Light sensor module, focused light sensor array, and an air vehicle so equipped

An air vehicle comprising:

• a fuselage and a guidance section comprising:
• an array comprising a plurality of light-sensing modules, each light-sensing module spaced apart from one another, wherein each light-sensing module has a field-of-view overlapping a portion of a field-of-view of at least one other light-sensing module of the plurality of light-sensing modules and wherein each light-sensing module comprises:
• an optical element adapted to direct incident light to a detector array;
• wherein the detector array is adapted to receive directed incident light and convert received light to a set of electrical pulses via a plurality of photodetectors, each photodetector operatively coupled to an amplifier and a threshold circuit, wherein each threshold circuit is adapted to output a detection signal to a first memory cell of a first memory store;
• wherein the first memory store is adapted to associate the detection signal with a time tag;
• and
• wherein the array further comprises a processing module adapted to correlate a first stored detection signal and an associated first time tag from a first light-sensing module of the plurality of light-sensing modules with a second stored detection signal and an associated second time tag from a second light-sensing module of the plurality of light-sensing modules.

A method of integrating a plurality of detections of a plurality of light pulses by a plurality of light-sensing modules, each light-sensing module spaced apart from one another, wherein each light-sensing module has a field-of-view overlapping a portion of a field-of-view of at least one other light-sensing module of the plurality of light-sensing modules and wherein each light-sensing module comprises an optical element, a photodetector array, and a front-end processing module, the method comprising the acts of:

• for at least one of the plurality of light-sensing modules:
• focusing at least one of a plurality of light pulses by an optical element onto a photodetector array to generate one or more detection signals, each detection signal from one or more photodetectors of the array;
• amplifying and thresholding the generated one or more detection signals;
• for each of the one or more detection signals:
• storing each detection signal, with a time tag associated with a time-of-measurement of the detection signal, in a store location, wherein the store location is associated with the photo-detector array from which the detection signal was generated;
• and
• extracting at least one of the stored detection signals from each of at least two of the plurality of light-sensing modules;
• and correlating each of the extracted detection signals from the at least two of the plurality of light-sensing modules according to the store location and the time tag.