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.

Date of Patent:
Dec. 16, 2025

Filed:

Dec. 15, 2021
Applicant:

Waymo Llc, Mountain View, CA (US);

Inventors:

Sabareeshkumar Ravikumar, Sunnyvale, CA (US);

Pieter Kapsenberg, Santa Clara, CA (US);

Srikanth Muroor, Mountain View, CA (US);

David Sobel, Los Altos, CA (US);

Michael Dierickx, Menlo Park, CA (US);

Assignee:

Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
B60B 21/02 (2006.01); B60B 25/00 (2006.01); B60W 60/00 (2020.01); G01S 7/497 (2006.01); G01S 17/931 (2020.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G01S 7/497 (2013.01); B60W 60/001 (2020.02); G01S 17/931 (2020.01); B60W 2420/408 (2024.01);
Abstract

Example embodiments relate to a lower power linearization of lidar signals. An example embodiment includes a method that includes receiving a sample value output by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) in a processing unit of a lidar system. The ADC may be configured to digitize an optical signal that is compressed by a gain amplifier. The compression may be based on a transfer function comprising one or more linear portions. The method also includes comparing the sample value to one or more threshold values. The one or more threshold values may correspond respectively to the one or more linear portions. The method further includes selecting, for the sample value and based on the comparing, an inverse gain and an associated intercept. The method additionally includes linearizing the sample value based on the selected inverse gain and the associated intercept.


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