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Light beam range finder

  • US 5,767,953 A
  • Filed: 06/06/1995
  • Issued: 06/16/1998
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/12/1993
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for measuring distance, comprising:

  • a transmitter which transmits a sequence of visible electromagnetic pulses in response to a transmit timing signal;

    a receiver which samples reflections from objects of the sequence of visible electromagnetic pulses with controlled timing, in response to a receive timing signal, and generates a sample signal in response to the samples, the sample signal indicating distance to an object, wherein the receiver includes an avalanche photodiode or a PIN photodiode, a sampling gate having an output and an input coupled to the avalanche photodiode or PIN photodiode, and an amplifier coupled to the output of the sampling gate;

    a timing circuit which supplies the transmit timing signal to the transmitter and supplies the receive timing signal to the receiver, the receive timing signal causing the receiver to sample the reflections such that time between transmission of pulses in the sequence and sampling by the receiver sweeps over a range of delays.

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