The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 07, 2021
Filed:
Mar. 29, 2018
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Sakai, JP;
Takayuki Shimizu, Sakai, JP;
Takuma Hiramatsu, Sakai, JP;
Yoshiki Ikuta, Sakai, JP;
Hideki Sato, Sakai, JP;
SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Sakai, JP;
Abstract
Effects of ambient light are suppressed, and distance to a detection object is measured with high precision. A ranging sensor includes a VCSEL, a SPAD array that has multiple SPADs that detect photons of pulse light emitted by the VCSEL, a SPAD array that has multiple SPADs that detect photons of reflected light where the pulse light has been reflected by a detection object, a DLL that measures a time difference between a pulse signal output from the SPADs of the SPAD array and a pulse signal output from the SPADs of the SPAD array, an ambient-light-incident SPAD determining unit that determines a SPAD on which ambient light is incident, based on pulse signals output from SPADs of the SPAD array when the VCSEL is not emitting light, and a SPAD front-end circuit that stops operation of the SPAD for which determination is made that ambient light is incident.