OPTICAL SENSOR

• US 20150276615A1
• Filed: 11/28/2013
• Published: 10/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Sugiura, Makiko, Otsuka, Kiyoshi, Ariki, Tomohide
• Application Number:
  US14/437,877
• Publication Number:
  US 20150276615A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60S 1/0833 Optical rain sensor
• CPC Class Codes: B60S 1/0844 including a camera
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 13/00 Investigating surface or boundary effects, e.g. wetting power; Investigating diffusion effects; Analysing materials by determining surface, boundary, or diffusion effects scanning-probe techniques or apparatus G01Q
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/17 Systems in which incident light is modified in accordance with the properties of the material investigated where the material investigated is optically excited causing a change in wavelength of the incident light G01N21/63
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/552 Attenuated total reflection
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/88 Investigating the presence of flaws or contamination
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/12 structurally associated with, e.g. formed in or on a common substrate with, one or more electric light sources, e.g. electroluminescent light sources, and electrically or optically coupled thereto semiconductor devices with at least one potential barrier or surface barrier adapted for light emission H01L33/00; amplifiers using electroluminescent element and photocell H03F17/00; electroluminescent light sources per se H05B33/00

Abstract

An optical sensor is attached to a transparent board and includes: a light emitting element that applies light to the transparent board; a plurality of light receiving elements that receive light from the light emitting element, reflected by the transparent board; and a detection unit that detects the amount of rainfall based on output signals of the light receiving elements. The light emitting element applies light to one irradiation region in the transparent board. The light receiving elements correspond to the one irradiation region and the detection unit detects the amount of rainfall based on output signals of the light receiving elements corresponding to the one irradiation region.

Claims

1. An optical sensor attached to a transparent board,

comprising:

a light emitting element that applies light to the transparent board that reflects the light;

a plurality of light receiving elements that receive the light reflected by the transparent board; and

a detection unit that detects an amount of rainfall based on output signals of the plurality of light receiving elements,

wherein;

the light emitting element applies light to one irradiation region in the transparent board;

the plurality of light receiving elements correspond to the one irradiation region;

the detection unit detects the amount of rainfall based on output signals of the plurality of light receiving elements corresponding to the one irradiation region; and

the plurality of light receiving elements are formed in a single semiconductor substrate.

2. The optical sensor according to claim 1,

wherein the detection unit includes a weighting portion that adds a weight to output signals of the plurality of light receiving elements, the weight corresponding to a distribution of intensity of light incident on each of the plurality of light receiving elements, to cause the plurality of light receiving elements to provide respective detection sensitivities to be close to one another in states where no deposit is on the transparent board.

3. The optical sensor according to claim 2,

wherein the weighting portion adds the weight to an output signal of a light receiving element low in intensity of incident light among the plurality of light receiving elements, to cause an intensity of the output signal of the light receiving element low in intensity of incident light to be close to an intensity of an output signal of a light receiving element high in intensity of incident light.

4. The optical sensor according to claim 3,

wherein the weighting portion adds the weight to each of the output signals of the plurality of light receiving elements to cause the output signals of the plurality of light receiving elements to provide respective intensities to be identical with one another.

5. The optical sensor according to claim 2,

wherein the detection unit includes

a comparison portion that compares each of the output signals of the plurality of light receiving elements weighted by the weighting portion with a threshold voltage and outputs a first signal when the output signal is lower than the threshold voltage and a second signal when the output signal is not lower than the threshold voltage,

a count portion that counts a counted number of either the first signal or the second signal outputted from the comparison portion, and

a rainfall amount detection portion that detects an amount of rainfall based on the counted number that is counted by the count portion.

6. The optical sensor according to claim 5, wherein:

the comparison portion includes a plurality of the threshold voltages different in value as the threshold voltage and outputs the first signal or the second signal resulting from sequential comparison of the different threshold voltages with each of the output signals of the plurality of light receiving elements to the count portion; and

the rainfall amount detection portion detects the amount of rainfall based on the counted number corresponding to each of the threshold voltages different in value.

7. The optical sensor according to claim 1,

wherein the detection unit is placed between the light emitting element and the plurality of light receiving elements.

8. The optical sensor according to claim 1, further comprising:

a lens that is provided on the transparent board, the lens adjusting an incident angle of light incident on the plurality of light receiving elements.

9. (canceled)

10. An optical sensor comprising:

a light emitting element that applies light to a transparent board that reflects the light;

a plurality of light receiving elements that

receive the light reflected by the transparent board, and

convert the received light into electrical signals;

a voltage regulating portion that regulates a voltage level of the electrical signal outputted from each of the light receiving elements;

a light emission adjusting portion that adjusts an amount of light emission from the light emitting element; and

a processing portion that processes an electrical signal outputted from each of the plurality of light receiving elements, wherein

each of the plurality of light receiving elements converts light into an electric charge and outputs a voltage corresponding to the electric charge as the electrical signal,

the voltage regulating portion individually regulates an amount of the electric charge converted at each of the plurality of light receiving elements and individually adjusts the voltage level of the electrical signal of each of the plurality of light receiving elements, and

when each of a plurality of inspection values obtained by subtracting the voltage level of the electrical signal of each of the plurality of light receiving elements from a voltage level of an electrical signal outputted from each of the plurality of light receiving elements under states where no deposit adheres to the transparent board is larger than a threshold value, the processing portion determines that a deposit adheres to the transparent board.

11. The optical sensor according to claim 10, wherein:

the voltage regulating portion includes

a switch that discharges electric charge accumulated in each of the plurality of light receiving elements; and

a control unit that controls drive of the switch; and

the control unit individually adjusts driven time and non-driven time of the switch corresponding to each of the plurality of light receiving elements, to cause the voltage levels of the respective electrical signals of the plurality of light receiving elements to be identical with one another under states where no deposit adheres to the transparent board.

12. The optical sensor according to claim 11,

wherein the control unit individually adjusts the driven time and the non-driven time of the switch corresponding to each of the light receiving elements to cause the voltage level of the electrical signal of each of the plurality of light receiving elements to be equal to a voltage level of an electrical signal expected to be outputted from each of the plurality of light receiving elements under states where no deposit adheres to the transparent board.

14. The optical sensor according to claim 10,

wherein the number of the light emitting element is one.

15. The optical sensor according to claim 10,

wherein:

the plurality of light receiving elements are divided into a plurality of light receiving element groups, each light receiving element group including a plurality of light receiving elements sharing a single output terminal; and

the voltage regulating portion adjusts an amount of electric charge of each light receiving element group, to adjust a voltage level of an electrical signal.

17. The optical sensor according to claim 10,

wherein when a lowest inspection value of the inspection values corresponding to the respective light receiving elements is larger than the threshold value, the processing portion determines that a deposit adheres to the transparent board.

18. The optical sensor according to claim 10,

wherein:

the deposit is a raindrop; and

the processing portion determines whether or not any raindrop adheres to the transparent board based on the electrical signal outputted from each of the plurality of light receiving elements and the threshold value.

13. (canceled)

16. (canceled)