Method for gating an output of a single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) cluster based on an ambient count of ambient light events generated by the SPAD cluster in a region of interest of a time of flight (TOF) ranging array
AssigneeSTMicroelectronics (Research & Development) Limited
InventorStuart McLeod
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In an embodiments, a method for operating a time-of-flight (ToF) ranging array includes: illuminating a field-of-view (FoV) of the ToF ranging array with radiation pulses; receiving reflected radiation pulses with a plurality of single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) in a region of interest (ROI) of the ToF ranging array, the plurality of SPADs arranged in a plurality of SPAD clusters; determining an ambient count of ambient light events generated by SPADs of a first SPAD cluster of the plurality of SPAD clusters; and gating an output of the first SPAD cluster based on the ambient count.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- receiving reflected radiation pulses with a plurality of single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) in a region of interest of a time-of-flight (ToF) ranging array;
- determining an ambient count of ambient light events generated by a SPAD cluster of a plurality of SPAD clusters;
- and
- gating an output of the SPAD cluster based on the ambient count.
A ranging circuit, comprising:
- a plurality of single photon avalanche diodes (SPAD) configured to receive reflected radiation pulses in a region of interest of a time-of-flight (ToF) ranging array;
- a non-transitory memory storage comprising instructions;
- and
- a processor in communication with the non-transitory memory storage, wherein the processor executes the instructions to:
- determine an ambient count of ambient light events generated by a SPAD cluster of a plurality of SPAD clusters;
- and
- gate an output of the SPAD cluster based on the ambient count.
An optical device, comprising:
- a time-of-flight (ToF) ranging array configured to illuminate a field-of-view (FoV) of the ToF ranging array with radiation pulses;
- and
- a ranging circuit, comprising:
- a plurality of single photon avalanche diodes (SPAD) configured to receive reflected radiation pulses in a region of interest of the ToF ranging array,
- a non-transitory memory storage comprising instructions, and
- a processor in communication with the non-transitory memory storage, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to:
- determine an ambient count of ambient light events generated by a SPAD cluster of a plurality of SPAD clusters;
- and
- gate an output of the SPAD cluster based on the ambient count.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.