Integrated LIDAR Illumination Power Control
Methods and systems for performing three dimensional LIDAR measurements with an integrated LIDAR measurement device are described herein. In one aspect, a Gallium Nitride (GaN) based illumination driver integrated circuit (IC), an illumination source, and a return signal receiver IC are mounted to a common substrate. The illumination driver IC provides a pulse of electrical power to the illumination source in response to a pulse trigger signal received from the return signal receiver IC. In another aspect, the GaN based illumination driver IC controls the amplitude, ramp rate, and duration of the pulse of electrical power based on command signals communicated from the return signal receiver IC to the illumination driver IC. In a further aspect, illumination driver IC reduces the amount of electrical power consumed by the illumination driver IC during periods of time when the illumination driver IC is not providing electrical power to the illumination source.
1 . A 3-D LIDAR system comprising:
a housing including:
a lower housing; and
an upper housing including a transparent portion transparent to a specific spectral range;
the housing having the following disposed within:
a plurality of illumination sources, each of said plurality of illumination sources mounted to a printed circuit board, the plurality of illumination sources configured to emit beams of light over an angular range a measured from a central axis through the transparent portion;
one or more electrical power sources mounted to one or more printed circuit boards;
a plurality of illumination drivers, each of said illumination drivers mounted to the printed circuit board, each illumination driver electrically coupled to an illumination source and an electrical power source via the printed circuit board, wherein each illumination driver is configured to selectively electrically couple a relevant illumination source to an electrical power source in response to a pulse trigger signal, causing the illumination source to emit a measurement pulse of illumination light.
2 . An integrated 3-D LIDAR system comprising:
a housing having a lower housing and an upper housing, including a transparent portion transparent to a specific spectral range;
a light emission/collection engine that rotates about a central axis 104 , wherein a central optical axis of the light emission/collection engine is tilted at an angle, θ, with respect to the central axis;
a stationary electronics board mounted in a fixed position with respect to the lower housing;
a rotating electronics board disposed above stationary electronics board and configured to rotate with respect to the stationary electronics board at a predetermined rotational velocity ω;
wherein electrical power signals and electronic signals are communicated between the stationary electronics board and the rotating electronics board over one or more transformer, capacitive, or optical elements, resulting in a contactless transmission of the electrical power and electronic signals; and
wherein light emission/collection engine is fixedly positioned with respect to the rotating electronics board, and thus rotates about the central axis at the predetermined angular velocity, ω.
3 . The integrated 3-D LIDAR system of claim 2 , the light emission/collection engine including an array of integrated LIDAR measurement devices.
4 . The integrated 3-D LIDAR system of claim 3 , wherein at least one integrated LIDAR measurement device includes a light emitting element, a light detecting element, and associated control and signal conditioning electronics integrated onto a common substrate.
5 . The integrated 3-D LIDAR system of claim 3 , wherein each integrated LIDAR measurement device includes a light emitting element, a light detecting element, and associated control and signal conditioning electronics integrated onto a common substrate.
6 . The integrated 3-D LIDAR system of claim 5 , wherein light emitted from each integrated LIDAR measurement device passes through a series of optical elements that collimate the emitted light to generate a beam of illumination light projected from the 3-D LIDAR system into the environment.
7 . The integrated 3-D LIDAR system of claim 6 , the beam of illumination light forming an array of beams of light, each beam emitted from a different LIDAR measurement device.
8 . The integrated 3-D LIDAR system of claim 7 , wherein two or more LIDAR measurement devices are arranged to simultaneously emit any number of light beams and light reflected from an object in the environment due to the object's illumination by a particular LIDAR measurement device is collected by one or more of the optical elements 116 .
9 . The integrated 3-D LIDAR system of claim 8 , wherein the collected light passes through one or more optical elements where the collected light is focused onto the detecting element of a corresponding particular LIDAR measurement device, whereby collected light associated with illumination of different portions of the environment by illumination generated by different LIDAR measurement devices is separately focused onto each detector of each corresponding LIDAR measurement device.
