The present application relates to distance measuring and depth sense techniques, particularly a time-of-flight distance measuring method and a related distance measuring system.
Among the time-of-flight distance measuring techniques, pulse modulation is a simple measurement mechanism that measures the distance of a target using the time difference between the transmission and reception of an optical pulse. Pulse modulation requires high accuracy in time measurement. However, in high dynamic range (HDR) applications, there is still much room for improvement in the range of distance measurement and in the regulation of the degree to which the distant information is affected by the background light.
One embodiment of the present application discloses a time-of-flight (TOF) distance measuring method, which includes: intermittently transmitting a plurality of first pulses from a pulse generation unit, wherein the plurality of first pulses are reflected by a target to generate a plurality of first reflected signals; controlling a TOF sensor to selectively perform a first signal sampling or a second signal sampling upon the plurality of first reflected signals respectively to generate a first sampling result, wherein there is a first time difference between a starting time point of the first signal sampling and a transmitting time point of the first pulse corresponding to the first signal sampling, and the first signal sampling lasts for a first predetermined time, and there is a second time difference between a starting time point of the second signal sampling and a transmitting time point of the first pulse corresponding to the second signal sampling, and the second signal sampling lasts for second predetermined time, and the first time difference is smaller than the second time difference; detecting TOFs of the plurality of first pulses from the pulse generation unit to the TOF sensor according to the first sampling result; and determining a distance between the target and a reference position according to the TOFs.
Another embodiment of the present application discloses a TOF distance measuring system, which includes: a pulse generation unit; a control circuit, coupled to the pulse generation unit and configured to control the pulse generation unit to intermittently transmit a plurality of first pulses, wherein the plurality of first pulses are reflected by a target to generate a plurality of first reflected signals; and a TOF sensor, controlled by the control circuit and configured to selectively perform a first signal sampling or a second signal sampling upon the plurality of first reflected signals respectively to generate a first sampling result, wherein there is a first time difference between a starting time point of the first signal sampling and a transmitting time point of the first pulse corresponding to the first signal sampling, and the first signal sampling lasts for a first predetermined time, and there is a second time difference between a starting time point of the second signal sampling and a transmitting time point of the first pulse corresponding to the second signal sampling, and the first time difference is smaller than the second time difference, and the second signal sampling lasts for second predetermined time, and detecting TOFs of the plurality of first pulses from the pulse generation unit to the TOF sensor according to the first sampling result, and determining a distance between the target and a reference position according to the TOFs.
Yet another embodiment of the present application discloses a TOF distance measuring method, which includes: intermittently transmitting a plurality of pulse sets from a pulse generation unit, wherein each pulse set includes a first pulse and a second pulse, the intensity of the first pulse and the intensity of the second pulse are different, and the plurality of pulse sets are reflected by a target to generate a plurality of reflected signal sets; controlling a TOF sensor to perform signal sampling upon the plurality of reflected signal sets respectively to generate a sampling result, wherein the signal sampling lasts for a predetermined time; detecting TOFs of the plurality of pulse sets from the pulse generation unit to the TOF sensor according to the sampling result; and measuring the distance between the target and a reference position according to the TOFs.
Still another embodiment of the present application discloses a TOF distance measuring system, which includes: a pulse generation unit; a control circuit, coupled to the pulse generation unit and configured to control the pulse generation unit to intermittently transmit a plurality of pulse sets, wherein each pulse set includes a first pulse and a second pulse, the intensity of the first pulse and the intensity of the second pulse are different, and the plurality of pulse sets are reflected by a target to generate a plurality of reflected signal sets; and a TOF sensor, controlled by the control circuit and configured to perform signal sampling upon the plurality of reflected signal sets respectively to generate a sampling result, wherein the signal sampling lasts for a predetermined time; the TOF sensor further detects TOF of the plurality of pulse sets from the pulse generation unit to the TOF sensor according to the sampling result, and measure the distance between the target and the distance measuring system according to the TOFs.
The TOF distance measuring method and related distance measuring system disclosed in this application can enhance the effectiveness of high dynamic range sampling by modulating the sampling interval or pulse pattern.
The following disclosure provides many different embodiments or examples for implementing different features of the present disclosure. Specific examples of components and arrangements are described below to simplify the present disclosure. These are, of course, merely examples and are not intended to be limiting. For example, the formation of a first feature over or on a second feature in the description that follows may include embodiments in which the first and second features are formed in direct contact and may also include embodiments in which additional features may be formed between the first and second features, such that the first and second features may not be in direct contact. In addition, the present disclosure may repeat reference numerals and/or letters in the various embodiments. This repetition is for the purpose of simplicity and clarity and does not in itself dictate a relationship between the various embodiments and/or configurations discussed.
