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US 12,007,506 B1Granted
Method, system, and apparatus for a LiDAR sensor with varying grating pitch
AssigneeAcacia Communications, Inc.
InventorChristopher Doerr
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method, apparatus, and system for imaging a scene by flood illuminating the scene with a wavelength sweeping laser.
Claims16
An apparatus for scanning a scene comprising:
- a wavelength-sweeping laser arranged to flood illuminate the scene;
- a photonic integrated circuit (PIC);
- the PIC including a plurality of gratings, wherein at least two gratings have a different pitch;
- a plurality of waveguides;
- a set of couplers;
- and a set of photodetectors;
- wherein each waveguide of the plurality of waveguides connects a grating of the plurality of gratings to a coupler of the set of couplers;
- wherein each coupler of the set of couplers is connected to a waveguide of the set of waveguides;
- wherein the PIC is arranged to capture light reflected from the scene from the wavelength-sweeping laser;
- and
- a digital signal processor (DSP).
8 more elements
A method comprising:
- illuminating a scene with flood illumination using light from a sweeping laser without scanning the scene;
- receiving the light reflected off the scene from the sweeping laser at an array of gratings;
- wherein the received light substantially simultaneously travels down each waveguide of an array of waveguides on a PIC to a set of couplers;
- wherein each respective grating of the array of gratings has a respective waveguide of the array of waveguides connecting the each respective array of the array of gratings to a respective coupler of a set of couplers;
- interfering, using each coupler of the set of couplers, the received light from the scene with light split from a wavelength-sweeping laser;
- and
- measuring, using a set of photodetectors, the difference between the received light and the light split from the laser.
4 more elements
A system comprising:
- a wavelength-sweeping laser;
- a photonic integrated circuit (PIC);
- the PIC including a plurality of gratings, wherein at least two gratings have a different pitch;
- a plurality of waveguides;
- a set of couplers;
- and a set of photodetectors;
- wherein each waveguide of the plurality of waveguides connects a grating of the plurality of gratings to a coupler of the set of couplers;
- wherein each coupler of the set of couplers is connected to a waveguide of the set of waveguides;
- wherein the PIC is arranged to capture light reflected from the scene from the wavelength-sweeping laser;
- wherein the PIC is enabled to:
- receive the light reflected off the scene from the sweeping laser at an array of gratings;
- wherein the received light substantially simultaneously travels down each waveguide of an array of waveguides on a PIC to a set of couplers;
- wherein each respective grating of the array of gratings has a respective waveguide of the array of waveguides connecting the each respective array of the array of gratings to a respective coupler of a set of couplers;
- interfere, using each coupler of the set of couplers, the received light from the scene with light split from the sweeping laser;
- and
- measure, using a set of photodetectors, the interference between the received light and the light split from the wavelength-sweeping laser.
13 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.