Beijing Voyager Technology Co., Ltd.

Guangzhou Woya Laideling Technology Co., Ltd.

Vipul Chawla

Yue Lu

Youmin Wang

Lingkai Kong

Yibo Yu

Zhenghan Zhu

John K Wu

Embodiments of the disclosure provide an optical sensing system, a method for controlling a receiver gain in the optical sensing system, and a receiver in the optical sensing system. The exemplary optical sensing system includes a transmitter configured to emit light beams at a plurality of vertical detection angles to scan an object. The optical sensing system further includes a receiver having a detector configured to detect the light beams returned by the object. The optical sensing system also includes a controller configured to dynamically vary a gain of the detector for detecting the light beams of the respective vertical detection angles.

Dynamic receiver gain control for LiDAR system

In one example, an apparatus is provided. The apparatus is part of a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) module of a vehicle and comprises: a receiver circuit including a photodiode and an amplifier circuit; and a controller configured to: obtain information of an operation condition of the LiDAR module; based on the information, set a multiplication ratio by which the photodiode converts incident light to a photocurrent; obtain, from the amplifier circuit, an output signal based on the photocurrent; and perform a ranging operation based on the output signal.

Control of optical receiver based on environmental condition

Apparatus and methods for reducing inter symbol interference from reflected laser pulses that are received close in time. A laser is provided to emit a laser beam pulse. A photodetector is mounted to receive a reflected laser beam pulse after reflecting off an object in an external environment, and produce a voltage signal corresponding to the reflected laser beam pulse. The voltage signal is provided to a delay path circuit having a delay line and a gain control circuit to provide a delayed, reduced amplitude voltage signal. The delayed, reduced amplitude voltage signal is subtracted from the voltage signal in a subtraction circuit to produce a truncated pulse. The output of the subtraction circuit is provided to a pulse detector circuit to detect the arrival time of the leading edge of the truncated pulse.

Feed-forward equalization for enhanced distance resolution

Embodiments of the disclosure provide an optical sensing system and an optical sensing method thereof. The optical sensing system comprises a light source configured to emit an optical signal into an environment surrounding the optical sensing system. The optical sensing system further comprises a photodetector configured to receive the optical signal reflected from the environment of the optical sensing system, and convert the optical signal to an electrical signal, where the photodetector is disposed in a package. The optical sensing system additionally comprises a readout circuit configured to generate a readout signal based on the electrical signal received from the photodetector, where the readout circuit is disposed in the same package as the photodetector and connected to the photodetector through routings in the package.

Copackaging photodetector and readout circuit for improved LiDAR detection

A system for controlling a pulsed laser diode includes a power source configured to supply power to the pulsed laser diode and at least one driving branch between the power source and the pulsed laser diode. The at least one driving branch is configured to control power delivery from the power source to the pulsed laser diode. The at least one driving branch is connected to a cathode of the pulsed laser diode.

Multi-pulse generation for pulsed laser diodes using low-side drivers

Method and system for performing ranging operation are provided. In one example, a transmitter is configured to transmit a first signal having a first signal level and a second signal having a second signal level, the second signal being transmitted after the first signal, the first signal and the second signal being separated by a time gap configured based on a minimum distance of a range of distances to be measured by the LiDAR module. The first signal level and the second signal level are configured based on the range of distances to be measured by the LiDAR module, a range of levels of reflectivity of a target object to be detected by the LiDAR module, and a dynamic range of a receiver circuit to receive the first signal and the second signal. Ranging operation can be performed based on the time-of-flight of at least one of the first signal or the second signal.

System and methods for ranging operations using multiple signals

Methods and apparatus for performing a ranging operation are provided. In one example, an apparatus comprises a transmitter circuit, a receiver circuit, a controller, and a code storage. The controller can obtain a first code from the code storage, determine, from the first code, first timing information and first amplitude information of a corresponding first group of one or more signals, and control the transmitter circuit to transmit the first group of one or more signals based on the first timing information and the first amplitude information. The controller can configure a matched filter based on the first timing information and the first amplitude information, identify return signals of the first group of one or more signals based on processing received signals using the configured matched filter, and perform a ranging operation based on the identified return signals and the first group of one or more signals.

System and methods for ranging operations using modulated signals

An optical signal detection system includes a plurality of photodetectors configured to detect optical signals reflected from an environment surrounding the optical signal detection system and convert the optical signals into electrical signals. The optical signal detection system also includes an amplifier coupled to the plurality of photodetectors. The amplifier is shared by the plurality of photodetectors and configured to generate an output signal by amplifying an individual electrical signal converted by a corresponding photodetector. The optical signal detection system further includes a multiplexing circuit configured to selectively establish a connection between one of the plurality of photodetectors and the amplifier to amply the electrical signal converted by that photodetector.

Low noise frontends for LiDAR receiver and methods for controlling the same comprising a multiplexing circuit for selectively connecting each photodetector to a shared amplifier

Low noise frontends for lidar receiver and methods for controlling the same comprising a multiplexing circuit for selectively connecting each photodetector to a shared amplifier

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Vipul Chawla