Velodyne Lidar Usa, Inc.

Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC

Velodyne Lidar, Inc.

Nathan Slattengren

David S Hall

Anand Gopalan

Rajanatha Shettigara

Aaron Chen

Yuming Liu

Chao Hu

David Viviescas

Stella Chung

Tajbid Rahman

Joaquin Andres Fierro

Methods and systems for combining return signals from multiple channels of a LIDAR measurement system are described herein. In one aspect, the outputs of multiple receive channels are electrically coupled before input to a single channel of an analog to digital converter. In another aspect, a DC offset voltage is provided at the output of each transimpedance amplifier of each receive channel to improve measured signal quality. In another aspect, a bias voltage supplied to each photodetector of each receive channel is adjusted based on measured temperature to save power and improve measurement consistency. In another aspect, a bias voltage supplied to each illumination source of each transmit channel is adjusted based on measured temperature. In another aspect, a multiplexer is employed to multiplex multiple sets of output signals of corresponding sets of receive channels before analog to digital conversion.

LIDAR signal acquisition

The disclosed devices may include a driver circuit including a voltage boost circuit, a pulse modulation controller, and optionally a headroom processor. The voltage boost circuit may be configured to receive a device input voltage (such as a battery voltage) and generate a backlight drive voltage. The pulse modulation controller may be configured to provide a pulse modulation signal to the voltage boost circuit, and may include a digital circuit or an analog circuit. Example devices may include a backlight unit receiving the backlight voltage. The optional headroom processor may provide a headroom signal to the pulse modulation controller based on a headroom voltage determined from the backlight unit. Devices may further include a backlight unit including an arrangement of light-emissive elements, and may include display devices such as head-mounted devices. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

High-efficiency backlight driver

Growing community of inventors

San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Nathan Slattengren