Sensor circuit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10359310-B2
Application number	US-201615560137-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 12, 2016
Priority date	Apr 15, 2015
Publication date	Jul 23, 2019
Grant date	Jul 23, 2019

Abstract

A directional characteristic of light that is incident on a light-receiving unit is adjusted in accordance with whether a proximity-illumination sensor is caused to act as a proximity sensor or to act as an illumination sensor. The proximity-illumination sensor (50) includes a light-receiving area selection unit (101) that selects light-receiving sensitivity of which of a first light-receiving area and a second light-receiving area is made higher in accordance with whether the proximity-illumination sensor (50) is caused to act as the proximity sensor or to act as the illumination sensor.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A sensor circuit comprising:
a light-receiving unit, wherein
light-receiving areas of the light-receiving unit are categorized into a first light-receiving area that includes plural light-receiving elements arranged in a vicinity of a center of the light-receiving unit and a second light-receiving area that includes plural light-receiving elements arranged in distant positions from the center of the light-receiving unit, the first light-receiving area and the second light-receiving area being individually set in cases where the sensor circuit acts as a proximity sensor and acts as an illumination sensor,
the sensor circuit includes a light-receiving area selection unit that selects light-receiving sensitivity of which of the first light-receiving area and the second light-receiving area is made higher in accordance with whether the sensor circuit acts as the proximity sensor or acts as the illumination sensor, and
in a case where the sensor circuit acts as the illumination sensor, the light-receiving area selection unit short-circuits the light-receiving elements included in the first light-receiving area to make the light-receiving sensitivity of the second light-receiving area higher than the light-receiving sensitivity of the first light-receiving area.

2. The sensor circuit according to claim 1 , wherein each of the light-receiving elements included in the first light-receiving area and each of the light-receiving elements included in the second light-receiving area include plural p-n junctions whose spectral characteristics are different from each other.

3. The sensor circuit according to claim 2 , wherein in the light-receiving area, an area that acts as the illumination sensor and an area that acts as the proximity sensor partially overlap with each other.

4. The sensor circuit according to claim 1 , comprising:
a color filter on a light-receiving surface side of the light-receiving unit.

5. The sensor circuit according to claim 1 , comprising:
a lens structure on a side of a light-receiving surface of the light-receiving unit.

6. The sensor circuit according to claim 1 , wherein
the light-receiving area is configured with concentric circular areas, and
the number of divisions of outside areas in the concentric circular areas is set more than the number of divisions of inside areas.

7. The sensor circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the light-receiving area is configured with a hexagonal structure in which plural hexagonal areas are aligned in a honeycombed manner.

8. A sensor circuit comprising:
a light-receiving unit, wherein
light-receiving areas of the light-receiving unit are categorized into a first light-receiving area that includes plural light-receiving elements arranged in a vicinity of a center of the light-receiving unit and a second light-receiving area that includes plural light-receiving elements arranged in distant positions from the center of the light-receiving unit, the first light-receiving area and the second light-receiving area being individually set in cases where the sensor circuit acts as a proximity sensor and acts as an illumination sensor,
the sensor circuit includes a light-receiving rea selection unit that selects light-receiving sensitivity of which of the first light-receiving area and the second light-receiving area is made higher in accordance with whether the sensor circuit acts as the proximity sensor or acts as the illumination sensor, and
in a case where the sensor circuit acts as the proximity sensor, the light-receiving area selection unit short-circuits the light-receiving elements included in the second light-receiving area to make the light-receiving sensitivity of the first light-receiving area higher than the light-receiving sensitivity of the second light-receiving area.

9. The sensor circuit according to claim 3 , wherein each of the light-receiving elements included in the first light-receiving area and each of the light-receiving elements included in the second light-receiving area include plural p-n junctions whose spectral characteristics are different from each other.

10. The sensor circuit according to claim 3 , comprising:
a color filter on a light-receiving surface side of the light-receiving unit.

11. The sensor circuit according to claim 3 , comprising:
a lens structure on a side of a light-receiving surface of the light-receiving unit.

12. The sensor circuit according to claim 3 , wherein
the light-receiving area is configured with concentric circular areas, and
the number of divisions of outside areas in the concentric circular areas is set more than the number of divisions of inside areas.

13. The sensor circuit according to claim 3 , wherein the light-receiving area is configured with a hexagonal structure in which plural hexagonal areas are aligned in a honeycombed manner.

Assignees

• Sharp Kk

Inventors

• Inoue Takahiro
• Takada Toshiyuki

Classifications

• G01S17/04

  Systems determining the presence of a target · CPC title

• G01J1/4204

  with determination of ambient light (solar light G01J2001/4266) · CPC title

• G01J1/0488

  with spectral filtering · CPC title

• G01S7/4816

  of receivers alone · CPC title

• G01J1/42 Primary

  using electric radiation detectors (optical or mechanical part G01J1/04; by comparison with a reference light or electric value G01J1/10) · CPC title