10 . The integrated 3-D LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the spectral range corresponds to a range within infrared lights.
11 . The integrated 3-D LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the spectral range includes light having wavelengths centered at 905 nanometers.
12 . The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the upper housing includes a dome shell element.
13 . The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the upper housing includes a cylindrical shell element.
14 . An integrated 3-D LIDAR system comprising:
a lower housing;
an upper housing, including a transparent portion transparent to a specific spectral range;
a light emission/collection engine that rotates about a central axis, wherein a central optical axis of the light emission/collection engine is tilted at an angle, θ, with respect to the central axis;
a stationary electronics board mounted in a fixed position with respect to the lower housing;
a rotating electronics board disposed above stationary electronics board and configured to rotate with respect to the stationary electronics board at a predetermined rotational velocity ω;
wherein electrical power signals and electronic signals are communicated between the stationary electronics board and the rotating electronics board over one or more transformer, capacitive, or optical elements, resulting in a contactless transmission of the electrical power and electronic signals; and
wherein the light emission/collection engine is fixedly positioned with respect to the rotating electronics board, and thus rotates about the central axis at the predetermined angular velocity, ω;
the light emission/collection engine including a plurality of integrated LIDAR measurement devices, each integrated LIDAR measurement device including:
an illumination source;
a Gallium Nitride (GaN) based illumination driver integrated circuit (IC), the illumination driver IC electrically coupled to the illumination source and a first electrical power source, wherein the illumination driver IC is configured to selectively couple the illumination source and the electrical power source in response to a pulse trigger signal, causing the illumination source to emit a measurement pulse of illumination light; and
a return pulse receiver IC, the return pulse receiver configured to determine a time of flight of the measurement pulse from the LIDAR device to a measured location in the three dimensional environment and back to the LIDAR device, wherein the return pulse receiver IC generates and communicates the pulse trigger signal to the GaN based illumination driver IC; and
a master controller configured to generate a plurality of pulse command signals, each communicated to a different integrated LIDAR measurement device of the plurality of integrated LIDAR measurement devices, wherein each return pulse receiver IC generates the corresponding pulse trigger signal based on the received pulse command signal.
15 . A method for operating a LIDAR system with upper and lower housings, comprising:
rotating a light emission/collection engine about a central axis, wherein a central optical axis of the light emission/collection engine is tilted at an angle, θ, with respect to the central axis;
maintaining a stationary electronics board in a fixed position with respect to the lower housing;
rotating a rotating electronics board disposed above the stationary electronics board with respect to the stationary electronics board at a predetermined rotational velocity ω;
communicating electrical power signals and electronic signals between the stationary electronics board and the rotating electronics board over one or more transformer, capacitive, or optical elements, resulting in a contactless transmission of the electrical power and electronic signals; and
wherein the light emission/collection engine is fixedly positioned with respect to the rotating electronics board, and thus rotates about the central axis at a predetermined angular velocity, ω.
16 . A method comprising:
forming a housing having a lower housing and an upper housing, including a transparent portion transparent to a specific spectral range;
forming a stationary electronics board fixably mounted to the lower housing;
forming a rotating electronics board disposed above the stationary electronics board and configured to rotate with respect to the stationary electronics board at a predetermined rotational velocity ω;
forming a contactless transmission between the stationary electronics board and the rotating electronics board, wherein electrical power signals and electronic signals are communicated between the stationary electronics board and the rotating electronics board; and
forming a light emission/collection engine that rotates about a central axis of the housing, wherein a central optical axis of the light emission/collection engine is tilted at an angle, θ, with respect to the central axis;
fixing the light emission/collection engine fixedly to the rotating electronics board, such that the light emission/collection engine rotates about a central axis at a predetermined angular velocity, ω.
17 . The method of claim 16 wherein the contactless transmission includes a transformer.
18 . The method of claim 17 wherein the contactless transmission includes a capacitive element.
19 . The method of claim 16 wherein the contactless transmission includes an optical element.