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:
Nov. 21, 2017
Filed:
Mar. 27, 2017
Luminar Technologies, Inc., Portola Valley, CA (US);
Jason M. Eichenholz, Orlando, FL (US);
Austin K. Russell, Portola Valley, CA (US);
Scott R. Campbell, Sanford, FL (US);
Alain Villeneuve, Mont-Royal, CA;
Rodger W. Cleye, Aliso Viejo, CA (US);
Joseph G. LaChapelle, Philomath, OR (US);
Matthew D. Weed, Winter Park, FL (US);
Lane A. Martin, Orlando, FL (US);
Luminar Technologies, Inc., Portola Valley, CA (US);
Abstract
A lidar system with a light source to emit a pulse of light into a field of view and a receiver to detect a return pulse of light which is reflected or scattered by a target in the field of view. The receiver may include an avalanche photodiode to generate an electrical-current pulse corresponding to the return pulse and a transimpedance amplifier to produce a voltage pulse that corresponds to the electrical-current pulse. A voltage amplifier may amplify the voltage pulse and a comparator may produce an edge signal when the amplified voltage pulse exceeds a threshold. A time-to-digital converter may determine a time interval based on an emission time of the pulse of light and based on the edge signal. A processor may determine a distance to the target using the time interval.