公开(公告)号：US20220299614A1

公开(公告)日：2022-09-22

申请号：US17806355

申请日：2022-06-10

Applicant: DENSO CORPORATION

Inventor： Noriyuki OZAKI ,  Yoshihide TACHINO ,  Takehiro HATA

IPC: G01S7/487 ,  G01S17/10 ,  G01S17/894

Abstract: An object detection apparatus includes: a light emission part; a light reception part; a time determination part that determines an environmental light acquisition time during which to acquire environmental light in accordance with the intensity of the environmental light; a light reception control part that controls an operation of receiving incident light by the light reception part; and a light emission control part that controls a light emission operation by the light emission part. The light reception control part causes the light reception part to execute a light reception operation by which to acquire the environmental light during the determined environmental light acquisition time.

公开(公告)号：US20210088661A1

公开(公告)日：2021-03-25

申请号：US16952616

申请日：2020-11-19

Applicant: DENSO CORPORATION

Inventor： Takehiro HATA ,  Kenta AZUMA ,  Hiroyuki MATSUBARA ,  Isamu TAKAI

IPC: G01S17/14 ,  G01S7/481 ,  G01S7/4863

Abstract: A photodetector and an optical ranging apparatus provided with the photodetector are disclosed. The photodetector includes a pulse output section that changes an output from a light-receiving element to a rectangular pulse having a predetermined pulse width and outputs the rectangular pulse. Further, the photodetector also includes a pulse conversion circuit that converts the rectangular pulse to a rectangular pulse having a pulse width different from the predetermined pulse, based on the rise and fall of the rectangular pulse.

公开(公告)号：US20200044098A1

公开(公告)日：2020-02-06

申请号：US16583674

申请日：2019-09-26

Applicant: DENSO CORPORATION

Inventor： Kenta AZUMA ,  Teiyu KIMURA ,  Noriyuki OZAKI ,  Shinji KASHIWADA ,  Takehiro HATA ,  Isamu TAKAI ,  Hiroyuki MATSUBARA

IPC: H01L31/02 ,  H03F3/08 ,  G01S7/486 ,  H01L31/10

Abstract: A light detector is provided to include a detection module, and a monitoring SPAD. The detection module includes an SPAD that is an avalanche photodiode operable in Geiger mode; the detection module is configured to perform light detection by applying, to the SPAD, a reverse bias voltage in a reverse direction. The monitoring SPAD has characteristics identical to characteristics of the SPAD in the detection module. The reverse bias voltage is generated to be applied to the SPAD in the detection module based on (i) a reference breakdown voltage set from a breakdown voltage generated across the monitoring SPAD in Geiger mode and (ii) a predetermined excess voltage.

公开(公告)号：US20210088658A1

公开(公告)日：2021-03-25

申请号：US17112559

申请日：2020-12-04

Applicant: DENSO CORPORATION

Inventor： Takehiro HATA ,  Noriyuki OZAKI ,  Teiyu KIMURA

IPC: G01S17/08 ,  G01S7/4863 ,  G01S7/484

Abstract: A distance measuring apparatus is provided which includes an illuminator, a plurality of photodetectors which detect reflected light arising from reflection of light, as emitted from the illuminator, from an object using SPADs, a time measuring unit which measures time elapsed after the emission of light from the illuminator until a number of the photodetectors which is larger than a given value have detected light, a timing controller which instructs the illuminator to emit the light, activates the SPADs in a Geiger mode, and instructs the time measuring unit to execute the time measurement, and a timing instruction unit which determines a light emission timing and an activation start timing of each of the SPADs for the timing controller.

公开(公告)号：US20200041621A1

公开(公告)日：2020-02-06

申请号：US16597109

申请日：2019-10-09

Applicant: DENSO CORPORATION

Inventor： Noriyuki OZAKI ,  Teiyu KIMURA ,  Kenta AZUMA ,  Takehiro HATA

IPC: G01S7/486 ,  G01S7/487 ,  G01S17/08 ,  H01L31/107

Abstract: A plurality of photodetectors form a light receiving group, and a plurality of the light receiving groups form one pixel. A light receiving array is provided with one or more of such pixels. The photodetectors each output a pulse signal in response to irradiation of a photon. A measuring unit is provided for each of the plurality of light receiving groups. The measuring unit generates time information representing an elapsed time from an irradiation timing input from outside and light quantity information acquired at each of one or more timings identified from the time information, in accordance with the pulse signal output from the light receiving group. The number of the photodetectors outputting the pulse signal among the plurality of photodetectors belonging to the light receiving group is used as the light quantity information.

