Apple Inc.

Cristiano L Niclass

Shingo Mandai

Moshe Laifenfeld

Thierry Oggier

Gennadiy A Agranov

Mina A Rezk

Xiaofeng Fan

Alexander Shpunt

Arnaud Laflaquiere

Tal Kaitz

Scott Thomas Smith

Matthew C Waldon

Andrew J Sutton

Susan Ann Thompson

Rahmi Hezar

Harish Venkataraman

Richard E Bills

Or Nahir

Vyshakh Sanjeev

Marc A Drader

Andrew Kenneth John McMahon

Ronen Akerman

Oz Barak

Nadav Fine

Gary Chung

Arnaud Laflaquière

Bernhard Buettgen

Jason D Mudge

Hong Wei Lee

Ron Sokolovsky

Darshan Shrestha

Dipayan Das

Doron Shinbox

Andrew Kenneth John Mcmahon

Optical sensing apparatus includes a radiation source, which directs a series of optical pulses toward a target scene. A first array of single-photon detectors receives optical radiation that is reflected from the target scene and outputs electrical pulses in response to incident photons. A second array of counters aggregates and counts the electrical pulses output by the single-photon detectors over respective periods indicated by respective gating signals applied to the counters. Control logic applies the respective gating signals to the counters, in each of a sequence of image frames, so as to cause different ones of the counters to aggregate and count the electrical pulses output by one or more of the single-photon detectors over different, respective gating intervals relative to each of the optical pulses, and to sum the frame histograms generated with different temporal offsets so as to compute and output a cumulative histogram.

Time-of-flight depth sensing with improved linearity

An optoelectronic device includes a first semiconductor die, having first front and rear surfaces and including at least one avalanche photodetector configured to output electrical pulses in response to photons incident on the first front surface. A second semiconductor die has a second front surface, which is bonded to the first rear surface, and a second rear surface, and includes a photodetector receiver analog circuit coupled to the at least one avalanche photodetector and an emitter driver circuit configured to drive a pulsed optical emitter. A third semiconductor die has a third front surface, which is bonded to the second rear surface, and a third rear surface, and includes logic circuits coupled to control the photodetector receiver analog circuit and the emitter driver circuit and to receive and process the electrical pulses output by the at least one avalanche photodetector.

Single-chip optical transceiver

Disclosed herein are photodetectors using arrays of pixels with single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs). The pixel arrays may have configurations that include one or more control transistors for each SPAD collocated on the same chip or wafer as the pixels and located on a surface of the wafer opposite to the light gathering surface of the pixel arrays. The control transistors may be positioned or configured for interconnection with a logic chip that is bonded to the wafer of the pixel array. The pixels may be formed in a substrate having doping gradient. The control transistors may be positioned on or within the SPADs, or adjacent to, but isolated from, the SPADs. Isolation between the individual SPADs and the respective control transistors may make use of shallow trench isolation regions or deep trench isolation regions.

Transistor integration with stacked single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) pixel arrays

Sensing apparatus includes a radiation source, which emits pulses of optical radiation toward multiple points in a target scene. A receiver receives the optical radiation that is reflected from the target scene and outputs signals that are indicative of respective times of flight of the pulses to and from the points in the target scene. Processing and control circuitry selects a first pulse repetition interval (PRI), a second PRI, greater than the first PRI, and a third PRI, greater than the second PRI, from a permitted range of PRIs, drives the radiation source to emit sequences of the pulses at the first PRI, the second PRI, and the third PRI, and processes the signals output by the receiver in response to the first, second, and third sequences of the pulses in order to compute respective depth coordinates of the points in the target scene.

Selection of pulse repetition intervals for sensing time of flight

A method of building a moving average histogram of photon times of arrival includes, for each time interval in first and second subsets of time intervals, latching a time reference corresponding to a time of receipt of an avalanche timing output signal of a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD), and advancing a count stored at a memory address corresponding to the latched time reference. The memory address corresponds to a range of time references. The method further includes reading and clearing a first set of counts after the first subset of time intervals; phase-shifting the sequence of time references with respect to a set of memory addresses after the first subset of time intervals; reading and clearing a second set of counts after the second subset of time intervals; and building the moving average histogram using at least the first and second sets of counts.

