Integrated bound-mode spectral/angular sensors
OwnerSteven R. J. Brueck, Alexander Neumann +1inventors
InventorsSteven R. J. Brueck, Alexander Neumann, Payman Zarkesh-Ha
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Abstract
An occupancy sensor covering a wide field in an integrated chip is disclosed. The occupancy sensor includes an array of grating coupled waveguide sensors wherein continuous wave (cw) signals monitor an ambient light field for dynamic changes on times scales of seconds, and high frequency signals map in three-dimensions of the space using time-of-flight (TOF) measurements, pixel level electronics that perform signal processing; array level electronics that perform additional signal processing; and communications and site level electronics that interface with actuators to respond to occupancy sensing.
Claims20
A 2-D optical sensor array comprising:
- a semiconductor substrate;
- a plurality of pixels including at least a first pixel and a second pixel, wherein each of the pixels comprise:
- a waveguide disposed on the semiconductor substrate that supports a single transverse electric (TE) and a single transverse magnetic (TM) waveguide mode;
- one or more collection areas that couple incident light into the single TE and the single TM waveguide modes;
- one or more transmission regions that allow propagation of the incident light that is coupled and collected in the collection area to one or more detection areas;
- the one or more detection areas couples a portion of the light propagating through the one or more transmission regions to one or more detectors integrated into the semiconductor substrate;
- a contact area where signals from the one or more detectors associated with the one or more pixels are collected;
- and
- electronics for processing the signals that are collected to provide information on angular and spectral characteristics of the light incident onto one or more pixels of the plurality of pixels.
A method of determining information on angular and spectral characteristics of ambient light using an optical sensor array, the method comprising:
- receiving incident ambient light with one or pixels of a plurality of pixels, wherein each pixel comprises a waveguide disposed on the semiconductor substrate that supports a single transverse electric (TE) and a single transverse magnetic (TM) waveguide mode;
- one or more collection areas that couple incident light into the single TE and the single TM waveguide mode;
- one or more transmission regions that allow propagation of the incident light that is coupled and collected in the one or more collection areas to one or more detection areas;
- the one or more detection areas that couples a portion of the light propagating through the one or more transmission regions to one or more detectors integrated into the semiconductor substrate;
- a contact area where signals from the one or more detectors associated with the one or more pixels are collected;
- and electronics for processing the signals that are collected to provide information on angular and spectral characteristics of the light incident onto one or more pixels of the plurality of pixels;
- and
- outputting the information on angular and spectral characteristics of the light.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.