductor body is a single semiconductor die.
4 more elements
A method for a time-of-flight measurement,
- comprising:
- providing a driver signal to drive a light source;
- receiving photons by at least two detectors each having at least one avalanche diode;
- converting signals received by the at least two detectors by a time-to-digital converter arrangement into at least one histogram and storing the at least one histogram;
- and
- performing a calculation based on the at least one histogram by an evaluation unit,
- wherein the at least two detectors are implemented as a first to a fourth detector which are arranged in a square or a stripe and wherein the first to the fourth detector, the time-to-digital converter arrangement and a memory are configured to generate and store histograms of four different regions of an image, and wherein each of the histograms comprises information received by one respective detector.
4 more elements
A semiconductor body for optical time-of-flight, comprising:
- a driver for driving a light source;
- at least two detectors each comprising at least one avalanche diode;
- a time-to-digital converter arrangement coupled to outputs of the at least two detectors;
- a memory that is coupled to the time-to-digital converter arrangement and is configured to store at least one histogram;
- and
- an evaluation unit coupled to the driver and to the memory,
- wherein the at least two detectors are implemented as a first to a fourth detector which are arranged in a square or a stripe and wherein the first to the fourth detector, the time-to-digital converter arrangement and the memory are configured to generate and store histograms of four different regions of an image, and wherein each of the histograms comprises information received by one respective detector.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.