Patent ID: 11874400
Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 10:
11. A lidar device comprising:
a phototransmitter including at least first and second light sources, each of the first and second light sources being configured to transmit a light beam having an optical axis;
a photoreceiver configured to receive light arriving from a predetermined direction;
a scanner that has a rotational axis and a plurality of reflection surfaces that are parallel to a direction of the rotational axis,
the scanner being configured to rotate the plurality of reflection surfaces about the rotational axis to thereby:
change a direction of each of the light beams transmitted from the phototransmitter and incident on the scanner to thereby output changed light beams in a main scanning direction that is orthogonal to the direction of the rotational axis; and
reflect light beams arriving from a target object based on reflection of the changed light beams to thereby cause the light beams to be directed toward the photoreceiver,

the first and second light sources being arranged such that the optical axis of at least one of the light beams transmitted from the first and second light sources is obliquely inclined with respect to a reference plane that is orthogonal to the rotational axis,
wherein
each of the first and second light sources is a semiconductor laser including at least two light emitting areas that are aligned along a predetermined alignment direction;
each of the first and second light sources has a width in the alignment direction;
the at least two light emitting areas of each of the first and second light sources have an interval therebetween and are arranged to satisfy the following equation:

(M−1)×L≥S 

where:
M represents the number of the at least first and second light sources;
L represents the width of each of the at least two light emitting areas; and
S represents the interval between the at least two light emitting areas;

the at least two light emitting areas of each of the first and second light sources are configured to respectively emit light beams as the light beam transmitted from the corresponding one of the first and second light sources while the light beams have a gap therebetween; and
the first and second light sources are arranged such that:
one of the light beams from the at least two light emitting areas of the first light source is located in the gap between the light beams emitted from the at least two light emitting areas of the second light source.