Ladar receiver with advanced optics

• US 10,641,872 B2
• Filed: 02/10/2017
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AEye, Inc.
• Original Assignee: AEye, Inc.
• Inventors: Dussan, Luis Carlos, Steinhardt, Allan, Cook, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Murphy, Daniel L
• Application Number:
  US15/430,200
• Publication Number:
  US 20170242107A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,180 Days
• Field of Search: 356 501
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/08 for measuring distance only indirect measurement G01S17/46; active triangulation systems G01S17/48
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/10 using transmission of interrupted, pulse-modulated waves determination of distance by phase measurements G01S17/32
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/26 wherein the transmitted pulses use a frequency-modulated or phase-modulated carrier wave, e.g. for pulse compression of received signals
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/42 Simultaneous measurement of distance and other co-ordinates indirect measurement G01S17/46
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/66 Tracking systems using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/89 for mapping or imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4813 Housing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4814 of transmitters alone
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4815 using multiple transmitters
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4816 of receivers alone
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4817 relating to scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4818 using optical fibres
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4863 Detector arrays, e.g. charge-transfer gates
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4865 Time delay measurement, e.g. time-of-flight measurement, time of arrival measurement or determining the exact position of a peak peak detection in noise, signal conditioning G01S7/487
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/487 Extracting wanted echo signals , e.g. pulse detection
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4876 by removing unwanted signals G01S7/495 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/497 Means for monitoring or calibrating

Abstract

Disclosed herein are various embodiment of an adaptive ladar receiver and associated method whereby the active pixels in a photodetector array used for reception of ladar pulse returns can be adaptively controlled based at least in part on where the ladar pulses were targeted. Additional embodiments disclose improved imaging optics for use by the receiver and further adaptive control techniques for selecting which pixels of the photodetector array are used for sensing incident light.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a ladar transmitter comprising a plurality of scanable mirrors, the ladar transmitter configured to (1) for each of a plurality of frames, select a subset of range points within a frame per frame, (2) selectively scan the scanable mirrors to target the selected range points for each frame, and (3) transmit a plurality of ladar pulses toward the targeted range points via the scanned mirrors; and

a ladar receiver comprising;

a lens;

a light sensor; and

a light collector positioned between the lens and the light sensor;

wherein the lens is configured to receive light, the received light including a plurality of ladar pulses reflected from the targeted range points;

wherein the light collector is configured to collect light from the lens onto the light sensor; and

wherein the light sensor is configured to sense the light collected by the light collector and generate a signal indicative of the sensed light.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the light collector comprises a compound parabolic concentrator.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the light collector comprises a fiber taper light collector.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the fiber taper light collector comprises a coherent fiber taper light collector.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the lens includes an imaging system, the lens configured to focus the received light onto an entrance pupil of the coherent fiber taper light collector.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the lens includes an imaging system, the lens configured to focus the received light onto an entrance pupil of the light collector.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the lens comprises an afocal lens.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the light sensor comprises a multi-element detector array.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the ladar receiver further comprises a read out integrated circuit (ROIC), the ROIC configured to read out the generated signals from the light sensor to support computation of range information for the targeted range points.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the light sensor comprises an array of individually addressable light sensors, each individually addressable light sensor configured to sense light that is indicative of a plurality of ladar pulses reflected from the targeted range points and generate a signal indicative of the sensed light;

and

wherein the ROIC includes a multiplexer that is configured to selectively connect a plurality of the individually addressable light sensors with a signal processing circuit for the signal processing circuit to process the generated signal therefrom.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the ROIC is further configured to control the multiplexer to selectively connect subsets of the individually addressable light sensors with the signal processing circuit at a time based on target locations for the range points of the selected subset within a scan area for the ladar transmitter.

12. A method comprising:

for each of a plurality of frames, selecting a subset of range points within a frame per frame;

selectively scanning a plurality of mirrors to target the selected range points for each frame;

transmitting a plurality of ladar pulses toward the targeted range points via the scanning mirrors, whereupon the ladar pulses are reflected from the range points;

receiving light that includes the reflected ladar pulses via a lens;

collecting, by a light collector, light from the lens onto a light sensor; and

sensing, by the light sensor, the collected light and generating a signal indicative of the sensed light.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the light collector comprises a compound parabolic concentrator.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the light collector comprises a fiber taper light collector.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the fiber taper light collector comprises a coherent fiber taper light collector.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising the lens focusing the received light onto an entrance pupil of the coherent fiber taper light collector.

17. The method of claim 12 further comprising the lens focusing the received light onto an entrance pupil of the light collector.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein the lens comprises an afocal lens.