Further, spatially relative terms, such as “beneath,” “below,” “lower,” “above,” “upper” and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to discuss one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the drawings. These spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the drawings. The apparatus may be otherwise oriented (e.g., rotated by 90 degrees or at other orientations), and the spatially relative descriptors used herein may likewise be interpreted accordingly.
Notwithstanding that the numerical ranges and parameters setting forth the broad scope of the invention are approximations, the numerical values set forth in the specific examples are reported as precisely as possible. Any numerical value, however, inherently contains certain errors necessarily resulting from the standard deviation found in the respective testing measurements. Also, as used herein, the term “the same” generally means within 10%, 5%, 1%, or 0.5% of a given value or range. Alternatively, the term “the same” means within an acceptable standard error of the mean when considered by one of ordinary skill in the art. As could be appreciated, other than in the operating/working examples, or unless otherwise expressly specified, all of the numerical ranges, amounts, values, and percentages (such as those for quantities of materials, durations of times, temperatures, operating conditions, ratios of amounts, and the likes) disclosed herein should be understood as modified in all instances by the term “the same.” Accordingly, unless indicated to the contrary, the numerical parameters set forth in the present disclosure and attached claims are approximations that can vary as desired. At the very least, each numerical parameter should at least be construed in light of the number of reported significant digits and by applying ordinary rounding techniques. Here, ranges can be expressed herein as from one endpoint to another endpoint or between two endpoints. All ranges disclosed herein are inclusive of the endpoints, unless specified otherwise.
The TOF distance measuring schemes disclosed in the present application can use a pulse generation unit to intermittently transmit a pulse and use the TOF sensor to continuously perform multiple times of signal sampling, to obtain a sampling result corresponding to a reflected signal (generated by a target reflecting the single pulse), thereby achieving a sensing mechanism based on continuous wave modulation of the pulse modulation. A first scheme of the present application is directed to adjusting the sampling interval of a TOF sensor, and a second scheme of the present application is directed to adjusting the pulse pattern, both aim to enhance the effectiveness of high dynamic range sampling by modulating the sampling interval or pulse pattern, which is further discussed below.
It should be noted that, the distance measuring system 100 can be implemented as one of different types of TOF distance measuring system, such as a TOF-based optical distance measuring system, a TOF-based acoustic distance measuring system, a TOF-based radar distance measuring system, or other types of TOF distance measuring system. For the sake of brevity, the following embodiment is directed to the use of the distance measuring system 100 implemented as an optical distance measuring system to discuss the TOF distance measuring scheme according to the present application. However, persons having ordinary skill in the art should understand that the present TOF distance measuring scheme can be applied in any TOF distance measuring system.
The distance measuring system 100 can include (but is not limited to) a pulse generation unit 110, a control circuit 120, and a TOF sensor 130. The pulse generation unit 110 is configured to intermittently transmit a pulse having a pulse length T. After transmitting a pulse, the pulse generation unit 110 would stop transmitting another pulse for a period of time, wherein this period of time is much longer than or longer than the pulse length T. The pulse generation unit 110 can transmit one pulse again until the next time it is activated.
In the present application, the distance measuring system 100 can be a TOF-based optical distance measuring system, and hence, the pulse generation unit 110 can be implemented using a light pulse generation unit to generate a pulsed light signal EL. In the first scheme according to the present application, the pulsed light signal EL can be single light pulse that is generated intermittently. That is, the light pulse generation unit can intermittently transmit the single light pulse for use of the single pulse generated by the pulse generation unit 110 intermittently. For example, the pulse generation unit 110 can include (but is not limited to) a driving circuit and a light-emitting unit (not shown in
It should be noted that the pulse generation unit 110 can generate other types of pulse, such as the acoustic pulse or electromagnetic pulse. For example, in the embodiment where the distance measuring system 100 is implemented as an acoustic distance measuring system, the pulse generation unit 110 can be implemented using an acoustic pulse generation device. The acoustic pulse generation device is configured to intermittently transmit a single acoustic pulse (e.g., ultrasonic pulse) as the single pulse generate by the pulse generation unit 110 intermittently. In another example, in the embodiment where the distance measuring system 100 is implemented as a radar distance measuring system, the pulse generation unit 110 can be implemented using an electromagnetic pulse generation device. The electromagnetic pulse generation device is configured to intermittently transmit single electromagnetic pulse as the single pulse generated by the pulse generation unit 110 intermittently.
The control circuit 120 is coupled to the pulse generation unit 110 and configured to control the pulse generation unit 110 to generate the pulsed light signal EL. For example, the control circuit 120 can control the pulse generation unit 110 to intermittently transmit a single light pulse. In another example, the control circuit 120 can control a driving circuit included in the pulse generation unit 110 so that the driving circuit drives a light-emitting unit included in the pulse generation unit 110 to intermittently transmit the single light pulse. The TOF sensor 130 is controlled by the control circuit 120 and configured to sample a reflected signal RL to detect the distance between the distance measuring system 100 (or the TOF sensor 130) and the target 102, wherein the reflected signal RL is generated by the pulsed light signal EL reflected from the target 102. In another embodiment, the control circuit 120 can be a main control unit in a terminal device and not included in the distance measuring system 100.
