Optical Proximity Sensor With Ambient Light and Temperature Compensation

• US 20140070078A1
• Filed: 09/10/2012
• Published: 03/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Land, Brian R., Zheng, Dong
• Granted Patent: US 9,146,304 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 250/214.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/04 Systems determining the presence of a target
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/88 Lidar systems specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/493 Extracting wanted echo signals
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/497 Means for monitoring or calibrating
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0254 detecting a user operation or a tactile contact or a motion of the device
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

An electronic device may be provided with a proximity sensor. The proximity sensor may include a light source such as a light-emitting diode and a light detector such as a photodiode. The light-emitting diode may be driven with an alternating current drive signal so that alternating current light is produced. The alternating current light may reflect off of an external object and may be received by the photodiode. The photodiode may receive a direct current light signal associated with the presence of ambient light. The efficiency of the photodiode may be affected by the level of ambient light and the efficiency of the light-emitting diode may be affected by the temperature of the light-emitting diode. Ambient light correction circuitry and temperature correction circuitry may be used to ensure that proximity sensor readings are not adversely affected by changes in operating temperature and ambient lighting conditions.

Claims

1. A light-based proximity sensor, comprising:

a light source that emits light towards an external object;

a photodetector that is configured to measure light from the light source that has reflected off of the external object; and

an ambient light correction circuit that corrects signals from the photodetector for photodetector efficiency changes due to changes in how much ambient light is received by the photodetector.

2. The light-based proximity sensor defined in claim 1 further comprising a temperature correction circuit that corrects signals from the photodetector for light-emitting-diode efficiency changes due to changes in temperature.

3. The light-based proximity sensor defined in claim 1 wherein the light source comprises a light-emitting diode that emits an alternating current infrared light signal.

4. The light-based proximity sensor defined in claim 1 further comprising a low pass filter interposed between the photodetector and the ambient light correction circuit.

5. The light-based proximity sensor defined in claim 1 further comprising an efficiency correction factor generator interposed between the photodiode and the ambient light correction circuit, wherein the ambient light correction circuit comprises a first input that receives an efficiency correction factor signal from the efficiency correction factor generator and a second input that receives an uncorrected photodiode signal from the photodiode.

6. The light-based proximity sensor defined in claim 1 further comprising a transimpedance amplifier that receives a signal from the photodetector and that outputs a corresponding voltage signal on a node.

7. The light-based proximity sensor defined in claim 6 further comprising first and second circuit branches coupled to the node, wherein the first circuit branch includes a low pass filter and extracts a direct current signal from the voltage signal on the node and wherein the second circuit branch includes a high pass filter and extracts an alternating current signal from the voltage signal on the node.

8. The light-based proximity sensor defined in claim 7 wherein the first and second circuit branches include respective first and second analog-to-digital converters.

9. The light-based proximity sensor defined in claim 7 wherein the ambient light correction circuit receives a signal from the first circuit branch that is proportional to the direct current signal and receives a signal from the second circuit branch that is proportional to the alternating current signal.

10. The light-based proximity sensor defined in claim 7 wherein the first circuit branch includes a storage circuit that stores a digital efficiency trim value and a scaling circuit configured to scale the extracted direct current signal based on the stored digital efficiency trim value.

11. The light-based proximity sensor defined in claim 7 wherein the first branch includes a look-up table that receives the extracted direct current signal and that provides a corresponding output signal to the ambient light correction circuit.

12. A light-based proximity sensor, comprising:

a light-emitting diode that is configured to emit light towards an external object;

a photodetector that is configured to measure light from the light-emitting diode that has reflected off of the external object; and

a temperature correction circuit that corrects a photodetector signal from the photodetector for light-emitting diode efficiency changes due to changes in temperature of the light-emitting diode.

13. The light-based proximity sensor defined in claim 12 wherein the temperature correction circuit has a first input that receives the photodetector signal and a second input that receives a temperature efficiency correction factor that is applied to the photodetector signal by the temperature correction circuit.

14. The light-based proximity sensor defined in claim 13 further comprising a temperature sensor that gathers temperature measurements.

15. The light-based proximity sensor defined in claim 14 further comprising an analog-to-digital converter that converts the temperature measurements into digital temperature signals, wherein the temperature efficiency correction factor is proportional to the temperature measurements.

16. The light-based proximity sensor defined in claim 15 further comprising a low-pass filter that extracts a direct current component from the photodetector signal and an ambient light correction circuit that corrects the photodetector signal for photodetector efficiency changes due to changes in how much ambient light is received by the photodetector.

17. Proximity sensor circuitry, comprising:

a photodiode that is configured to receive an alternating current light signal emitted by a light-emitting diode and reflected from an external object and that is configured to receive a direct current ambient light signal;

a transimpedance amplifier that produces a photodiode signal having an alternating current component associated with the alternating current light signal and a direct current component associated with the direct current ambient light signal;

a first filter that extracts the alternating current component;

a second filter that extracts the direct current component; and

a correction circuit that receives the alternating current component and that uses the direct current component in producing a corresponding corrected photodiode signal that is corrected for photodetector efficiency changes due to fluctuations in how much ambient light is received by the photodetector.

18. The proximity sensor circuitry defined in claim 17 wherein the first filter comprises a high pass filter, the proximity sensor circuitry further comprising an analog-to-digital converter and demodulator interposed between the high pass filter and the correction circuit.

19. The proximity sensor circuitry defined in claim 17 wherein the second filter comprises a low pass filter, the proximity sensor circuitry further comprising an analog-to-digital converter and a look-up table interposed between the low pass filter and the correction circuit.

20. The proximity sensor circuitry defined in claim 17 wherein the second filter comprises a low pass filter, the proximity sensor circuitry further comprising an analog-to-digital converter and an efficiency correction factor generator interposed between the low pass filter and the correction circuit.