US 12,442,902 B2
Pipelined histogram pixel
Robert Henderson, Edinburgh (GB); Tarek Al Abbas, Edinburgh (GB); and David Storrar, Falkirk (GB)
Assigned to Sense Photonics, Inc., Durham, NC (US)
Filed by Sense Photonics, Inc., Durham, NC (US)
Filed on Jan. 7, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/143,570.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/958,894, filed on Jan. 9, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2021/0215807 A1, Jul. 15, 2021
Int. Cl. G01S 7/4865 (2020.01); G01S 7/481 (2006.01); G01S 17/894 (2020.01); G01S 17/931 (2020.01)
CPC G01S 7/4865 (2013.01) [G01S 7/4815 (2013.01); G01S 7/4816 (2013.01); G01S 17/894 (2020.01); G01S 17/931 (2020.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) detector circuit, comprising:
a non-transitory memory device comprising a first memory and a second memory; and
at least one control circuit configured to execute first memory storage operations to store data indicated by detection signals received from one or more photodetector elements in the first memory during a first portion of a time between pulses of an emitter signal output from a LIDAR emitter element, and to execute second memory storage operations to include the data, which was stored in the first memory, in the second memory during a second portion of the time between the pulses of the emitter signal,
wherein the first portion of the time comprises a strobe window of activation of the one or more photodetector elements, wherein the detection signals are output from the one or more photodetector elements in response to a plurality of photons incident thereon during the strobe window,
wherein the second portion of the time comprises a remainder of the time between the pulses of the emitter signal, after the strobe window and before a next pulse of the pulses of the emitter signal, and
wherein the first memory is a buffer memory device and the second memory is a main memory device, and wherein the at least one control circuit is further configured to execute the second memory storage operations to transfer the data from the buffer memory to be included in the main memory after the strobe window and before the next pulse of the emitter signal.