公开(公告)号：US20170085057A1

公开(公告)日：2017-03-23

申请号：US15244532

申请日：2016-08-23

Applicant: ANALOG DEVICES, INC.

Inventor： ERIK D. BARNES ,  LAWRENCE A. SINGER ,  HARVEY WEINBERG

IPC: H01S5/042

CPC classification number: H01S5/0428 ,  H01S3/10 ,  H01S5/0261 ,  H01S5/0608 ,  H01S5/06808 ,  H01S5/4025

Abstract: Optical systems can emit train(s) of light pulses onto objects to derive a distance between the light source and the object. Achieving meter or centimeter resolution may require very short light pulses. It is not trivial to design a circuit that can generate narrow current pulses for driving a diode that emits the light pulses. An improved driver circuit has a pre-charge path comprising one or more inductive elements and a fire path comprising the diode. Switches in the driver circuit are controlled with predefined states during different intervals to pre-charge current in the one or more inductive elements prior to flowing current through the fire path to pulse the diode.