Multiple simultaneous laser beam emission and illumination while ensuring eye safety

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11726181-B2
Application number	US-202217668008-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 9, 2022
Priority date	Aug 24, 2020
Publication date	Aug 15, 2023
Grant date	Aug 15, 2023

Abstract

A LIDAR system is disclosed. The system has a laser light projection system to simultaneously project at least two laser light beams. The system also has a deflector to project the at least two laser light beams toward a field of view of the LIDAR system. Each of the at least two laser light beams has an energy density below an eye safe level. A total combined energy density of the at least two laser light beams is above an eye safe level. Further, the at least two laser light beams projected from the deflector are separated from one another by an angular spacing ranging from 2.5 mrad to 6 mrad.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A LIDAR system, comprising:
a laser light projection system configured to simultaneously project at least two laser light beams; and
a deflector configured to project the at least two laser light beams toward a field of view of the LIDAR system,
wherein a total combined energy density of the at least two laser light beams is above an eye safe level, and
wherein chief rays of the at least two laser light beams projected from the deflector are separated from one another at the deflector by an angular spacing ranging from 2.5 mrad to 6 mrad such that an amount of energy, absorbed by an eye in the field of view and determined by integrating an energy density of the at least two laser light beams over a predetermined time period, is less than the eye safe level.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the laser light projection system includes a monolithic laser array and wherein each of the at least two laser light beams is generated by a different active region of the monolithic laser array.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the monolithic laser array includes at least two active laser emitting regions separated by a non-laser emitting inactive region.

4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the monolithic laser array includes between 4 and 32 active laser emitting regions separated from one another by non-laser emitting inactive regions.

5. The system of claim 2 , wherein the monolithic laser array includes at least sixteen active laser emitting regions separated from one another by non-laser emitting inactive regions.

6. The system of claim 2 , wherein the monolithic laser array includes at least 32 active laser emitting regions separated from one another by non-laser emitting inactive regions.

7. The system of claim 2 , wherein active regions of the monolithic laser array are separated from one another by inactive regions having a width of at least 50 μm.

8. The system of claim 2 , wherein active regions of the monolithic laser array are separated from one another by inactive regions having a width between 20 and 500 μm.

9. The system of claim 2 , wherein active regions of the monolithic laser array have a width between 25 μm and 500 μm.

10. The system of claim 2 , wherein the monolithic laser array is a 2-dimensional laser array including multiple active laser emitting regions separated from one another by non-laser emitting inactive regions in each dimension.

11. The system of claim 2 , wherein the monolithic laser array includes between 2 and 256 active laser emitting regions separated from one another by non-laser emitting inactive regions.

12. The system of claim 2 , wherein active regions of the monolithic laser array are separated from one another by inactive regions having a width of at least 20 μm.

13. The system of claim 2 , wherein active regions of the monolithic laser array are separated from one another by inactive regions having a width between 20 μm and 100 μm.

14. The system of claim 2 , wherein active regions of the monolithic laser array have a width between 1 μm and 20 μm.

15. The system of claim 2 , wherein the monolithic laser array has an overall length ranging from 0.5 mm to 20 mm.

16. The system of claim 2 , wherein the monolithic laser array has an overall length ranging from 1 mm to 6 mm.

17. The system of claim 2 , wherein between 50% and 75% of the monolithic laser array is occupied by non-light emitting, inactive regions.

18. The system of claim 1 , wherein the deflector includes a two-dimensional light deflector.

19. The system of claim 1 , wherein the deflector includes a first one-dimensional light deflector configured to rotate in a first direction and a second one-dimensional light deflector configured to rotate in a second direction different from the first direction.

20. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least two laser light beams deflected by the deflector are separated from one another by an angular spacing of between 5 mrad and 10 mrad.

21. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least two laser light beams are projected through a shared collimator included in the LIDAR system.

22. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least two laser light beams each has a wavelength between 800 nm and 1000 nm.

23. The system of claim 1 , wherein the LIDAR system includes a monolithic detector array, and reflections of the at least two laser light beams received from the field of view are received by the monolithic detector.

24. The system of claim 23 , wherein a number of pixels in the monolithic detector array is greater than or equal to a number of beams included in the two or more laser light beams.

25. The system of claim 23 , wherein a number of pixels in the monolithic detector array is greater than a number of beams included in the two or more laser light beams.

26. The system of claim 23 , wherein each reflection is associated with a spot size incident on more than one pixel of the monolithic detector array.

27. The system of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined time period is about 625 microseconds.

Assignees

• Innoviz Tech Ltd

Inventors

• Goren Nir
• Eshel Ronen

Classifications

• G01S7/4815 Primary

  using multiple transmitters · CPC title

• G01S7/4817 Primary

  relating to scanning · CPC title

• G01S17/931

  of land vehicles · CPC title

• G01S7/484

  Transmitters · CPC title

• G01S7/4911

  Transmitters · CPC title