In the first scheme of the present application, the TOF sensor 130 can continuously perform multiple times of signal sampling according to a sampling time interval during a tunable predetermined time TR (for ease of illustration, represented by a waveform with a time length labeled TR), to generate a sampling result of the reflected signal RL. In other words, the reflected signal RL reaching at the TOF sensor 130 during the predetermined time TR can be sensed. Generally, since the reflected signals RL reflected from the near side and the far side would have different arrival time, the predetermined time TR can be set as greater than or equal to pulse length T (e.g., greater than or equal to a specific fold of the pulse length T) to increase the dynamic range, so that the reflected signals RL reflected from the near side and the far side could be captured. However, one disadvantage of this approach is that the amount of information received from the near side is often much greater than the amount of information received from the far side, causing the amount of information from the far side to be easily affected by the background light, thereby triggering shot noise. Therefore, the predetermined time TR in the present application is adjustable, and its details are described later.
After performing multiple times of signal sampling to generate the sampling result, the TOF sensor 130 can calculate a phase shift between the reflected signal RL and the pulsed light signal EL transmitted from the pulse generation unit 110 according to the sampling result. For example, the TOF sensor 130 can include (but is not limited to) a pixel array 132 and a processing circuit 134. The pixel array 132 includes a plurality of pixels (not shown in
The processing circuit 134 can perform one sampling upon the output of each pixel (e.g., the photo response signal of each pixel) at the sampling time interval during the predetermined time TR according to a sampling control signal SC (which can be generated by the control circuit 120) and generate a sampling result SR accordingly. Thereafter, the processing circuit 134 can perform signal processing upon the sampling result SR, wherein these signal processing can be, such as, mixed frequency processing and discrete Fourier transform, to calculate a phase shift between the reflected signal RL received by each pixel and the pulsed light signal EL transmitted from the pulse generation unit 110, thereby detecting the TOF of the pulsed light signal EL, and calculating the distance between the target 102 and a reference position according to the TOF. The reference position can be (but is not limited to) the position of the distance measuring system 100.
For ease of illustration, the TOF distance measuring scheme disclosed by the present application is discussed using an embodiment of a pixel circuit. However, the present application is not limited thereto.
The first readout circuit 333 can selectively transmit the photo response signal PR generated by the photo sensor PD according to a first control signal TX1 to generate a first pixel output PO1, wherein the first control signal TX1 can be provided by the control circuit 120. That is, the pixel 332 can selectively transmit the photo response signal PR to the processing circuit 130 via the first readout circuit according to the first control signal TX1 to generate the first pixel output P01, which is outputted to the processing circuit 130. The second readout circuit 334 can selectively transmit the photo response signal PR generated by the photo sensor PD according to a second control signal TX2 to generate a second pixel output PO2, wherein the second control signal TX2 can be provided by the control circuit 120 and has a phase that is different from the first control signal TX1. The pixel 332 can selectively transmit the photo response signal PR to the processing circuit 130 via the second readout circuit according to the second control signal TX2 to generate the second pixel output PO2, which is outputted to the processing circuit 130. In the present embodiment, the first control signal TX1 and the second control signal TX2 can be provided by be provided by the control circuit 120 of
In the present embodiment, the first readout circuit 333 can include (but is not limited to) a first reset transistor MR1, a first transmit transistor MT1, a first output transistor MF1, and a first readout transistor MW1. The second readout circuit 334 includes (but is not limited to) a second reset transistor MR2, a second transmit transistor MT2, a second output transistor MF2, and a second readout transistor MW2. Both the first reset transistor MR1 and the second reset transistor MR2 reset a first floating diffusion node FD1 and a second floating diffusion node FD2, respectively, according to a reset signal RST, wherein the reset signal RST can be provided by the control circuit 120. Both the first transmit transistor MT1 and the second transmit transistor MT2 are coupled to the photo sensor PD and are respectively conducted according to the first control signal TX1 and the second control signal TX2; i.e., the first transmit transistor MT1 and the second transmit transistor MT2 are respectively under the control of the first control signal TX1 and the second control signal TX2, to connect and disconnect from the photo sensor PD. The first output transistor MF1 and the first output transistor MF2 are respectively configured to amplify the voltage signals of the first floating diffusion node FD1 and the second floating diffusion node FD2, to generate a first pixel output PO1 and a second pixel output PO2, respectively. Both the first readout transistor MW1 and the second readout transistor MW2 selectively output the first pixel output PO1 and the second pixel output PO2, respectively, according to a selection signal SEL, wherein the selection signal SEL can be provided by the control circuit 120.
