Stray-light testing station

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11933666-B2
Application number	US-202318181353-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 9, 2023
Priority date	Apr 2, 2019
Publication date	Mar 19, 2024
Grant date	Mar 19, 2024

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, for a stray-light testing station. In one aspect, the stray-light testing station includes an illumination assembly including a spatially extended light source and one or more optical elements arranged to direct a beam of light from the spatially extended light source along an optical path to an optical receiver assembly including a lens receptacle configured to receive a lens module and position the lens module in the optical path downstream from the parabolic mirror so that the lens module focuses the beam of light from the spatially extended light source to an image plane, and a moveable frame supporting the optical receiver assembly including one or more adjustable alignment stages to position the optical receiver assembly relative to the illumination assembly such that the optical path of the illumination assembly is within a field of view of the optical receiver assembly.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
an illumination assembly comprising a light source and one or more optical elements arranged to direct a beam of light from the light source along an optical path, the one or more optical elements comprising a parabolic mirror arranged in the optical path and one or more neutral density filters;
an optical receiver assembly comprising a sensor and a lens receptacle configured to receive a lens module comprising one or more lenses and position the lens module in the optical path downstream from the parabolic mirror so that the lens module focuses the beam of light from the light source to an image plane of the sensor; and
a moveable frame supporting the optical receiver assembly or the illumination assembly, the moveable frame comprising one or more adjustable alignment stages, wherein the adjustable alignment stages position the optical receiver assembly relative to the illumination assembly such that the optical path of the illumination assembly is within a field of view of the optical receiver assembly.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a diameter of the beam of light at the parabolic mirror is larger than a lateral dimension of the parabolic mirror.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein an angular extent of the light source is selectable between 0.1° and 5° degrees.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the angular extent of the light source is 0.5° degrees.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the light source is a light-emitting diode broad spectrum source, an infrared source, or a hyper-spectral source.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more optical elements comprise a light pipe configured to receive light from the light source and direct a beam of light from the light source to the optical receiver assembly.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , further comprising a second light source,
wherein the light pipe is configured to selectively receive light from the light source or the second light source and direct the beam of light from the light source or a beam of light from the second light source to the optical receiver assembly.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a control unit in data communication with the illumination assembly and optical receiver assembly, and operable to perform operations of measuring a performance metric.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the optical receiver assembly comprises an adjustable receptacle configured to receive a camera module and position the camera module in the optical path downstream from the parabolic mirror so that the beam of light from the illumination assembly is focused to an image plane at the camera module.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the adjustable alignment stages can be adjusted in one or more dimensions to position the optical receiver assembly or the illumination assembly over a range of angles.

11. A method for determining a performance metric of an optical receiver assembly comprising:
aligning, using one or more adjustable alignment stages, the optical receiver assembly comprising one or more lenses in an optical path downstream from an illumination assembly comprising a light source and one or more optical elements arranged to direct a beam of light from the light source along the optical path, the one or more optical elements including a parabolic mirror, wherein aligning the optical receiver assembly comprises focusing the beam of light from the light source of the illumination assembly to an image plane of a sensor of the optical receiver assembly;
selecting a first light intensity for the light source from a plurality of different light intensities, wherein selecting the first light intensity of the plurality of different light intensities from the light source comprises attenuating the beam of light from the light source using a neutral density filter;
exposing the optical receiver assembly to the beam of light from the light source at the first light intensity;
capturing image data by the sensor of the optical receiver assembly while exposing the optical receiver assembly to the beam of light at the first light intensity; and
determining, based on the captured image data, the performance metric for the optical receiver assembly.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein determining the performance metric comprises:
determining a stray-light performance of the optical receiver assembly over a plurality of incident angles of the light source within a field of view of the optical receiver assembly.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein determining the performance metric comprises determining a spread of the beam of light from a center point of the light source.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the spread of the beam of light from the center point of the light source comprises a radial spread of the beam of light from the center point of the light source.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein determining the performance metric further comprises:
determining, for the plurality of different light intensities, a respective spread of the beam of light from the center point of the light source.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the performance metric comprises a glare spread function for the optical receiver assembly.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the performance metric comprises a rejection ratio for the optical receiver assembly.

18. The method of claim 11 , wherein aligning the optical receiver assembly comprises adjusting the adjustable alignment stages in one or more degrees of freedom to position the optical receiver assembly over a range of angles.

19. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more optical elements comprise a light pipe, and wherein the methods comprise:
coupling the beam of light from the light source into the light pipe to direct the beam of light along the optical path.

20. The method of claim 19 , further comprising, selectively coupling the beam of light from the light source or a beam of light from a second light source into the light pipe to direct the beam of light from the light source or the beam of light from a second light source along the optical path.

Assignees

• Waymo Llc

Inventors

• Lu Chen David
• Rinehart Matthew Thomas Daniel
• Wang Joshua Chia Fong
• Shagam Michael

Classifications

• G01J1/0238 Primary

  making use of sensor-related data, e.g. for identification of sensor or optical parts · CPC title

• G01J1/0411

  using focussing or collimating elements, i.e. lenses or mirrors; Aberration correction · CPC title

• G01J1/0437

  using masks, aperture plates, spatial light modulators, spatial filters, e.g. reflective filters · CPC title

• G01J1/0488

  with spectral filtering · CPC title

• G01J1/44

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