Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation

Akihide Sai

Satoshi Kondo

Tuan Thanh Ta

Hidenori Okuni

Masanori Furuta

Tetsuro Itakura

Toshiki Sugimoto

Kentaro Yoshioka

Takafumi Yamaji

Junya Matsuno

Ryunosuke Gando

Daiki Ono

Yosuke Toyama

Kei Masunishi

Takeshi Ueno

Kohei Onizuka

Yutaka Ota

Yohei Hatakeyama

Yasuhiro Shinozuka

Hisaaki Katagiri

Provided is a photodetector including: a photodetection element; a reset circuit that sets one end of the photodetection element to an initialization voltage after the photodetection element detects light, and that includes a variable current source capable of varying a current to be supplied to the one end of the photodetection element; and a control circuit that stepwise or continuously increases a current to be supplied to the one end of the photodetection element by using the variable current source until the one end of the photodetection element is set to the initialization voltage after the photodetection element detects light.

Photodetector, electronic device, and method of photodetection

A light-receiving apparatus has M (M is greater than 2) light-receiving elements corresponding to one pixel, and controller circuitry configured to control a bias voltage of the M light-receiving elements in accordance with a condition that the number of light-receiving elements of the M light-receiving elements simultaneously detecting light within a first period is less than N (N is an integer equal to or greater than 2 and less than M).

Light-receiving apparatus and electronic device

An image processing apparatus has a light source that emits a light signal at a predetermined time interval, a scanner capable of changing at least one of a scanning range or a scanning timing of the light signal for each of frames, a light receiver that receives a reflected light signal reflected on an object by irradiating the object with the light signal, processing circuitry that generates a distance image for each of the frames based on the reflected light signal received by the light receiver, and synthesizes the distance images of a plurality of the frames to generate a high-resolution distance image.

Image processing apparatus, distance measuring apparatus, and image processing method

A phase locked loop has an oscillator that varies a frequency according to a control signal, a resonance element that resonates at a predetermined resonance frequency and output a signal obtained by shifting a phase of an output signal of the oscillator by 90 degrees at the resonance frequency, a phase detector that detects a phase error between an output signal of the resonance element and an output signal of the oscillator, a feedback controller that controls a frequency of an output signal of the oscillator by proportional control and integral control according to the phase error, and a control signal corrector that corrects the control signal by adding a correction term corresponding to environment information to an output signal of the feedback controller.

Phase locked loop and sensing device

An electronic apparatus capable of determining a distance to an object based on reflected light provided by a reflection of a pulsed light on the object includes an input terminal configured to receive a signal of intensity of reception light. Processing circuitry determines a measurement range capable of specifying a peak of the reception light based on the intensity of the reception light, detects the reflected light by specifying the peak of the reception light within the measurement range, determines, based on the measurement range, a duration from when the pulsed light is emitted until when the reflected light is received, and determines a distance from the electronic apparatus to the object according to the duration.

Electronic apparatus and method

A resonance frequency detector has an adder that adds a correction term to an oscillation frequency of an output signal of an oscillator, and detects a predetermined resonance frequency of a resonance element. The correction term is generated based on a phase error in a phase locked loop and a degree of change in phase at the resonance frequency, and the phase locked loop generates a control signal based on the phase error between an output signal of the resonance element that resonates at the resonance frequency and the output signal of the oscillator that varies the oscillation frequency according to the control signal.

Resonance frequency detector and sensing device

An oscillation circuit has a first oscillator having output nodes of n stages, where n is an integer of 3 or more, a second oscillator having output nodes of n stages, and a third oscillator having output nodes of n stages. An output node at an a-th stage of the first oscillator and an output node at an a-th stage of the second oscillator are connected with each other, where a is an integer of 1 or more and n or less and an output node at a b-th stage of the second oscillator and an output node at a b-th stage of the third oscillator are connected with each other, where b is an integer of 1 or more and n or less different from a.

Oscillation circuit, time-to-digital converter, and electronic device

An electronic apparatus capable of determining a distance to an object based on reflected light provided by a reflection of pulsed light on the object has detectors configured to detect reception light to measure times from an emission of the pulsed light to detections of the reception light; and processing circuitry configured to determine a duration in which the reflected light is received based on the times, determine, based on one of the times in the duration, a reception timing of the reflected light included in the reception light, and determine the distance from the electronic apparatus to the object according to the reception timing of the reflected light.