公开(公告)号：US20180372538A1

公开(公告)日：2018-12-27

申请号：US16013047

申请日：2018-06-20

Applicant: DENSO CORPORATION

Inventor： Takehiro HATA ,  Shinji KASHIWADA ,  Akifumi UENO

IPC: G01J1/44 ,  H03K5/1534

Abstract: A light detection device has light receiving parts, edge detection circuits and an addition unit. Each light receiving part has a quench resistance, a SPAD and a pulse signal output part. The SPAD responses incident photons, i.e. incident light. The quench resistance and pulse signal output part generate and transmit a pulse signal to a corresponding edge detection circuit when the SPAD receives and responds to the incident light. The edge detection circuits and the addition unit detects the number of edges during a period from a previously received CLK signal to a currently received CLK signal every time it receives a CLK signal transmitted at a predetermined period. The edge represents a state change from a first state which receives no pulse signal to a second state which receives the pulse signal.

公开(公告)号：US20220221565A1

公开(公告)日：2022-07-14

申请号：US17657667

申请日：2022-04-01

Applicant: DENSO CORPORATION

Inventor： Noriyuki OZAKI ,  Takehiro HATA ,  Akifumi UENO

IPC: G01S7/497 ,  G01S7/48

Abstract: A distance measuring apparatus includes a light emitter, a receiver, a calculator, a case having a window, and a determiner for determining that dirt is adhered to the window in response to determination that a dirt determination condition is satisfied. The dirt determination condition includes a first condition that a specified light intensity level at a specified value of a time of flight for at least one pixel of a view region in a histogram is larger than or equal to at least one value of an intensity threshold calculated for the at least one pixel of the view region.

公开(公告)号：US20200018853A1

公开(公告)日：2020-01-16

申请号：US16584033

申请日：2019-09-26

Applicant: DENSO CORPORATION

Inventor： Takehiro HATA ,  Noriyuki OZAKI ,  Teiyu KIMURA ,  Kenta AZUMA ,  Shinji KASHIWADA

IPC: G01S17/10 ,  G01S7/481 ,  G01C3/08 ,  H01L31/0232

Abstract: A light reception array unit receives light irradiated from an irradiation unit and reflected from an object, and outputs in parallel a pulse signal respectively output from a plurality of light reception units. A timer unit measures an elapsed time since an input of an irradiation timing signal. A response acquisition unit acquires a number of responses, which is a number of the light reception units outputting the pulse signal, at each fixed cycle timing, and outputs an adjusted number of responses obtained by subtracting a bias value from the number of responses or dividing the number of responses by the bias value. An address of a memory is associated with a timer value measured by the timer unit. A histogram generation unit integrates and stores, in a memory address specified from a timer value, the adjusted number of responses as data at that address.

公开(公告)号：US20230012091A1

公开(公告)日：2023-01-12

申请号：US17934082

申请日：2022-09-21

Applicant: DENSO CORPORATION

Inventor： Noriyuki OZAKI ,  Yoshihiro MURAKAMI ,  Takehiro HATA ,  Yoshiaki HOASHI ,  Masato NAKAJIMA

IPC: G01S7/4865 ,  G01S7/484 ,  G01S17/10

Abstract: A rangefinder includes a light emitting part, a light receiving part, a calculating part that calculates the distance from a reflective object, and a control part. The calculating part has a received light intensity determining part, a peak detecting part, and a distance calculating part, and a distance determining part. The control part controls at least one of the intensity of the pulsed light, the sensitivity of the light receiving part to received light, and a position of the region of interest so that a first received light intensity is obtained as the received light intensity of each of the plurality of times of flight at least once, and a second received light intensity having a higher S/N ratio is obtained as the received light intensity of each of the plurality of times of flight at least once. The distance determining part determines the measurement target distance by using the first distance based on the first received light intensity and the second distance based on the second received light intensity.

公开(公告)号：US20220003853A1

公开(公告)日：2022-01-06

申请号：US17478731

申请日：2021-09-17

Applicant: DENSO CORPORATION

Inventor： Noriyuki OZAKI ,  Masato RINNAI ,  Takehiro HATA

IPC: G01S7/497 ,  G01S7/48 ,  G01S17/08

Abstract: A distance measuring device includes a light receiving unit and a light emitting unit. The light receiving unit includes light-receiving regions for receiving incident light and receives the incident light in units of each light-receiving region. The light emitting unit exclusively emits detection light corresponding to each light-receiving region. The distance measuring device further includes a malfunction determining unit that, in response to the light receiving unit receiving the incident light according to the emission of the detection light, performs malfunction determination in the distance measuring device, in accordance with a difference between a property of incident light intensity in a light-receiving subject region and a property of incident light intensity in a light-receiving non-subject region, the light-receiving subject region corresponding to exclusive emission of the detection light and the light-receiving non-subject region failing to correspond to exclusive emission of the detection light, among the light-receiving regions.