Sensor and operating method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11525730-B2
Application number	US-201816649156-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 21, 2018
Priority date	Sep 22, 2017
Publication date	Dec 13, 2022
Grant date	Dec 13, 2022

Abstract

A sensor including at least one sensor chip for detecting a radiation; and an electronics unit with a digital, bidirectional connection line and with a standby control circuit, as well as with an active status line; wherein the connection line is configured to be connected to an external activation unit; and
the standby control circuit is configured to determine whether the connection line is externally addressed by the activation unit when the connection line is not addressed by the active status line, and precisely then to place the sensor in a standby mode.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A sensor comprising
at least one sensor chip for detecting a radiation; and
an electronics unit with a digital, bidirectional connection line and with a standby control circuit, as well as with an active status line;
wherein
the connection line is configured to be connected to an external activation unit; and
the standby control circuit is configured to determine whether the connection line is externally addressed by the activation unit when the connection line is not addressed by the active status line, and precisely then to place the sensor in a standby mode.

2. The sensor as claimed in claim 1 , wherein
the connection line is connected to the external activation unit;
the standby control circuit determines whether the connection line is externally addressed by the activation unit;
the standby control circuit determines whether the connection line is addressed by the active status line; and
the standby control circuit places the sensor in a standby mode precisely when the connection line is not addressed by the active status line and is addressed externally by the activation unit.

3. The sensor of claim 2 ,
wherein
the sensor is only bidirectionally connected by the connection line and is free of a communication interface with a communication protocol;
the connection line is connected to a potential generator;
a signal from the connection line is set to a low potential, either when the active status line is at a high potential or the activation unit on the connection line is active;
the signal from the connection line is set to a high potential via the potential generator precisely when the active status line is at a low potential and also the activation unit on the connection line is inactive; and
the standby mode is enabled only when the activation unit is active on the connection line.

4. The sensor of claim 3 ,
wherein the potential generator is a pull-up resistor, a pull-down resistor or an active current source with limited maximum current.

5. The sensor of claim 3 , wherein the potential generator is integrated in the sensor.

6. The sensor of claim 3 , wherein the potential generator is integrated in the activation unit, and
wherein the activation unit is a field-programmable logic gate array.

7. The operating method of claim 3 , wherein one state on the potential generator is processed on the connection line in the electronics unit and/or the standby control circuit in a time-delayed manner, and
wherein the time delay is achieved by means of a non-inverting Schmitt trigger, by an RS flip-flop, by a low-pass filter, by an RC element and/or by a series circuit consisting of 2n inverters where n is a natural number.

8. The sensor of claim 2 , wherein a signal on the active status line is identical to an envelope of a digitized signal of the sensor chip, and
wherein the activation unit sends the response of the connection line for setting the standby mode to the sensor as its only signal.

9. The sensor of claim 2 , wherein the sensor has exactly four electrical connectors: the connection line, an additional data output line, two voltage terminals.

10. The sensor of claim 2 , wherein the sensor has exactly three electrical connectors: the connection line, two voltage terminals.

11. The sensor of claim 2 , wherein the connection line operates in an open-drain mode.

12. The sensor of claim 2 , wherein a mean active time interval of the activation unit, with which the connection line is addressed by the active status line, is at least 200 μs.

13. The sensor of claim 2 , wherein the standby control circuit comprises no more than 25 logic gates.

14. The sensor of claim 13 ,
wherein the standby control circuit contains exactly three inverters, exactly one RS flip-flop and exactly one AND gate and no other logic gates.

15. The sensor of claim 2 , wherein
a 3D position detection system comprises at least one radiation source for generating the radiation to be detected by the plurality of sensors, and at least one user device;
the sensors are installed in the user device; and
the sensors are configured to determine angles between the user device and the radiation source, so that the angles can be used to determine a spatial position and orientation of the user device.

16. The sensor of claim 15 ,
wherein
the 3D position detection system comprises at least five of the sensor chips;
the radiation to be detected is pulsed, laminar and near-infrared laser radiation;
in operation the radiation is traversed beyond a spatial region in which the user device is located, so that a plurality of successive pulses of the laser radiation are incident on the sensor chip; and
by the relevant sensor chip an intensity histogram of the incident pulses is detected, from which one of the angles with respect to the associated radiation source is determined; and the user device is a pair of virtual-reality glasses with at least one display for visualizing three-dimensional images.

17. The sensor of claim 1 , wherein the sensor is configured to output along the bidirectional connection line a first signal representing a digitized output of the at least one sensor chip, and wherein the sensor is configured to output a second signal along the active status line, wherein the second signal represents an envelope or an inverse envelope of the first signal.

Assignees

• Osram Oled Gmbh

Inventors

• Dietze Daniel

Classifications

• G01J1/0219

  Electrical interface; User interface · CPC title

• G01J1/44 Primary

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

• G06F1/325 Primary

  Power saving in peripheral device · CPC title

• G06F3/0304

  Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means (constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042) · CPC title

• G01J1/0228

  Control of working procedures; Failure detection; Spectral bandwidth calculation · CPC title