A light detection apparatus has an array of first light detectors arranged at a first interval and configured to convert reception light into first signals, second light detectors having a first crosstalk rate and configured to convert reception light into second signals, wherein surfaces of the second light detectors are shielded from light, third light detectors having a second crosstalk rate different from the first crosstalk rate and configured to convert reception light into third signals, wherein surfaces of the third light detectors are shielded from light, and control circuitry configured to control an operation point of the array based on the second signals and the third signals.

Light detection apparatus with array controlled by shielded light detectors and electronic device

An electronic apparatus capable of determining a distance to an object based on at least first reflected light provided by a reflection of first pulsed light on the object and second reflected light provided by a reflection of a second pulsed light on the object has an input terminal to receive an electrical signal of intensity of reception light, and processing circuitry to specify, based on the electrical signal, a first duration from when the first pulsed light is emitted until when the first reflected light is received within a first measurement range, and determine, based on the first duration, a second measurement range of the second reflected light, specify, a second duration from when the second pulsed light is emitted until when the second reflected light is received within the second measurement range, and determine the distance from the electronic apparatus to the object.

A semiconductor circuitry includes an oscillator configured to output an oscillation signal whose frequency depends on a first input signal, a counter configured to count a number of cycles of the oscillation signal, first circuitry configured to output a first digital signal based on a first number of cycles counted by the counter within one of a clock cycle of a clock signal, wherein the first input signal is digitally converted into the first digital signal, and a second circuitry configured to output a second digital signal based on a second number of cycles counted by the counter in a period from a reference timing of the clock signal to an input timing of a second input signal within the one of the clock cycle of the clock signal, wherein the period is digitally converted into the second digital signal.

Semiconductor circuitry and distance measuring device

An analog-to-digital converter has a first digital signal generator that generates a first digital signal based on whether or not a sampling signal of an input signal is equal to or lower than a signal corresponding to a second reference signal higher than a first reference signal, a first slope generator to generate a first slope signal that changes with time from the sampled and held signal equal to or lower than the first reference signal, a second slope generator to generate a second slope signal that changes with time from the sampled and held signal to a signal level equal to or lower than the second reference signal, and a second digital signal generator that generates a second digital signal based on a time at which the first slope signal matches the first reference signal or a time at which the second slope signal matches the second reference signal.

Analog-to-digital converter and electronic device

According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a light source, a detector, an equalizer and a processing circuitry. The light source is configured to emit a pulse having a first output value and a first frequency response. The detector is configured to detect a reflected wave of the pulse and convert the reflected wave to a first electric signal. The reflected wave of the pulse is received after the pulse is reflected by an object. The equalizer is configured to equalize the first electric signal using tap coefficients to generate a second electric signal. The tap coefficients are based on at least either one of the first output value and the first frequency response. The processing circuitry is configured to estimate a distance to the object based on the second electric signal.

Electronic apparatus and distance measuring method

A photodetection apparatus according to one embodiment has a photodetection element, first reset circuitry configured to select whether to set on-resistance between a first voltage node and a terminal of the photodetection element to a first value, second reset circuitry configured to select whether to set the on-resistance to a second value smaller than the first value, and control circuitry configured to set the on-resistance to the first value by the first reset circuitry after the photodetection element detects light, and set the on-resistance to the second value by the second reset circuitry after the first reset circuitry select to set the on-resistance to the first value.

Photodetection apparatus, electronic apparatus and photodetection method

According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a first avalanche photo diode, a second avalanche photo diode, a first pulse circuit, a second pulse circuit, a first waveform shaping circuit, a second waveform shaping circuit and an adder. The first pulse circuit is configured to shape a signal of the first avalanche photo diode to a first pulse. The second pulse circuit is configured to shape a signal of the second avalanche photo diode to a second pulse. The first waveform shaping circuit is configured to shape the first pulse to a third pulse having a narrower frequency bandwidth than that of the first pulse. The second waveform shaping circuit is configured to shape the second pulse to a fourth pulse having a narrower frequency bandwidth than that of the second pulse. The adder is configured to add the third pulse and the fourth pulse.

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Kawasaki, Japan

Akihide Sai