An estimation device includes a controller and an estimator. The estimation device switches a plurality of control conditions which are set so that there is satisfied at least one of conditions that that irradiation patterns of irradiation light radiated to an object are different from each other under the plurality of control conditions, and that light receiving patterns to receive reflected light obtained by reflecting the irradiation light by the object are different from each other under the plurality of control conditions; and estimates characteristics of the object on the basis of object data related to the object acquired by receiving light from one or more light receiving gates under the plurality of control conditions.

A light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system may include a laser and a plurality of single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) that are triggered by laser light that reflects off a target scene. The LIDAR system may be operated in a global shutter mode, so each of the SPADs may include its own time-to-digital conversion circuitry. To reduce the area required to implement the circuitry for each diode, the circuitry may be operated using cyclic histogramming, in which a first bit of a time-of-flight value may be determined using a first time period that corresponds to the emission of the laser light and the detection by the SPADs, a second bit of the time-of-flight value may be determined using a second time period that is half of the first time period, etc. In this way, the circuitry may accurately determine the signal peak while requiring less area and memory requirements.

This application provides a time of flight (TOF)-based distance measurement system with adjustable histograms, including: an emitter, configured to emit a pulsed beam; a collector, configured to collect a photon in the pulsed beam reflected by an object and form a photonic signal; and a processing circuit, connected to the emitter and the collector, and including a TDC circuit and a histogram circuit. The TDC circuit is configured to receive the photonic signal, calculate a time interval of the photonic signal, and convert the time interval into a time code. The histogram circuit counts photons on a corresponding internal time unit based on the time code, and collects statistics on photon counts in all time units after a plurality of measurements to draw a histogram. An address of the time unit can be dynamically adjusted to dynamically adjust a time resolution and/or a time range width of the histogram.

The invention relates to a method for improving transit time and/or phase measurement and/or for synchronization in digital transmission systems. According to the invention, at least one first, particularly digital, piece of information in at least one first analog signal is transmitted in encoded form between two objects by means of the transmission system and at least one first sample value of the at least one first analog signal is used to determine a temporal position and/or phase relationship. The at least one first sample value lies in a rising or falling edge of the at least one first analog signal and/or of the at least one first received analog signal, which can be recognized, for example, from the sample value itself and/or the characteristic of adjacent sample values.

A photo-detecting apparatus includes an image sensor and a 3D image generator. The image sensor having a plurality of 3D photodetectors is configured to output a raw data. The 3D image generator having a storage medium for storing a calibration data is configured to output a 3D image according to the raw data and the calibration data. The calibration data includes at least one of an IQ-mismatch calibration data, a non-linearity calibration data, a temperature calibration data and an offset calibration data.

A time-of-flight (ToF) camera is configured to illuminate a subject with IR light. For each sensor of a sensor array, camera space coordinates of a locus of the subject are determined based on the measured IR light. The camera space coordinates include a phase difference between emitted IR light and reflected IR light. A plurality of candidate positions of the locus of the subject are determined in world space based on the camera space coordinates. Each candidate position corresponds to a different phase wrapping of the phase difference. A phase wrapping is determined based on performing a searching algorithm on the different candidate positions. A depth value for the sensor is calculated based on the phase difference and the phase wrapping determined from performing the searching algorithm. A matrix of pixels is outputted from the camera. Each pixel of the matrix includes a depth value.

A time of flight (TOF) sensor device employs a measuring sequence that facilitates accurate distance measurement across a high dynamic range. In one or more embodiments, for a given measuring sequence in which a distance of an object or surface corresponding to a pixel is to be determined, the TOF sensor device performs multiple iterations of a measuring cycle, whereby for each successive iteration the number of emitted and measured pulses that are accumulated for the iteration is increased relative to the previous iteration of the measuring cycle. In this way, multiple values of increasing resolution are measured for the same physical entity over a corresponding number of measuring cycles. The sensor then selects a value from the multiple measured values that yields the highest resolution without saturating the pixel, and this value is used to determine the pulse propagation time and object distance.

An avalanche diode is provided and includes a first semiconductor region and a second semiconductor region. At a deeper position, the avalanche diode includes a third semiconductor region having an impurity concentration lower than that of the first semiconductor region, and a fourth semiconductor region having an impurity concentration lower than that of the second semiconductor region. At a further deeper position, the avalanche diode includes a fifth semiconductor region having an impurity concentration lower than that of the third semiconductor region. In a plan view, the first semiconductor region overlaps at least a part of the third semiconductor region, the second semiconductor region overlaps at least a part of the fourth semiconductor region, and the third and fourth semiconductor regions overlap the fifth semiconductor region.

There is provided a dual-frequency LIDAR system for determining a distance and velocity of a target and a method of operating the same. The system includes tunable lasers operable to generate a first signal, a second signal, and a third signal having a phase noise below the phase of the first signal. The system includes at least one coupler operable to: couple the first and second signal for directing a transmission signal on the target, couple a backscattered signal and the third signal to obtain a received signal, and couple the transmission signal and the third signal to obtain a reference signal. Digital processing techniques are used to determine the distance of the target by estimating a time delay between the transmission and reference signals via cross-correlation. The velocity is obtained by estimating a Doppler-frequency shift based on the time delay, the received signal and the transmission signal.

A light detection and ranging (LiDAR) device may include: an optical phased array configured to modulate a phase of light incident on the optical phased array and emit the light; a first photodetector configured to detect, as a reference light, the light emitted from the optical phased array in a first direction toward the first photodetector, and generate a reference signal based on the reference light; a second photodetector configured to detect, as a target light including information about an object, the light emitted from the optical phased array in a second direction toward the object, and generate a target signal based on the target light; and a processor configured to determine a distance between the LiDAR device and the object based on a cross-correlation between the reference signal and the target signal.