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:
Feb. 13, 2007
Filed:
Jun. 30, 2003
King F. Lee, Schaumburg, IL (US);
Austin Harton, Oak Park, IL (US);
Barry W. Herold, Barrington, IL (US);
Bei Tang, Schaumburg, IL (US);
King F. Lee, Schaumburg, IL (US);
Austin Harton, Oak Park, IL (US);
Barry W. Herold, Barrington, IL (US);
Bei Tang, Schaumburg, IL (US);
Motorola, Inc., Schaumburg, IL (US);
Abstract
A photodetector () generates an electrical signal that has a value that changes approximately linearly at a rate that is proportional to an amount of light intensity incident on a photodetector since a most recent reset command was received at a reset input of the photodetector. A measurement circuit () generates a comparison state that is based on a comparison of the value of the photodetector signal to a reference signal in response to one of a plurality a sample pulses. A control circuit () generates the plurality of sample pulses at non-uniform time intervals and generates an elapsed time as an accumulation of the non-uniform time intervals occurring from the reset command to a change of the comparison state. In one embodiment, the reciprocal of an accumulated duration of the non-uniform time intervals is a linear function of a number of time intervals after the reset command.