Patent ID: 11927669
Assignee: MELEXIS TECHNOLOGIES NV
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 1:
2. An indirect time of flight range calculation apparatus comprising:
a light source configured to emit light in accordance with an indirect time of flight measurement technique;
a photonic mixer cell configured to generate and store a first plurality of electrical output signals respectively corresponding to a first plurality of predetermined phase values applied in accordance with the indirect time of flight measurement technique;
a signal processing circuit configured to process the first plurality of electrical output signals in accordance with the indirect time of flight measurement technique in order to calculate a first vector and a first angle from the first vector; wherein
the photonic mixer cell is configured to generate and store a rotated second plurality of electrical output signals corresponding to a second plurality of predetermined phase values applied in accordance with the indirect time of flight measurement technique;
each phase value of the second plurality of predetermined phase values is respectively offset with respect to each phase value of the first plurality of predetermined phase values by a predetermined phase offset value;
the signal processing circuit is configured to process the rotated second plurality of electrical output signals in accordance with the indirect time of flight measurement technique in order to calculate a rotated second vector;
the signal processing circuit is further configured to de-rotate the rotated second vector calculated and calculate a second angle from the de-rotated second vector, and to offset the second angle calculated against the first angle calculated, thereby generating a corrected output angle; and
the signal processing circuit is configured to calculate a range using the corrected output angle.