19. The method of claim 12 wherein the light sensor comprises a multi-element detector array.

20. The method of claim 12 further comprising a read out integrated circuit (ROTC) reading out the generated signals from the light sensor to support computation of range information for the targeted range points.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the light sensor comprises an array of individually addressable light sensors, each individually addressable light sensor configured to sense light that is indicative of a plurality of ladar pulses reflected from the targeted range points and generate a signal indicative of the sensed light;

and

wherein the reading out step comprises a multiplexer selectively connecting a plurality of the individually addressable light sensors with a signal processing circuit for the signal processing circuit to process the generated signal therefrom.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the reading out step further comprises controlling the multiplexer to selectively connect subsets of the individually addressable light sensors with the signal processing circuit at a time based on target locations for the transmitted range points within a scan area for the transmitting step.

23. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

sensing reference light by the light sensor that comes from a ladar transmitter that transmitted the ladar pulses, wherein the reference light is received by the light sensor via an optical path that is distinct from an optical path traveled by the ladar pulses to the light sensor; and

using the received reference light in combination with the sensed reference light to facilitate a range measurement for the targeted range points;

wherein the reference light exhibits a pulse shape that is the same as pulse shapes for the ladar pulses.

24. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

tracking where a ladar transmitter that transmits the ladar pulses was targeted using a dichroic photodetector.

25. The method of claim 12 wherein the light sensor comprises an array of light sensors, the method further comprises:

adaptively selecting which of the light sensors to use for generating the sensed light signal based on the targeted range points.

26. A system comprising:

a ladar transmitter comprising a plurality of scanable mirrors, the ladar transmitter configured to (1) for each of a plurality of frames, select a subset of range points within a frame per frame, (2) selectively scan the scanable mirrors to target the selected range points for each frame, and (3) transmit a plurality of ladar pulses toward the targeted range points via the scanned mirrors; and

a ladar receiver comprising;

a lens; and

a light sensor;

wherein the lens is configured to pass light directly to the light sensor, the passed light including a plurality of ladar pulses reflected from the targeted range points; and

wherein the light sensor is configured to sense the light from the lens and generate a signal indicative of the sensed light.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein the lens includes an imaging system, the lens configured to focus the light directly onto the light sensor.

28. The system of claim 26 wherein the lens comprises an afocal lens.

29. The system of claim 26 wherein the ladar receiver does not include a light collector between the lens and the light sensor.

30. The system of claim 26 wherein the light sensor comprises a multi-element detector array.

31. The system of claim 26 wherein the ladar receiver further comprises a read out integrated circuit (ROIC), the ROIC configured to read out the generated signals from the light sensor to support computation of range information for the targeted range points.

32. The system of claim 31 wherein the light sensor comprises an array of individually addressable light sensors, each individually addressable light sensor configured to sense light that is indicative of a plurality of ladar pulses reflected from the targeted range points and generate a signal indicative of the sensed light;

and

wherein the ROIC includes a multiplexer that is configured to selectively connect a plurality of the individually addressable light sensors with a signal processing circuit for the signal processing circuit to process the generated signal therefrom.

33. The system of claim 32 wherein the ROIC is further configured to control the multiplexer to selectively connect subsets of the individually addressable light sensors with the signal processing circuit at a time based on target locations for the range points of the selected subset within a scan area for the ladar transmitter.

34. A method comprising:

for each of a plurality of frames, selecting a subset of range points within a frame per frame;

selectively scanning a plurality of mirrors to target the selected range points for each frame;

transmitting a plurality of ladar pulses toward the targeted range points via the scanning mirrors, whereupon the ladar pulses are reflected from the range points;

receiving, by a lens, light that includes the reflected ladar pulses;

passing, by the lens, the received light directly to a light sensor; and

sensing, by the light sensor, the passed light and generating a signal indicative of the sensed light.

35. The method of claim 34 further comprising the lens focusing the received light directly onto the light sensor.

36. The method of claim 34 wherein the lens comprises an afocal lens.

37. The method of claim 34 wherein the passed light does not pass through a light collector between the lens and the light sensor.

38. The method of claim 34 wherein the light sensor comprises a multi-element detector array.

39. The method of claim 34 further comprising a read out integrated circuit (ROIC) reading out the generated signals from the light sensor to support computation of range information for the targeted range points.

40. The method of claim 39 wherein the light sensor comprises an array of individually addressable light sensors, each individually addressable light sensor configured to sense light that is indicative of a plurality of ladar pulses reflected from the targeted range points and generate a signal indicative of the sensed light;

and

wherein the reading out step comprises a multiplexer selectively connecting a plurality of the individually addressable light sensors with a signal processing circuit for the signal processing circuit to process the generated signal therefrom.

41. The method of claim 40 wherein the reading out step further comprises controlling the multiplexer to selectively connect subsets of the individually addressable light sensors with the signal processing circuit at a time based on target locations for the transmitted range points within a scan area for the transmitting step.