Compact LiDAR design with high resolution and ultra-wide field of view

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11662439-B2
Application number	US-202217723270-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 18, 2022
Priority date	Apr 22, 2021
Publication date	May 30, 2023
Grant date	May 30, 2023

Abstract

A compact LiDAR device is provided. The compact LiDAR device includes a first mirror disposed to receive one or more light beams and a polygon mirror optically coupled to the first mirror. The polygon mirror comprises a plurality of reflective facets. For at least two of the plurality of reflective facets, each reflective facet is arranged such that: a first edge, a second edge, and a third edge of the reflective facet correspond to a first line, a second line, and a third line; the first line and the second line intersect to form a first internal angle of a plane comprising the reflective facet; and the first line and the third line intersect to form a second internal angle of the plane comprising the reflective facet. The first internal angle is an acute angle; and the second internal angle is an obtuse angle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A light detection and ranging (LiDAR) scanning device, comprising:
a first mirror disposed to receive one or more light beams, wherein the first mirror is an un-rotatable mirror;
a polygon mirror optically coupled to the first mirror to receive the one or more light beams, wherein the polygon mirror comprises a plurality of reflective facets, wherein at least two of the plurality of reflective facets are parallelogram-shaped facets, each parallelogram-shaped reflective facet being arranged such that:
a first edge, a second edge, and a third edge of the reflective facet correspond to a first line, a second line, and a third line,
the first line and the second line intersect to form a first internal angle of a plane comprising the reflective facet, the first internal angle being an acute angle,
the first line and the third line intersect to form a second internal angle of the plane comprising the reflective facet, the second internal angle being an obtuse angle;

wherein the combination of the first mirror and the polygon mirror, when at least the polygon mirror is rotating, is configured to:
steer the one or more light beams both vertically and horizontally to illuminate an object within a field-of-view,
obtain return light formed based on the steered one or more light beams illuminating the object within the field-of-view, and
redirect the return light to an optical receiver disposed in the LiDAR scanning device.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the polygon mirror comprises four, five, or six reflective facets.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein all reflective facets of the polygon mirror are parallelogram-shaped facets.

4. The device of claim 1 , wherein the polygon mirror comprises a top non-reflective surface, a bottom non-reflective surface, a left reflective facet, a right reflective facet, a front reflective facet, and a back reflective facet.

5. The device of claim 4 , wherein the top non-reflective surface and the bottom non-reflective surface are rectangle-shaped surfaces, and wherein the left reflective facet, the right reflective facet, the front reflective facet, and the back reflective facet are parallelogram-shaped facets.

6. The device of claim 4 , wherein the front reflective facet and the back reflective facet are rectangle-shaped, and wherein the left reflective facet and the right reflective facet are parallelogram-shaped facets, and the top non-reflective surface and the bottom non-reflective surface are parallelogram-shaped surfaces.

7. The device of claim 4 , wherein the left reflective facet and the right reflective facet are rectangle-shaped facets, and wherein the front reflective facet, the back reflective facet, the top non-reflective surface, and the bottom non-reflective surface are parallelogram-shaped facets.

8. The device of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of reflective facets is associated with a tilt angle that is different from tilt angles of the other reflective facets, the tilt angles of reflective facets being respective angles between normal directions of the respective reflective facets and an axis about which the polygon mirror is rotatable.

9. The device of claim 8 , wherein each of the reflective facets is associated with a tilt angle that is different from tilt angles of the other reflective facets.

10. The device of claim 8 , wherein: two opposite reflective facets are associated with a first tilt angle; two other opposite reflective facets are associated with a second tilt angle, the first tilt angle being different from the second tilt angle.

11. The device of claim 8 , wherein two opposite reflective facets are associated with different tilt angles.

12. The device of claim 8 , wherein a difference of the tilt angles is between about −10 degrees to +10 degrees.

13. The device of claim 1 , wherein the field-of-view comprises a horizontal field-of-view of about or greater than 120 degrees and a vertical field-of-view of about or greater than 90 degrees.

14. The device of claim 1 , wherein a first reflective facet associated with an acute tilt angle facilitates generating of LiDAR scan lines corresponding to a first part of a vertical field-of-view; and wherein a second reflective facet associated with an obtuse tilt angle facilitates generating of LiDAR scan lines corresponding to a second part of a vertical field-of-view; the first part of the vertical field-of-view and the second part of the vertical field-of-view being at the two ends of the vertical field-of-view.

15. The device of claim 1 , wherein the combination of the polygon mirror and the first mirror are enclosed in at least one of a rear-view mirror assembly or a light housing of a vehicle.

16. A light detection and ranging (LiDAR) scanning system, comprising:
a plurality of LiDAR devices mountable to at least two of a left side, a front side, a front side, and a back side of a vehicle, wherein each of the plurality of LiDAR devices comprises:
a first mirror disposed to receive one or more light beams, wherein the first mirror is an un-rotatable mirror; and
a polygon mirror optically coupled to the first mirror to receive the one or more light beams, wherein the polygon mirror comprises a plurality of reflective facets, wherein at least two of the plurality of reflective facets are parallelogram-shaped facets, each parallelogram-shaped reflective facet being arranged such that:
a first edge, a second edge, and a third edge of the reflective facet corresponding to a first line, a second line, and a third line;
the first line and the second line intersect to form a first internal angle of a plane comprising the reflective facet, the first internal angle of the reflective facet being an acute angle; and
the first line and the third line intersect to form a second internal angle of a plane comprising the reflective facet, the second internal angle of the respective plane being an obtuse angle.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein at least one of the plurality of LiDAR devices is mounted at the left side of the vehicle, and wherein at least one of the plurality of LiDAR devices is mounted at the right side of the vehicle.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein at least one of the plurality of LiDAR devices is mounted at the front side of the vehicle, and wherein at least one of the plurality of LiDAR devices is mounted at the back side of the vehicle.

19. The system of claim 16 , wherein at least one of the plurality of LiDAR devices is enclosed in at least one of a rear-view mirror assembly or a light housing of the vehicle.

20. The system of claim 16 , wherein the plurality of LiDAR devices comprises:
a first LiDAR device enclosed in a first rear-view mirror assembly of the vehicle, and
a second LiDAR device enclosed in a second rear-view mirror assembly of the vehicle.

21. A vehicle comprising a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) scanning system, the system comprising:
a plurality of LiDAR devices mountable to at least two of a left side, a front side, a front side, and a back side of a vehicle, wherein each of the plurality of LiDAR devices comprises:
a first mirror disposed to receive one or more light beams, wherein the first mirror is an un-rotatable mirror; and
a polygon mirror optically coupled to the first mirror to receive the one or more light beams, wherein the polygon mirror comprises a plurality of reflective facets, wherein at least two of the plurality of reflective facets are parallelogram-shaped facets, each parallelogram-

Assignees

• Innovusion Inc

Inventors

• Wang Haosen
• Wang Ning-Yi
• Wan Peng
• Li Yufeng
• Li Yimin
• Bao Junwei

Classifications

• G01S7/484

  Transmitters · CPC title

• G01S7/4865

  Time delay measurement, e.g. time-of-flight measurement, time of arrival measurement or determining the exact position of a peak (peak detection in noise, signal conditioning G01S7/487) · CPC title

• G01S17/931

  of land vehicles · CPC title

• G01S7/4817 Primary

  relating to scanning · CPC title

• G01S7/4813

  Housing arrangements · CPC title