US 12,474,448 B2
Hybrid lidar receiver and lidar methods
Boris Kirillov, Judendorf-Straßenge (AT)
Assigned to Infineon Technologies AG, Neubiberg (DE)
Filed by Infineon Technologies AG, Neubiberg (DE)
Filed on Apr. 7, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/715,303.
Application 17/715,303 is a continuation of application No. 16/116,068, filed on Aug. 29, 2018, granted, now 11,353,557.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/680,139, filed on Jun. 4, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2022/0357427 A1, Nov. 10, 2022
Int. Cl. G01S 7/481 (2006.01); G01S 7/4863 (2020.01); G01S 7/4865 (2020.01); G01S 17/894 (2020.01)
CPC G01S 7/4815 (2013.01) [G01S 7/4863 (2013.01); G01S 7/4865 (2013.01); G01S 17/894 (2020.01)] 12 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) system, comprising:
a receiver comprising:
a photodetector array configured to detect light and generate electrical signals based on the detected light; and
a spatial light modulator having an array of modulator elements that comprises a plurality of columns and a plurality of rows, each modulator element of the array of modulator elements is configured to switchably direct the light towards and away from the photodetector array, wherein the spatial light modulator is configured to receive the light from objects in a field of view corresponding to ambient light reflected therefrom;
a controller configured to sequentially activate sections of the spatial light modulator such that activated modulator elements of an activated section direct the light towards the photodetector array;
a processing circuit configured to receive the electrical signals from the photodetector array and generate a two-dimensional image that represents an ambient light image of the field of view; and
a laser illumination arrangement configured to transmit pulsed light,
wherein the controller is configured to control the laser illumination arrangement to transmit the pulsed light towards the objects in the field of view,
wherein the photodetector array is configured to simultaneously receive the ambient light and the pulsed light reflected by the objects,
wherein the photodetector array is configured to generate DC signal components exclusively attributed to receiving the ambient light and generate AC signal components exclusively attributed to receiving the pulsed light, and
wherein the processing circuit is configured to separate the DC signal components and the AC signal components to generate the two-dimensional image from the separated DC signal components and to generate a three-dimensional image of the field of view from the separated AC signal components.