Calibration arrangement, optical sensor arrangement, and method for assembly line in-situ calibration of an optical device comprising an optical sensor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10859433-B2
Application number	US-201615767971-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 13, 2016
Priority date	Oct 14, 2015
Publication date	Dec 8, 2020
Grant date	Dec 8, 2020

Abstract

An assembly line in-situ calibration arrangement, optical sensor arrangement and a method for calibration of an optical sensor arrangement are presented. A calibration arrangement comprises a calibration head comprising at least one calibrated light source located behind an aperture in a housing and being electrically connected to a power terminal. A power source is connected to the power terminal, the power source comprising a switching unit electrically connected to the at least one light source. An interface unit is connected to the switching unit by means of an interface connection, wherein the interface unit is arranged to control the switching unit. A control unit is connected to the interface unit, wherein the control unit is arranged to drive the interface unit such that the at least one light source is switched to emit a calibration pulse sequence to be received by the optical sensor arrangement to be placed with respect of the aperture. The calibration pulse sequence is arranged to initiate a calibration mode of operation of the optical sensor arrangement.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A calibration system for in-situ assembly line calibration, wherein the calibration system comprises:
an optical sensor arrangement embedded in an optical device, and
a calibration arrangement,
wherein the calibration arrangement comprises:
a calibration head comprising at least one calibrated light source located behind an aperture in a housing and being electrically connected to a power terminal,
a power source connected to the power terminal, the power source comprising a switching unit electrically connected to the at least one calibrated light source,
an interface unit connected to the switching unit by an interface connection, wherein the interface unit is arranged to control the switching unit, and
a control unit connected to the interface unit, wherein the control unit is arranged to drive the interface unit such that the at least one calibrated light source is switched to emit an optical calibration pulse sequence to be received by the optical sensor arrangement placed with respect of the aperture, and wherein the optical calibration pulse sequence is arranged to initiate a calibration mode of operation of the optical sensor arrangement,
wherein the optical calibration pulse sequence comprises one or more encoded optical commands which, upon detection by the optical sensor arrangement, indicate to the optical sensor arrangement to initiate the calibration mode of operation of the optical sensor arrangement, and
wherein the control unit is further arranged to drive the interface unit such that the at least one calibrated light source emits a sequence of light pulses during the calibration mode of operation,

wherein the optical sensor arrangement comprises:
an optical sensor comprising a first light sensitive component and arranged to collect incident light and to generate a first channel signal indicative of the collected light,
a signal processing unit connected to the optical sensor and arranged to read and process the first channel signal, wherein the signal processing unit comprises:
a decoding circuit arranged to decode from the first channel signal the optical calibration pulse sequence emitted by the calibration arrangement and arranged to initiate the calibration mode of operation depending on the detection of the optical calibration pulse sequence, and
a data processor arranged to derive calibration data depending on the first channel signal, and

a memory unit connected to the signal processing unit and arranged to store the calibration data, and

wherein:
the optical sensor arrangement is operable, in a pre-calibration mode of operation, to receive the optical calibration pulse sequence emitted by the at least one calibrated light source,
the optical sensor arrangement is operable, in the calibration mode of operation, to receive the sequence of light pulses emitted by the at least one calibrated light source,
the decoding circuit is operable, in the pre-calibration mode of operation, to decode from the first channel signal the optical calibration pulse sequence and to initiate the calibration mode of operation, and
the data processor is operable, in the calibration mode of operation, to derive the calibration data based on the sequence of light pulses.

2. The calibration system according to claim 1 , wherein the housing comprises an alignment fixture arranged to provide an alignment registration to fix and/or to hold the calibration head with respect to the optical device.

3. The calibration system according to claim 2 , wherein:
the alignment fixture comprises a mechanical contact interface and/or a molded mechanical contact interface,
the mechanical contact interface has at least a first main surface for contacting the optical device, and
the first main surface is planar, concave, convex and/or covered with a surface padding.

4. The calibration system according to claim 2 , wherein the alignment fixture comprises ferrous or magnetic guide stubs for contacting and/or fixing ferrous or magnetic stubs located on or below a bezel surface in the optical device.

5. The calibration system according to claim 1 , wherein
the control unit is embedded in the housing and comprises a microcontroller, an application-specific integrated circuit and/or an embedded computer, or
the control unit is arranged externally to the housing and is connected to the housing via a power and/or communications cable and comprises a personal computer or an embedded computer.

6. The calibration system according to claim 1 , wherein the aperture is covered by a diffuser.

7. The calibration system according to claim 1 , wherein the optical sensor comprises further light sensitive components arranged to collect incident light and generate further channel signals indicative of the collected light, wherein
the signal processing unit is arranged to read and process the further channel signals, the data processor is arranged to derive calibration data depending on the further channel signals, and
the memory unit is arranged to store the calibration data from the further channel signals.

8. The calibration system according to claim 1 , wherein
the optical sensor comprises at least one light emitting device, and
the signal processing unit is arranged to generate a feedback signal by means of the light emitting device and in response to the detection of the optical calibration pulse sequence.

9. The calibration system according to claim 1 , wherein
the memory unit comprise a non-volatile memory, wherein the non-volatile memory comprises an electrically erasable and/or one-time programmable memory; and
the memory unit is an on-board memory or an off-board memory.

10. The calibration system according to claim 1 , wherein the memory unit comprises a write once memory having an optical calibration fuse, wherein the optical calibration fuse is read from the memory unit by the signal processing unit and wherein the state of the optical calibration fuse is indicative of whether the calibration mode of operation has been initiated in the optical sensor arrangement.

11. The calibration system according to claim 1 , wherein a calibration routine unit is connected to the signal processing unit and is arranged to execute a calibration routine once the calibration mode of operation has been initiated.

12. A method for in-situ assembly line calibration of the optical sensor arrangement embedded in the optical device using the calibration system according to claim 1 , the method comprising:
aligning the calibration arrangement with respect to the optical sensor arrangement,
initiating the pre-calibration mode of operation of the optical sensor arrangement, wherein according to the pre-calibration mode of operation, the optical sensor arrangement is set to receive the optical calibration pulse sequence emitted by the at least one calibrated light source,
upon receiving the optical calibration pulse sequence, operating the optical sensor arrangement to receive light from the at least one calibrated light source, to derive the calibration data from the received light and to store the calibration data in the memory unit of the optical sensor arrangement, and
terminate the calibration mode of operation and enter a normal mode of operation.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the optical sensor arrangement comprises a light emitting device, and
wherein the method comprises acknowledging that the optical calibration pulse sequence has been received by emitting a feedback signal using the light emitting device.

14. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the calibration mode of operation

Assignees

• Ams Ag

Inventors

• Mehrl David

Classifications

• G01J1/4204

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

• G01J1/08 Primary

  Arrangements of light sources specially adapted for photometry {standard sources, also using luminescent or radioactive material} · CPC title

• G09G2360/144

  the light being ambient light · CPC title

• G01J2001/083

  Testing response of detector · CPC title

• G09G2320/0693

  Calibration of display systems · CPC title