Addressable vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser for aiming and pointing beams
AssigneeB.E. Meyers & Co., Inc.
InventorsSpencer Nelson, Miles Elledge, Alexander Bigby, Thomas Alldredge
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Abstract
A system includes a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) die that includes individually addressable VCSEL elements, the individually addressable VCSEL elements respectively including one or more lasing segments etched into the VCSEL die; a controller that designates a selected VCSEL element, of the individually addressable VCSEL elements of the VCSEL die, based on a spatial pattern to be projected from the system in a downfield direction toward a target; and a driver system that selectively applies a drive signal to the selected VCSEL element in response to the selected VCSEL element being designated by the controller.
Claims20
A system, comprising:
- a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) die comprising individually addressable VCSEL elements, the individually addressable VCSEL elements respectively comprising one or more lasing segments etched into the VCSEL die;
- a controller that designates a selected VCSEL element, of the individually addressable VCSEL elements of the VCSEL die, based on a spatial pattern to be projected from the system in a downfield direction toward a target;
- and
- a driver system that selectively applies a drive signal to the selected VCSEL element in response to the selected VCSEL element being designated by the controller.
A method, comprising:
- selecting, by a system comprising at least one processor, one or more elements from elements of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) die based on a lasing pattern to be emitted from the VCSEL die toward a downfield target, resulting in one or more selected elements of the VCSEL die, wherein the elements of the VCSEL die respectively comprise one or more lasing segments etched into the VCSEL die;
- and
- driving, by the system, the one or more selected elements of the VCSEL die in response to the selecting, resulting in the VCSEL die emitting the lasing pattern.
A system, comprising:
- a controller that selectively activates a first element of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) array based on first pattern data representative of a first pattern to be projected toward a target;
- and
- an adjustment unit that generates second pattern data, representative of a second pattern to be projected toward the target, based on observed change to one or more properties selected from a group of properties comprising a first property of the target and a second property of an environment in which the target is located,
- wherein the controller, in response to the adjustment unit generating the second pattern data, deactivates the first element of the VCSEL array and selectively activates a second element of the VCSEL array based on the second pattern data, and wherein the second element is different from the first element.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.