SPAD-based photon detectors with multi-phase sampling TDCs

An electronic device includes an optical transmitter, an optical receiver, a memory, an optical transmitter controller, and an optical receiver controller. The memory is configured to store an indicator of a next pulse repetition interval (PRI) and a set of parameters associated with operating the optical transmitter in accordance with the next PRI. The optical transmitter controller is configured to retrieve the indicator of the next PRI in response to a trigger signal; retrieve, using the indicator of the next PRI, the set of parameters; and operate the optical transmitter in accordance with the set of parameters. The optical receiver controller is configured to operate the optical receiver; update the indicator of the next PRI stored in the memory; and provide the trigger signal to the optical transmitter controller.

Setting parameters of optical transmitter using receive-side control

An optical sensing device includes a light source, which is configured to emit one or more beams of light pulses at respective angles toward a target scene. An array of sensing elements is configured to output signals in response to incidence of photons on the sensing elements. Light collection optics are configured to image the target scene onto the array. Control circuitry is coupled to actuate the sensing elements only in one or more selected regions of the array, each selected region containing a respective set of the sensing elements in a part of the array onto which the light collection optics image a corresponding area of the target scene that is illuminated by the one of the beams, and to adjust a membership of the respective set responsively to a distance of the corresponding area from the device.

Time-of-flight depth mapping with parallax compensation

Sensing apparatus includes a radiation source, which emits pulses of optical radiation toward multiple points in a target scene. A receiver receives the optical radiation that is reflected from the target scene and outputs signals that are indicative of respective times of flight of the pulses to and from the points in the target scene. Processing and control circuitry selects a first pulse repetition interval (PRI) and a second PRI, greater than the first PRI, from a permitted range of PRIs, drives the radiation source to emit a first sequence of the pulses at the first PRI and a second sequence of the pulses at a second PRI, and processes the signals output in response to both the first and second sequences of the pulses in order to compute respective depth coordinates of the points in the target scene.

A back-illuminated single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) image sensor includes a sensor wafer stacked vertically over a circuit wafer. The sensor wafer includes one or more SPAD regions, with each SPAD region including an anode gradient layer, a cathode region positioned adjacent to a front surface of the SPAD region, and an anode avalanche layer positioned over the cathode region. Each SPAD region is connected to a voltage supply and an output circuit in the circuit wafer through inter-wafer connectors. Deep trench isolation elements are used to provide electrical and optical isolation between SPAD regions.

Back-illuminated single-photon avalanche diode

An image sensor includes an avalanche diode, an avalanche detector circuit, a sample and hold circuit, and a sample collection circuit. The avalanche diode has an output voltage that changes in response to an avalanche event in the avalanche diode. The avalanche detector circuit is configured to generate a sample capture signal in response to detecting the avalanche event. The sample and hold circuit is configured to store a sample of the output voltage in response to receiving the sample capture signal. The sample collection circuit is configured to collect the sample of the output voltage from the sample and hold circuit.

Breakdown voltage monitoring for avalanche diodes

Disclosed are devices and methods for scanning sensing systems having an array of light sensing pixels, such as pixels that use single-photon avalanche diodes. Light pulses are emitted into a field of view (FOV) at starts of a sequence of time intervals, and a weighted tabulation of the times-of-flight of the reflected light pulses within each time interval is used to detect an object in the FOV and determine its distance. Each weight is based on the time-of-flight between the emitted pulse and the received reflected light pulse and on the number of the emitted light pulse in the sequence of emitted light pulses. For near objects the weights emphasize times-of-flight from peripheral time intervals of the sequence; for far objects the weights emphasize central time intervals of the sequence.

Spatial temporal weighting in a SPAD detector

A single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detector includes a pixel array comprising multiple pixels and a memory operably connected to the pixel array. Each pixel includes a SPAD. Various techniques for accumulating signals received from the same SPAD over multiple scans and storing the accumulated signals in the memory are disclosed.

Management of histogram memory for a single-photon avalanche diode detector

The sensitivity of one or more single-photon avalanche diodes (SPAD) in a SPAD detector is modulated over time. The sensitivity of all of the SPADs may be modulated, or the sensitivity of one section of the SPADs can be modulated differently from another section of the SPADs. Various techniques for modulating the sensitivity are disclosed.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Cristiano L Niclass