Optical sensor and optical sensor system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10094661-B2
Application number	US-201514718353-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 21, 2015
Priority date	Sep 24, 2014
Publication date	Oct 9, 2018
Grant date	Oct 9, 2018

Abstract

An optical sensor includes at least two optical sensing pixels and at least two different grating elements. These grating elements are disposed above these optical sensing pixels correspondingly.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An optical sensor system, comprising:
two optical sensing pixels;
two grating elements having a phase shift from each other and respectively above the two optical sensing pixels, wherein the two grating elements are respectively formed by two metal layers one over the other, and said two metal layers are arranged with an inclined angle with respect to the two optical sensing pixels; and
a processor configured to
identify an incident light angle according to intensity signals of the two optical sensing pixels,
calculate, using a predetermined algorithm, at least one intensity parameter according to two intensity signals of the two optical sensing pixels, and
perform gesture recognition according to an intensity variation of a plurality of intensity parameters of the at least one intensity parameter varied with time.

2. The optical sensor system as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising at least one filter element above the two grating elements.

3. The optical sensor system as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising at least one lens aligned with the two grating elements.

4. The optical sensor system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the two metal layers are manufactured by a CMOS process.

5. The optical sensor system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a relationship between the at least one intensity parameter and the incident light angle is previously formed as a look up table.

6. The optical sensor system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to calculate an object distance according to the at least one intensity parameter.

7. The optical sensor system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said two metal layers are arranged with the inclined angle with respect to edges of the two optical sensing pixels.

8. An optical sensor, comprising:
two optical sensing pixels;
two grating elements having a phase shift from each other and respectively above the two optical sensing pixels, wherein the two grating elements are respectively formed by at least two metal layers, and said at least two metal layers are arranged with an inclined angle with respect to the two optical sensing pixels; and
a processor configured to
calculate, using a predetermined algorithm, at least one intensity parameter according to two intensity signals of the two optical sensing pixels, and
perform gesture recognition according to an intensity variation of a plurality of intensity parameters of the at least one intensity parameter varied with time.

9. The optical sensor as claimed in claim 8 , further comprising a filter element above the two grating elements.

10. The optical sensor as claimed in claim 8 , further comprising at least one lens aligned with the two grating elements.

11. The optical sensor as claimed in claim 8 , wherein two optical sensing pixels and the processor are formed in a base layer.

12. The optical sensor as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the at least two metal layers are formed above the base layer.

13. The optical sensor as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the at least two metal layers are formed by a CMOS process.

14. An optical sensor system, comprising:
at least two optical sensing pixels arranged in an array;
at least two grating elements having a phase shift from each other and respectively above the at least two optical sensing pixels, wherein the at least two grating elements are respectively formed by two metal layers one over the other, and said two metal layers have metal lines extending in a direction different from a column direction and a row direction of the array of the at least two optical sensing pixels; and
a processor configured to
identify an incident light angle according to intensity signals of the at least two optical sensing pixels,
calculate, using a predetermined algorithm, at least one intensity parameter according to intensity signals of the at least two optical sensing pixels, and
perform gesture recognition according to an intensity variation of a plurality of intensity parameters of the at least one intensity parameter varied with time.

Assignees

• Pixart Imaging Inc

Inventors

• Hsu En-Feng
• Liu Chia-Yu

Classifications

• G01S3/783

  using amplitude comparison of signals derived from static detectors or detector systems · CPC title

• G01J1/44

  Electric circuits {(for command of an exposure part G03B7/02)} · CPC title

• G01S3/7803

  Means for monitoring or calibrating · CPC title

• G01C3/08 Primary

  Use of electric radiation detectors · CPC title