Light-received position detecting circuit and distance detecting apparatus using the same

Abstract

A light-received position detecting circuit includes a light receiving portion 10 formed by plural photodiodes arranged side by side for detecting light to generate a photoelectric current, and a resistor group RR formed by plural resistors RR1 to RRn-1 connected in series and the photodiodes are correspondingly connected to the respective resistors to divide the photoelectric current from a light emitting portion 31 into photoelectric current parts according to the position of generation of the photoelectric current. First and second current detecting amplifiers 12 and 16 for generating detection signals corresponding to the photoelectric current parts are connected to the opposite ends of the resistor group RR, respectively. A third current detecting amplifier 14 for dividing the light receiving portion 10 into light receiving sections and detecting the photoelectric current part is connected to selected one of the resistors located in the intermediate portion of the resistor group RR. The operation of the amplifier 14 is changed over selectively by a switch 18.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.