Reference is made to
Further, for the first pulse PE, the first pulse PE is transmitted at the time point t1 and then reflected to become the reflected signal RL; since the reflected signal RL carries the energy reflected from the first pulse PE at different depths, and the energy reflected from the near side reaches the pixel 332 faster than the energy reflected from the far side. That is, in theory, any time from the time point t1 onwards may carry the energy of the reflected signal RL of the first pulse PE (please refer to the labeling of the reflected signal RL after the time point t1 in
In this embodiment, different target depths are sampled for different pulse PEs. For example, for the first pulse PE in
In the present embodiment, multiple times of pulse PE (for example, thousands of times) are transmitted, and the first signal sampling or the second signal sampling is carried out based on the predetermined time TR1 or the predetermined time TR2; for example, multiple pulses PE may be assigned corresponding to the first signal sampling or the second signal sampling, respectively, based on a predetermined ratio, wherein the number of pulse PE assigned corresponding to the first signal sampling is less than the number of pulse PE assigned corresponding to the second signal sampling, in order to balance the energy from the near side and far side, so that the energy from the near side is not overexposed and the energy from the far side is pulled up. By way of example, 80% of the pulses PE corresponding to the second signal sampling are sampled for far side information; the remaining 20% of the pulses PE corresponding to the first signal sampling are sampled for near side information. The predetermined ratio can be adjusted according to the desired dynamic range.
The first time difference tX in
Referring to
Moreover, the output of each pixel is sampled at the sampling interval in each sampling interval TN, wherein the sampling interval may be one-fourth of the pulse length T. However, the present application is not limited to this, and the sampling interval may also be one-eighth or one-sixteenth of the pulse length T.
In the present application, the pulse generation unit 110 intermittently transmits a plurality of pulses PE with a 0-degree phase, and then intermittently transmits a plurality of phase pulses PE with a 90-degree phase, and then intermittently transmits a plurality of phase pulses PE with a 180-degree phase, and then intermittently transmits a plurality of phase pulses PE with a 270-degree phase. In certain embodiments, the first control signal TX1 and the second control signal TX2 can be adjusted for pulses PEs with different phases. For example, for pulses PEs with phase 0 and 90 degrees, the first control signal TX1 and the second control signal TX2 of the same waveform can be used; for pulses PEs with phase 180 and 270 degrees, the first control signal TX1 and the second control signal TX2 can be switched in pairs and shifted back by tX (as shown in
The second scheme of the present application is substantially the same as the above-mentioned first scheme, except that in the second scheme, the predetermined time TR 4 of the TOF sensor 130 is a fixed length, for example, the predetermined time TR 4 is four times the length of the sampling interval TN; however, the present embodiment is not limited thereto. Moreover, the control circuit 120 controls the pulse generation unit 110 to intermittently transmit a pulse set instead of the single pulse described in the above-mentioned first scheme. As shown in
The intensity of the first pulse PE1 and the intensity of the second pulse PE2 are different; in the present embodiment, it is deliberately design so that the intensity of the first pulse PE1 is higher than the intensity of second pulse PE2, and the starting time point of the predetermined time TR 4 is delayed at least to the transmitting time point of the second pulse PE2. Roughly speaking, the energy reflected back to the TOF sensor 130 in the first pulse PE1. before the start of the predetermined time TR4 is too late to be sampled, and in the predetermined time TR4, the TOF sensor 130 will only receive the energy in the first pulse PE1 that is reflected back to the TOF sensor 130 at a slower rate (i.e., the far side information). Similarly, in the predetermined time TR4, the TOF sensor 130 will only receive the energy in the second pulse PE2 that is reflected back to the TOF sensor 130 at a faster rate (i.e., the near side information). Since the intensity of the first pulse PE1 is higher, the far side information energy of the first pulse PE1 can be boosted to balance it with the near side information energy of the second pulse PE2. Thus, by designing the intensities of the first pulse PE1 and the second pulse PE2 to be of different level, the energy of the far side information and the near side information received in the predetermined time TR4 can be controlled at approximately the same level.
The foregoing outlines features of several embodiments of the present application so that persons having ordinary skill in the art may better understand the various aspects of the present disclosure. Persons having ordinary skill in the art should appreciate that they may readily use the present disclosure as a basis for designing or modifying other processes and structures for carrying out the same purposes and/or achieving the same advantages of the embodiments introduced herein. Persons having ordinary skill in the art should also realize that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure, and that they may make various changes, substitutions, and alterations herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.
This application is a continuation of International Application No. PCT/CN2020/095029, filed on Jun. 9, 2020, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/CN2020/095029 | Jun 2020 | US |
Child | 17468062 | US |